Charismatic, Transformational, Transactional Types of Leadership - Coursework Example

Individual Written Assignment Name Institution Individual Written Assignment 1. Features of leadership styles. a. .Charismatic leadership Charismatic leaders attract followers with personality and charm. They can motivate their followers to do nearly anything. This type of leaders has various characteristics. In their leadership style, they mostly use feeling s to encourage devotion and commitment in followers. One of the characteristics is Inspiration. They have the ability to inspire their followers. When they have a cause in mind, this type of leaders motivates teams by inspiring them through their optimism, passion and positivity (Northouse, 2012). They are also emotionally expressive and show warmth to their followers. They care about their appearance and are also persistent when leading. They have inspirational communication style which uses analogies and metaphors. Charismatic leaders “step in” in times of crisis and give followers a vision. Followers of charismatic leaders identify strongly with their leader. b. Transformational leadership Transformational leadership result to positive changes in the followers. These leaders are generally enthusiastic, passionate and energetic. They help members of the group they are leading to succeed and also involved and concerned in the process. A characteristic of this leader is they are charismatic. This therefore means they have a mission and vision. They are also inspirational hence they give their followers emotional support. They also treat their followers as individuals by giving them personal attention. They offer their followers intellectual stimulation by encouraging them to review old problems in new ways (Chemmers, 2000). They also lead by example, act optimistically and confidently and have high moral and ethical conduct. They also empower members of their group and stimulate teamwork among the followers. They also articulate vision on leaders and followers values and confidence, loyalty band respect among followers. Transformational leaders encourage innovative and creative thinking and problem solving. c. Transactional leadership Transactional leadership can also be called managerial leadership. The leadership style focuses on role of organization, supervision and group performance. In this type of leadership, performance of followers results to punishment or rewards. The leader views the relationship he has with his subordinates as exchange where something is given and something g is expected in return. Subordinates get rewards when they perform well. Characteristic of this leadership style is that it focuses on the achievement of set objectives by punishment and rewards. The relationship between the leader and followers is like an exchange relationship that is acceptable for that (Northouse, 2012). Examples are money for work, loyalty for consideration and votes for votes. Another characteristic of this leadership is the focus is on managerial style. d. Difference There are some differences in the theories. First, transactional leadership focuses on punishments and rewards which is not the same with the other theories. Another difference is transformational theory encourages creativity and innovation which is not shared in other theories. Lastly, charismatic theory of leadership is different from other leadership theories because it encourages commitment and devotion in followers. 2. Yulk identifies three behaviors in the dyadic, group and organizational level which should be included transformational theory. At the dyadic level, the three behaviors that have been omitted include; developing, inspiring and empowering. Inspiring leaders would give work meaning for the followers. Developing means they would enhance the follower’s self-confidence and skills while empowering means the leaders would give their followers significant voice and discretion (Yulk, 1999). Behaviors at the group level that should be included are; facilitating agreement on strategies and objectives, building collective and group identification and facilitating mutual trusts and cooperation. At the organizational level, core transformational behaviors that should be included are facilitating and guiding change, promoting organizational learning and articulating strategy and vision for the organization. Transformational theory basically deals with dyadic processes hence, transformational behavior on the group and organizational level are not well covered. 3. Yulk criticizes the current theory on transactional leadership (Yulk, 1999). According to his criticism, there is ambiguity on underlying influence process. The underlying process of influence in transactional leadership is still vague and has not been systematically studied. Example of influence processes are personal identification, internalization, and in instrumental compliance. The influence processes should be clearly identified so that the theory is stronger. Theories in transactional leadership are also ambiguous. This leadership style is a leader and subordinate exchange. However, this theory fails to make a link that is strong between processes and transactional behavior. Transactional behavior includes a wide variety of leader behavior which lack clear common denominators, 4. My personal theory is that leadership should engage employees. A good leader should have good communication with employees to produce results. They should also be able to lead employees by example by being their role model. Good leaders should also encourage innovation so that employees can get room for creativity. Leaders should also be flexible so that they can handle different situations in the workplace using different techniques. They should also treat their followers with respect. 5. Interview 1 a. The person I consider a good leader is Martin Jerome. I knew him from a sales job I used to do a year ago. b. The reason I think Martin is a good leader is he was passionate about his work, positive and an optimist. He was also warm to me and other employees as we were doing the sales job. He was a good motivator and also an inspiration to many of us. He also led the team well and the group had the best sales record the company had ever made. c. One person I currently work with who is in a leadership position but I feel but does not leadership qualities is my current supervisor at Biotech Marvin Lead. He is always late to the office and does not help us when we have problems with our work. When anyone makes even a little mistake, he gets openly angry with them and even calls them names. d. I think that leaders are made. Someone has to know how to work with other people to be a good leader. This is a skill as people are different and hard to understand hence lessons would be appropriate to acquire leadership skills. Interview 2 a. The person I consider a good leader is Vincent Kering. He is my current boss at the Minute Oil Company. b. The reason I think Vincent Kering is a good boss is he is easy to work with. He gives me and other employees’ clear instructions on how to do our work and does not have a problem with us unless we follow the rules. He also does not overwork us. When the time to retire home reaches, he lets us leave without a problem. He also encourages employees to work for extra hours so that they can make more money. He the people who work extra hours twice as much. c. One person I worked with and thought was not a good leader was Yvan Johnes. He had problems with employees as he always had issues with employees’ payments. He never correctly counted employee overtime and took a long time to correct his mistakes. He also never motivated the employees in any way and work was always boring and tiresome with employees always waiting for the day to end so that they could go home. d. I think that leaders are made. I can say this confidently because of my current boss. He is good at what he does by making sure that we get our hard earned money at the end of the month without any problems. He also does his managerial work well which is a skill that is learnt. Interview 3 a. A person I would consider a good leader is Andrew Bells. He is the manager in my current company. b. The reason I think Andrew is a good leader is he is he leads by example. For instance, he will be in the office very early even before many employees. He is also a charismatic leader. When at work, he always encourages us to review past problems and think of new ideas to deal with the issues. He also focuses on employees individually and gives emotional support when needed. He also has very good ethical and moral conduct. He respects employees and encourages innovation and creative thinking in the work place. c. One person I worked with that I did not think had leadership qualities was Ann Santos. Ann was never social with the workers. She was not interested in knowing her subordinates names. She used to come to the area where employees were seated, give out tasks and tell one person to deliver the findings in her office. This affected the morale of the employees as they did not fill as part of the team. d. I think leaders are born. This is because some people are generally nice and have an impact on others. There people who are smooth talkers and can influence other people by working with them and encouraging them. 6. a. Interview 1- Interviewee think a good leader is passionate, positive and an optimist. He is also a motivator, inspirational and warm to the employees. The most relevant leadership theory for this is Charismatic leadership or transformational leadership. Interview 2- According to the second interviewee, a good leader should give employees directions and let employees go on with their work without minor destructions A good leader should also be able to give employees rewards for their hard work. He also thinks a good leader should be a motivator. Leadership theories that are referred to are transactional, transformational and trait. Interview 3- Interviewee thinks good leaders should be charismatic, focus on employees, have high ethical and moral conduct and encourage innovation and creative thinking. A good leader should also engage with employees. Leadership theories that could be refereed to are transformational, servant and charismatic (Bass 1997) . b. The most commonly refereed theory is transformational theory. This is because the transformational leadership theory usually considers many aspects of the employee’s life. The leaders in this theory are charismatic, offer intellectual stimulation, are inspirational and give employees personal attention when they are in groups(Bass 1997) . Other qualities include leaders who lead by example and encourage team spirit. This theory is mostly referred to by many employees because employees like to be considered as part of the company. Employees look to feel that they are part of a company. Transformational leadership does this by giving employees a chance to show their skills. This theory is suitable as it encourages creativity and innovation in the employees hence gives them a voice. c. The theory is similar to my personal theory. This is because both theories talk about good leadership encouraging creativity and innovative thinking. Also, leaders in both theories should lead by example and have high moral and ethical conduct that the employees can imitate. Also both theories encourage personal attention for members in group for effective leadership. References Yukl, G., (1999). An Evaluation of Conceptual weakness in transformational and charismatic leadership theories. State University of New York Albany. Elsevier Science Inc. Bass, B., M., (1997). Does the Transactional-Transformational paradigm transcvend organizational and international boundaries?American Psychologists. Chemmers, M., M., (2000). Group Dynamics: Theory, Research, and Practice. University of California, Santa Cruz: Educational Publishing Foundation. Northouse, P., G., (2012). Leadership: Theory and Practice. United States: Sage Publication Inc. Read More