Transactional leadership styles

This very much accords with the emphasis in the previous chapter on not allowing oneself to be locked into one s natural preferences. While many men may be more at home with a traditional style of transactional leadership, there is no reason why they should not experiment with alternative styles that women have been showing to work effectively. 

Thus, according to the full range leadership model, every leader displays each style to some degree. Three-dimensional optimal and suboptimal profiles are shown in Figure 3. The depth frequency dimension represents how often a leader displays a style of leadership. The horizontal active imension represents the assumptions of the model according to which the laissez-faire style is the most passive style, whereas transactional leadership incorporates more active styles and transformational leadership is proactive. The vertical effectiveness dimension is based on empirical results that... 

Figure 5 The Relationships between the Full Range Leadership Model s Styles and Leader Effectiveness in Public and Private Oiganizations in Lowe et al. s (1996) Meta-anedysis of 47 Samples. (MLQ = multifactor leadership questionnaire, which measures transformationail, transactional, and nontransactional leadership Relationship = correlations between leadership style and leader effectiveness Follower measures = subordinate perceptions of leader effectiveness oiganizational measures = quasi-institutional measures of leader effectiveness including both hard meeisures [e.g., profit] and soft measures [e.g., supervisory performance appraisals].)...

Figure 2.8.16 Features of transactional and transformational leadership styles...

How the leader influences—the leader s style—encircles his personal safety ethic. Over the years, researchers and scholars have described a plethora of leadership styles—laissez-faire, autocratic, charismatic, participative, transactional, theories X, Y, and Z—to name just a few. One widely researched style, transformational leadership, stands out as consistently predictive of business outcomes. The transformational leader focuses on the future, and her approach is strongly oriented toward developing her people. By going beyond her own self-interest, such a leader inspires employees to go beyond their mere shortterm self-interest. The transactional leader, in contrast, focuses on current results and undertakes individual exchanges (of recognition, position, or money) to deliver expected results in the near term. We ll explore these two leadership styles, both of which have their merits and uses, later in this chapter. 

The research literature has classified leadership style (the second ring in the Safety Leadership Model) in a number of ways. In recent years, the various dimensions and models have coalesced into two basic styles transformational leadership and transactional leadership. (A third type, laissez-faire leadership, is also mentioned, but it amounts to an abdication of leadership responsibility and is thus not desirable to safety leadership.) There is increasing evidence that transformational and transactional leadership are not mutually exclusive, but that different situations call for different styles. Great leaders are adept at using the mix that is appropriate to a given situation. ... 

Transactional leadership is based on the centrality of the exchange transaction—one might say, "the deal" between the leader and the worker. This style focuses on the connection between performance and rewards, and posits that people are motivated by self-interest. The word transactional refers to the quid pro quo nature of the relationship between the leader and her followers. 

Transactional leadership, which is also called task-oriented leadership (and is regard by some as a form of management rather than leadership), is essentially conservative. It is an important leadership style for preserving existing cultural conditions and organizational practices and processes. It aims to get things done within the current context and works best in stable environments. 

It is very important for safety leaders to develop their transformational leadership skills. But one cannot be an effective transformational leader without strong transactional skills. Both styles are necessary for great safety leadership. A natural disaster, for instance, calls for the forceful command and control skills of an efficient transactional leader to stabilize an inherently unstable situation and to get immediate and urgent results. However, such a situation also requires the supportive and developmental skills of the transformational leader to reassure and support disaster victims and build and sustain their hope and belief in the future. It behooves the leader to cultivate both leadership styles and to become sensitive about when to use each style. 

The leadership theories discussed in Chapter 8 were trait, behavioral (i.e., autocratic, democratic, and laissez-fare), situational or contingency-based, transactional, and transformational. The majority of these theories are transactional in nature however, transformational leadership is used more often to implement innovation and change within the profession and achievement of organizational goals (Bass, 1985). Building on Chapter 8, other leadership theories or styles used extensively in the health care industry are servant-leadership and strengths-based leadership. 

Managerial style is linked with culture, as the latter often defines, implicitly or explicitly, acceptable behaviour for a person with these responsibilities. A distinction commonly made is between managers whose primary responsibilities are operational and those who have more strategic and visionary responsibilities. Kotter (1990) describes these as managerial and leadership roles, respectively, while Bass and Avolio (1990) refer to transactional and transformational leadership. In reality most managers and leaders perform both roles but to differing degrees. 

Leaders are required continually to review organisational norms and how people behave, including self evaluating their own behaviour to ensure it has a positive impact on staff behaviour. Effective leadership is not just about a style or type (e.g. transformational or transactional) as leaders will clearly use a variety of styles in any given situation. Leaders create a culture by casting a shadow that keeps Q S at the forefront of the mind of all staff and teams, with constant... 

If a leader wants to improve his capacity for either transactional or transformational leadership, it is important that he first clearly understand his natural inclinations. Personality factors predispose to stylistic preferences but do not determine them. For example, extroversion predisposes to a transformational style. Leaders who do not score high on extroversion can nevertheless learn to be very strong transformational leaders. They may have to build on other facets of their personality, but they can be just as effective. 

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