LEADERSHIP: Comparing Transformational and LMX Leadership Theories

This report provides a comprehensive comparison of transformational leadership and leader-member exchange (LMX) theory. It begins by defining both leadership styles, highlighting their core principles and approaches to team management. The report then delves into the advantages and disadvantages of each theory, examining their impact on employee motivation, organizational change, and relationship building within teams. A detailed comparison is presented, contrasting the focus of transformational leadership on inspiring and motivating team members with the relational emphasis of LMX theory. The analysis considers how each approach handles challenges, promotes learning, and influences decision-making processes. The report concludes with a summary of the strengths and weaknesses of each theory, offering insights into the practical applicability of both leadership styles in different organizational contexts. The report also includes references to academic sources supporting the analysis.

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Comparing and contrasting two leadership theories
Introduction
Leadership is an ability or intelligence of an individual to influence or advise members of the
team or an organisation. A leader has the responsibility to maintain the team or members by
encouraging them (Antonakis, and Day, 2017). The leaders have their own style to manage to
do the work such as autocratic leadership, democratic leadership, cross-cultural leadership,
leader member exchange theory, transformational leadership, etc (Grint, Jones, and Holt,
2016). In this paper, the discussion is made on the topic of leadership and its theories. In the
paper, the transformational and leader member exchange theory will be compare and contrast
with the each other.
The thesis statement of this paper is “ compare and contrast the leadership theories and
these are transformation leadership and Leading member exchange theory”
Definition
Transformational leadership is a leadership theory that causes change in individuals and
social system. It is generally energetic, passionate and enthusiastic. The leader always
concerned and focused on the helping every member of the group and their success as well.
In this style, leaders and followers of the team motivate and enhance the moral of each other
to attain the success. The leader always encourages the members of the team in order to
complete the performance. The leader always tries to change the perceptions, expectations, or
motivations to work toward a common mission or goal (Cherry, 2019).
Leader member exchange theory refers that the leader who adopts this theory is focuses on
the relationship that develops between the leader of the team and its members. This theory
defines the three stages in order to define the relationship between the leader and its

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members. The leader performs their responsibilities such as routinization, role making, and
role taking. The theory focuses on that how the leader perceives the members of the team.
The leader who adopting the leader member exchange theory has to follow the steps such as
identify the out group, re-establish the relationships, provide training and development
opportunities.
Advantage of transformational theory
The lower turnover cost is the first advantage of transformational leader as they achieve the
success in order retains the employees for long time with the organisation. This leadership
style mainly focuses on influencing and motivating the members toward the product. The
other advantage of the transformational leadership theory is that everyone can create and
manage the changes. As the time passage, the situation and the condition is also change due
to which it is difficult for the team to face the challenges. That is why; it is requires to adopt
some changes so that the team can effectively work. The transformational leader always
encourages the teams and changes their perception due to which the members can easily
adopt the new changes and reduce the risk. The transformational leader always encourages
on-going learning and development. The leader always engages the members to learn the new
things from their position. It is observed that the transformational leader always understand
the relationships between the leader and member. The leaders and member has a gap that
causes many conflicts among the team. It is requires to understand the perception of both the
sides that is why; it has been seen that the transformational leader understand the perceptions
of both the side in order to respect the members and the leader.
Disadvantage of transformational theory
Transformational leader theories have some disadvantages due to which the team face the
issues. It has been seen that the major disadvantage of this theory is that it develops the

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negative outcomes. It provides the many positive outcomes opportunities by avoiding the
negative site of the opportunity. It has been seen that the transformational leader avoid the
negative perspective of positive approach due to which the outcomes comes negative. It is
also observed that the leader ignores the certain protocols while implementing the new ideas
and inspires the others. Sometimes, inspiring the member for changing their position affects
the performance of a leader (Boamah, Laschinger, Wong, and Clarke, 2018).
Advantage of Leading member exchange theory
Leading member exchange theory is beneficial for the teams as well as for organisation. It is
an exceptional theory of leadership as it is different from the other theories. This theory is
basically focuses on the specific relationships among the leader and its team members. This
theory is valid and practical in its approach. Communication is a best medium in which the
grow, subordinate develop and maintain the beneficial exchanges. This communication
medium is accompanied by the various features such as mutual trust, respect, and devotion.
The main advantage of this theory is that the chances of conflicts is reduces as the leader
understand the perception of the members as well (Cropanzano, Dasborough, and Weiss,
2017). The understanding gap between the leader and the members causes the many issues
due to which they can face the challenges such as poor results, conflicts and division in team.
Maintaining the relationship between the leader and member reduces these challenges. The
other advantage of this theory is easy to take the decision for a particular matter. The decision
which affects the whole work and the members are taken by considering the perception of all
the people of team. As the team have healthy relation with each other that is why; it is easy
for the leader to take the decision easily.

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Disadvantage of Leading member exchange theory
The main focuses of this theory on maintaining the relationship among the leader and the
managers. It is necessary to focuses on the other skills of the member with the motive to
attain the success such as personality, interpersonal skills, trust development and the others.
The basic ideas and the theories are not fully developed by the theory due to which it is
difficult for the team to adjust in every environment. The other disadvantage is that the leader
cannot change the perception of members due to which it is necessary for the leader to take
the decision as per their favour (Martin, Guillaume, Thomas, Lee, and Epitropaki, 2016).
Compare and Contrast
As per the analysis, it has been seen that both the theories have their advantages and
disadvantage. The leader can adopt any leadership style in both the theories as both are
beneficial to encourage and improve the efficiency of members. It is observed that both the
theories have different perception and they focuses on the different parameters to attain the
success. It has been seen that the transformational leader focuses on the influencing and
motivating process in order to encourage towards their responsibilities. But the Leading
member exchange theory states the relationship between the leader and the members. Both
the concepts are necessary to achieve the goals which are set before motivating the members
(Western, 2019).
In transformation theory, the leader change perception of the members while take the
decision and also force them to learn the new thing by changing their position (Willis, Clarke,
and O'Connor, 2017). But in the case of leading member exchange theory, it has been seen
that the leader understand the perception of member and considering their opinion while
taking the decision. The technique to change the perception is more effective as the chance of

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conflicts is reduces and the leader can easily take their decision but in the case of considering
the member opinion cause difficulties.
In transformational theory, it is observed that the member can easily adopt the changes as
they are instructed by the leader. The personality of members will enhance as the training is
provided to adopt the changes. But in leading member exchange theory, it has been seen that
the leader focuses on the motivation of members by ignoring the basic concepts such as
interpersonal skills and personality of an individual (Mind Tools, 2019).
It is observed that the transformational leadership style is focuses on the different areas such
as enhancing skills, motivate to members and the many others. But the leading member
exchange theory is covered only one area such as maintenance of relationship between the
leader and the managers. The transformational leadership theory is more effective in terms of
multi numbers of areas.
Conclusion
At the end, it is concluded that the both the leadership is suitable as per the different
environment. But as per the analysis, it is observed that the transformational leadership
theories contain the many steps. It has been evaluated that the transformational leadership
improve the member’s skills which is beneficial for the present and future situations. But the
leading member exchange theory is mainly focuses on the one area. That is why; it can be
said that the transformational leadership theory of leadership is more effective and efficient
for the leader to attain the success.

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References
Antonakis, J. and Day, D.V. (2017) The nature of leadership. Sage publications.
Boamah, S.A., Laschinger, H.K.S., Wong, C. and Clarke, S. (2018) Effect of
transformational leadership on job satisfaction and patient safety outcomes. Nursing outlook,
66(2), pp.180-189.
Cherry, K. (2019) Transformational Leadership. [online] Available from:
https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-transformational-leadership-2795313 [Accessed
24/05/12].
Cropanzano, R., Dasborough, M.T. and Weiss, H.M. (2017) Affective events and the
development of leader-member exchange. Academy of Management Review, 42(2), pp.233-
258.
Ghasabeh, M.S., Soosay, C. and Reaiche, C. (2015) The emerging role of transformational
leadership. The Journal of Developing Areas, 49(6), pp.459-467.
Grint, K., Jones, O.S. and Holt, C. (2016) What is Leadership. The Routledge Companion to
Leadership, p.3.
Martin, R., Guillaume, Y., Thomas, G., Lee, A. and Epitropaki, O. (2016) Leader–member
exchange (LMX) and performance: A meta‐analytic review. Personnel Psychology, 69(1),
pp.67-121.
Mind Tools. (2019) The Leader-Member Exchange Theory. [online] Available from:
https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/leader-member-exchange.htm [Accessed 24/05/12].
Western, S. (2019) Leadership: A critical text. SAGE Publications Limited.
Willis, S., Clarke, S. and O'Connor, E. (2017) Contextualizing leadership: Transformational
leadership and Management‐By‐Exception‐Active in safety‐critical contexts. Journal of
Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 90(3), pp.281-305.

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