Critically Assess: How Leadership Affects Workforce Behavior

This essay provides a critical assessment of how transactional and transformational leadership styles affect workforce behavior within organizations. It highlights the key differences between these two approaches, with transactional leadership focusing on supervision, organization, and performance through rewards and punishments, while transformational leadership emphasizes innovation, individual growth, and motivation. The essay also discusses how combining these leadership styles can lead to more effective management and improved organizational outcomes. By understanding the impact of these leadership techniques, organizations can better motivate their employees, foster a positive work environment, and achieve their strategic goals, as well as utilize values to assist company in achieving targets. Desklib offers additional resources for students studying leadership and organizational behavior.

Leadership
Leadership
2018

Leadership
(Essay on “Critically assess how transactional and transformational leadership affects
workforce behavior”)
The essay describing about what leadership is and how transactional and transformational
leadership affects the workforce behavior. The task also highlights the differences that are
present between transactional and transformational leadership. It shows how transactional and
transformational leadership is helpful in an organization and the possibilities that it will be
effective if they are combined together by the leaders. The two types of leadership make smooth
functioning of the business possible. It is considered as an effective way of doing business. The
task further provides help in knowing how these types of leadership is seen working in an
organization. The task therefore draws the relation between transactional and transformational
leadership style and the way it is and it can be practiced in an organization. More detail of the
task has been drawn below.
Transactional leadership is a style that focuses on supervising, organizing and
performing. In this type of leadership, leaders are responsible for promoting the idea of working
with the help of rewards or even the punishments (Wang, Oh, Courtright & Colbert, 2011).
Transactional leadership style does not really focus on changing the future rather it works on the
already existing team. Leaders work on developing the same environment without making much
change in it. They are responsible for managing larger operations and international projects. It is
dependent on self- motivated people who help them in supervising, organizing and performing
for better functioning. The leaders are the workers work together to achieve the desired goals
(Jogulu, 2010).
Transformational leadership is a style which focuses of transforming the environment of
business by bringing in new changes. It uses a leader along with its subordinates to work
together on a group in order to identify the changes that are needed in the business. The
leadership style focuses on enhancing the growth of an individual, motivates them, and increases
their job performance. The teams work together to bring out the change in business in a positive
way. The leaders under this style teach the worker to accept the challenges and overcome their
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weaknesses by strengthening their capability of doing work. Transactional leadership guarantees
the growth of an individual (Warrick, 2011).
Leadership style means analyzing, advocating, encouraging and motivating people of the
organization to effectively run the business.
Strategy plays a very important role in decision making. Leadership style helps in
managing the business in a strategic manner. It is an efficient way for the company to motivate
and encourage their employees towards the work and brings out there in a capability of walking
with the organization with proper and true loyalty and honesty. It is a way of building business
with a professional approach in a systematic manner. In this way, it affects the workforce
behavior at the workplace. Leadership style also helps the company in showcasing their practical
approach in running a business. Transactional and transformational leaders are two types of
leadership style that focus on managing and organizing the performance of business by
motivating the employees. There is a huge involvement of both the styles in affecting the
workforce behavior. These leadership techniques are used when there is a misconduct and
misbehavior are going on among the employees and there is a need of finding a solution to it.
Employees seek various solutions to resolve the issues from its leaders. The leaders are therefore
responsible in finding a proper solution to those problems. Many a times it happens that the work
given to the employees becomes burdensome and heavy. In order to avoid this company usually
looks for leaders who are motivated and can also motivate others. Values play an important role
in assisting company in achieving the target (Birasnav, 2014).
Transformational leaders are responsible in developing the feeling of honesty, hard work,
liable, confident, etc. These leadership style helps in managing the work force by encouraging
them and fulfilling the needs of the employees. These two leadership style shows indirect and
positive impact on the behavior of employees. It creates job satisfaction among them. The
impacts are seen with the help of leaders who make these employees realize about the inner
strength that they possess which can help them in achieving the target in an effective way
(Dumdum, Lowe & Avolio, 2013). Employees need a timely motivation from the leaders in
order to work efficiently to achieve the target. Leaders of the company are made on the basis of
their managing skills, their professionalism, attitude, values, capability of managing work and
ability to guide their subordinates. Employees being the important part of business needs to be
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guided at every point as no business can run without the involvement of employees. This also
develops confidence in the employees and increases their willingness to work. It helps in
transforming the overall culture of the business in a smooth manner. Leaders provide a platform
to the employees to keep their opinion and express their views (Zacher, Rosing & Frese, 2011).
The styles of leadership teach them to work in a planned manner to achieve organizational goals
and targets. It helps the organization to build the business in a systematic manner by teaching the
values to its employees.
Transformational leaders make the employees self sufficient and fill them with
motivation. This helps them in putting their efforts to make the business grow and flourish on the
large scale. It helps in achieving organizational effectiveness with a qualitative approach
(Antonakis & Day, 2017). With its increasing graph it also increases the performance of the
employees. Leaders of the company do not make the employees feel alone and share their
burden. This helps in making the organization effective and proactive. Hence, transactional and
transformational leadership style plays a very important role in affecting the behavior of the
employees. This changing behavior in employees becomes effective for the organization. It helps
the company to grow towards the high standards of business. It is easy and a systematic way of
encouraging workers to generate good outputs from the inputs provided to them (Zopiatis &
Constanti, 2010).
Transactional leadership focuses on the concept of working together with its followers to
achieve the target goals of the business. The concept of transformational leadership on the other
hand focuses on the values, ideas, opinions, thinking and needs of those followers. Transactional
leadership has only one leader who is responsible in controlling the team, whereas,
transformational leadership can have more than one leader. Transformational leadership focuses
on planning and executing the functions responsible for managing the environment of business,
but in case of transformational leadership the focus lies of innovation. The motivation tool for
transactional leadership is attracting followers by analyzing and putting their self interest on top.
Transformational leadership stimulates group interest prior to anything as a motivational tool.
These differences makes these two types of leadership style different from each other and help
the organization to function better by motivating the employees in a proper and professional
manner. Transactional leadership attracts the employees who are willing to work in the
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conditions of organizations. They welcome the opportunities and accept the challenges which in
a way influence the behavior of the workforce (Simola, Barling & Turner, 2010).
Difference between transformational and transactional leadership
Basis Transactional leadership Transformational leadership
Meaning A leader employs punishments
and rewards for encouraging
the workers.
Leaders employ enthusiasm to
motivate the followers.
Concept Leader’s emphasis on their
relation with employees.
Leaders focus on the ideals,
values, needs and morals of
the workers.
Nature Reactive Proactive
Style Bureaucratic Charismatic
Focused on Execution and planning Innovation
Many organizations combine these two leadership styles in order to achieve effective
result. They focus on recruiting self motivated employees under transactional leadership style
and also seek for values, ideas, creativity, and other qualities that are considered helpful in
motivation. These two leadership style brings in the idea of transforming the culture of business
by selecting employees who can work for the betterment of the company (Riaz & Haider, 2010).
Leaders of the company usually looks after combining both leadership approaches as it can be
beneficial for the company to run the business by focusing on all ground levels. Combing the
styles can be effective as it becomes easy to manage the teams by hiring not just one leader but
more than one leader for the group. Transactional and transformational leadership possess their
separate qualities. These qualities can become an advantage for the company in different areas.
The company can implement both the leadership style as needed. Hence combining the
leadership approaches can develop the chances of running the business effectively and efficiently
(Giltinane, 2013).
It is concluded that transactional and transformational leadership styles play a major role
in encouraging workers. Transactional leadership style provides organization with eligible
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workers who are self motivated and confident and transformational leadership seeks for the
values and morale that is present in the individuals who can work in a team. These styles possess
the quality of motivation which can help in managing the business on a large level. Both the
styles are different from each other with one common similarity of possessing the technique of
motivation.
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References
Antonakis, J., & Day, D. V. (Eds.). (2017). The nature of leadership. Sage publications.
Birasnav, M. (2014). Knowledge management and organizational performance in the service
industry: The role of transformational leadership beyond the effects of transactional
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Dumdum, U. R., Lowe, K. B., & Avolio, B. J. (2013). A meta-analysis of transformational and
transactional leadership correlates of effectiveness and satisfaction: An update and
extension. In Transformational and Charismatic Leadership: The Road Ahead 10th
Anniversary Edition (pp. 39-70). Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
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leadership. The Journal of Developing Areas, 49(6), 459-467.
Giltinane, C. L. (2013). Leadership styles and theories. Nursing Standard, 27(41).
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Wang, G., Oh, I. S., Courtright, S. H., & Colbert, A. E. (2011). Transformational leadership and
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Warrick, D. D. (2011). The urgent need for skilled transformational leaders: Integrating
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