Difference between trasformational and transactional leadership style

Difference between trasformational and transactional leadership style

Dimension in Transformational and Trasactional Leadership

Characteristic Transformational and Transactional leadership style

2.3.2 Transactional leadership. (Independent Variable)

There a lot of definition in transactional leadership that has been written by most of the research. According to Schneider (2002) said, that there are contrast charismatic leaders with non-charismatic leaders. Although, transformational leadership inspires exceptional performance, transactional or non-charismatic leaders aspire to achieve solid, consistent performance that meets agreed upon goals. Besides that, transactional can be defined as give rewards and punishment to encourage performance, making the leader relationship essentially an economic transaction, Bass (1985). Transactional Leadership, known as managerial leadership, focuses on the role of supervision, organization, and group performance. It is a style of leadership in which the leader gives of his followers through both rewards and punishment but transformational leadership, leaders using the transactional approach are not looking to change the future. They will act based on the situation that occurred. These leaders pay attention to followers' work in order to find faults and deviations. This type of leadership is effective in crisis and emergency situations, as well as when projects need to be carried out in a specific fashion. It also call “carrot and stick” which means if perform will get reward and if employee failed to perform will get punishment.

Transactional leaders clarify to each team member their responsibilities, the tasks that must be complete, the performance objectives, direct poorly performing members and tell the benefits that can be gained related to the self-interests of the employees for compliance (Morgeson et al., 2010).Within the context of Maslow's hierarchy of needs, transactional leadership works at the basic levels of need satisfaction, where transactional leaders focus on the lower levels of the hierarchy. Transactional leaders use an exchange model, with rewards being given for good work or positive outcomes. Conversely, people with this leadership style also can punish poor work or negative outcomes, until the problem is corrected. One way that transactional leadership focuses on lower level needs is by stressing specific task performance (Hargis et al, 2001). Transactional leaders are effective in getting specific tasks completed by managing each portion individually. The transactional leader tends to intervene into the employees’ work process only when their performance deviates from the assigned standard (Bass & Avolio, 1993). The perception of the leader’s preferences is likely effects on employees, blocking them from their own creative opportunities. Moreover, transactional leadership may be perceived as controlling and demotivating (Deci & Ryan, 1987). Smith and Bell (2011) noted that transactional leadership was utilized by leaders when they respond to accountability measures. Such instances may occur when responding to political pressures, student achievement, or teacher performance. Transactional leadership has been framed as short-term practice to achieve results.

transactional leader works with followers‘ current needs and tries to satisfy those needs with desired outcomes once agreed upon performance level are achieved, (Jung & Avolio, 2000). Other than that, according to Conger & Kanungo (1998), transactional leader have three primary characteristic which are first is transactional leaders work with their team member or develop clear, specific goals and ensure that workers get the reward promised for meeting the goals. Secondly, the characteristic is they exchange reward and promises of reward for worker effort. Lastly is transactional leaders are responsive to the immediate self-interests of workers if their needs can be met while getting the work done. According to Yukl (1981), transactional leadership represents those exchanges in which both supervisor and subordinates influence on each other. Simply transactional leaders follow the rule of consideration (something in return). These leaders work with coordination of their followers so that they can be rewarded and praised also (Kellerman, 1984). Furthermore, the definition of transactional leadership is based on ―individual‖ self-interest philosophy. Managers and employees are considered to be individuals who are rational in pursuit of individual interest and it is just pure trading relationship between them (Bass, 1996; Sergiovanni, 1990). According to Burns (1978) and Zhao (2003), transactional leaders regard employees as ―economic men‖ who have low quality and demand, work hard to obtain remuneration and care about the clarification of tasks and roles. Transactional leadership emphasized traditional instrument exchange, which means providing employee salary and position according to their contribution and performance.

 According to Bass (1985) and Avolio (1995), transactional leadership is divided into contingent reward, active management-by-exception and passive management-by-exception. Next, transactional leadership can be defined according to Mackenzie, Podsakoff and Rich (2001) it refer to the practice of motivating followers through an exchange process involving extrinsic rewards, rules and compliance. Transactional leaders are led by exchanging or offering a reward for a desired outcome for an example, bonus rewards or promotional opportunities for attaining performance targets. Transactional leaders are concerned with processes rather than forward-thinking ideas. These types of leaders focus on contingent reward (also known as contingent positive reinforcement). Contingent rewards are given when the set goals are accomplished on-time, ahead of time, or to keep subordinates working at a good pace at different times throughout completion. Contingent punishments are given when performances do not meet standards or goals and tasks are not met at all. Contingent punishments are handed down on a management-by-exception basis, in which the exception is something going wrong. Within management-by-exception, there are active and passive routes. Active management-by-exception means that the leader continually looks at each subordinate's performance and makes changes to the subordinate's work to make corrections throughout the process. Passive management-by-exception leaders wait for issues to come up before fixing the problems. With transactional leadership being applied to the lower-level needs and being more managerial in style, it is a foundation for transformational leadership which applies to higher-level needs.

Researcher from Kahai et al (2003) observed that creativity was higher under transactional leadership than under transformational leadership. It is a simple process of creating expectations with employees, along with clear indications of what they will get in return for meeting (Blanchard and Johnson, 1985). Most of research has linked that contingent rewards to positive organizational outcomes. Transactional leadership encourages specific exchanges and a close connection between goals and rewards. Therefore, employees are not motivated to give anything beyond what is clearly specified in their contract. This is especially troubling for knowledge employees for whom it is much more difficult to specify complete job descriptions in advance. According to Conger and Kanungo (1998) and Schneider (2002) all leaders exhibit characteristics of both transformational and transactional leadership styles. Individual leaders tend to emphasize one of these styles more than the other. Both types of leaders are required to effectively manage knowledge (Conger, 1999).

2.3.1 Transformational leadership (Independent Variable)

There have been a lot of definitions about transformational leadership that have been cited on written in some journal that have been done. Transformational leadership is defined as finding the energy in followers by creating an active interaction environment in the organization. Its objective is to increase the perception of success in the organization and to motivate the members (Bass, 2000). Some authors refer to charismatic leadership instead of transformational leadership. Previous research has indicated that team leaders engage in a variety of behaviors aimed at facilitating team functioning and performance (Morgeson, DeRue & Karam, 2010). Leaders also motivate the followers to realize organizational objectives by increase their confidence. They make the employees be disposed to deal with problems and difficulties to negotiate and they provide autonomy for them to increase their performance and efficacy (Bass, Avolio, Jung, & Berson, 2003). The concept of transformational leadership was introduced by James Macgregor Burns in 1978 in his descriptive research on political leaders, but its usage has spread into organisational psychology and management with further modifications by B.M Bass and J.B Avalio (Jung & Sosik, 2002).

 Currie and Lockett (2007) state about the transformational leadership as a leadership style for meeting the needs of followers and a leadership that is sensitive to differences. Most of school in Malaysia are modern school management considers the school organization as the focus of transformation. The leader has been necessary as the provider of this transformation and this leader has been expected to take on the role of transformational leader in schools (Bottery, 2001). Roleof transformational leadership behavior is quite important in keeping up with scientific knowledge and technology at school, the adaptation of the school to changing environmental conditions and increasing the quality of education (Leithwood, 1992). Transformational leadership

involves encouraging the team to manage its own tasks and developing the team’s to function effectively without direct intervention from the team leader, this form of leadership focuses on coaching the team and empowering its self-management (Morgeson et al., 2010). Transformational leadership can be defined from other research as inspire employees to commit to collective vision of the organization or leader through mentoring, challenging assignment, and problem solving ( Bass &Riggio, 2006) and also they said when the leader used this transformational leadership, the result will greater success. According to (Srithongrung, 2011) transformational leadership will influence long-term behaviour of employees in increase internal motivation in lieu of extrinsic incentives that only motivate when they are awarded which obviously occur infrequently.

Transformational leadership is the restructuring of the system to achieve mission and

vision and their responsibilities refreshed so that the goals could be

reached (Leithwood, 1992). Therefore transformational leadership aims to ensure that the employee identifies themselves with the goals of the organization (Podsakoff, Mckanzie, Moorman and Fetter, 1990). Another characteristic of transformational leadership is that it is effective on the followers. The followers trust the leader and as a result, the followersin this study such as students of a transformational leader show a tendency to do more than what is required of them (Yukl, 1999). According to Burns (1978) transformational leadership is a process in which leaders and their followers bring each other to a higher level of attitude and motivation. For this reason, it is necessary to firstly determine the mission, vision and strategies of the organisation and its responsibilities (Leithwood, Menzies, Jantz and Leithwood, 1996).

Transformational leaders as a transformational intermediary are those who can create and put into practice clear visions for the organisation, strenghthen its followers for higher standards, behave in order to have others’ trust in themselves(Northhouse, 1997). Leadership is not shaped independent of social culture. It has been found through studies that transformational leadership is weaker in eastern cultures (Leong and Fischer, 2010). The relationship between individuals with a traditional culture and transformational leadership is very little (Spreitzer, Perttula and Xin, 2005).

Bennis (1959) found that transformative leadership was a person’s capacity to raise another person’s consciousness, build meanings, and inspire human intent. Burns (1978) declared that transformational leadership was the continuous of self-interest by the leader and the follower to achieve a particular goal or outcome that gives benefit to everybody. So there is several theory that can be used in transformational leadership. Leithwood presents the most fully developed conceptualization of transformational leadership in relation to schools. There are dimensions associated with other conceptualizations of transformational leadership that are either absent (charisma) or are given quite different significance when compared to Leithwood’s model (Leithwood & Jantzi, 2001). He also being designed for schools from his own qualitative and quantitative. Then, Bass (1985) characterized also have built a model relationship into four qualities: idealized influence, inspiration, individual consideration, and intellectual stimulation. These have more recently been referred to as the four I’s (Bass & Avolio, 1993, 1994). Idealized influence means that follower's respect and admiration for the leader. Leaders try to influence the employee. Individualized consideration (IC), the leader cares about the individual followers' concerns and developmental needs. Next, intellectual stimulation (IS), the degree to which the leader provides followers with interesting and challenging tasks and encourages them to solve problems in their own way. Lastly, inspirational motivation (IM) is based on communication of expectations and followers' confidence in the leader's vision and values.

Researchers have been discussed transformational leadership as a contrast to transactional leadership and argued that these styles of leadership are not necessarily mutually exclusive, however, and that the same individual may vary his or her leadership style at different times or in different situations. Previous study prove that transformational leadership have proposed that transformational leadership has a positive influence on employee performance outcomes in contrast to transactional leadership (Nederveen Pieterse et al., 2009, Shin & Zhou, 2003; Zhang et al, 2011). The results of the study of Zhang and Bartol (2003) showed that transformational leadership is positively related with group creativity.

2.3 Leadership styles (Independent  Variables)

There is numerous definition of teacher leadership than have been written and cited in most of the journal. The issues pertaining leadership style in scholl has been debated by various scholar. Leadership models was the ideal to implement in school environment. Leadership style is depends on the individual itself. Each character has its own style, so leadership style can be describe as “the kind of behavior and abilities which the manager has and which enables him to interact with the employee to achieve the goals” (Hesham, 2010, p. 39). Then, “leadership style is determined by deep seated values and belief about how people learn” (Goldman,1998, p.21). he also stated that leader may call their leadership style in whatever words such as transformational, transactional, situational and top down.

So there are many different of leadership style but recent study has strongly put their effort in two types of leadership which are transformational and transactional leadership style. According to Joseph Rost, he defined leadership as a not the work of a single person, rather it can be explained and defined as a collaborative endeavor among group members, therefore the essence of leadership is not the leader, but the relationship, (Rost, 1991). The Situational Leadership Model suggests that the leader's behavior needs to be different in order to meet the needs of the followers (Hersey & Blanchard, 1977). Furthermore, leadership also been defined as steps, procedure or process that direct and guide the behavior of people in their work environment (Nelson, 2006). Pearce & Conger (2003) defined leadership as a systematic process that has a specific pattern of hierarchy as top down, meaning it begin from the highest authority(leader) to the least authority (followers) in accordance to the organization‘s preferences.

Previous research has indicated that the team leaders engage in variety of attitude at facilitating team functioning and performance (Morgeson, DeReues and Karam, 2010). Style of leaderships intends to transform followers by a process such as leaders attitude, beliefs, assumption and motivation (Czernkowski & Gibson, 2003). Leadership style also the manner and approach by providing direction, motivating people and achieve the goals. It also a behavioral models used by leaders when working with others (Fertman & Lidden, 1999). The full range of leadership style has been developed more than twenty five years and has been use most of the researcher and labarotary research such as Belgium, Canada, Germany, Israel, New Zealand, Malaysia and Singapore (Bass and Avolio,2004). Based in the table above that have been adopted Yukl, 1999 definition of leadership style:

2.2 Student achievements (Dependent Variable)

Student achievement is the one that we want to know whether it can influence by leadership style or not. Researcher will discuss definition of student achievement and other than that; The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act was instituted to increase achievement for all students. According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, 62% and eighth grade students in American schools scored at the basic level on math assessments and 65% and eighth grade students scored at the basic level on reading assessments (Hanushek, Peterson, & Woessman, 2011;Peterson, Woessman, Hanushek, & Lastra-Anadon, 2011). So school organizations and leadership programs find approaches to raise achievement for all students. One way to increase academic achievement is to improve school leadership. Successful leaders plan for systemic change and facilitate effective teaching and learning in the organization (Hallinger, 2011). However, there is a substantial shortage of qualified and competent educational leaders in schools throughout the nation (Maulding et al., 2010).

 “Outstanding leadership has invariably emerged as a key characteristic of outstanding schools” (Beare, Caldwell, and Milliken, 1989,p. 13). “Effective leadership is a multifaceted process that is often defined through both subjective and objective measures of leader behavior and its effect on organizational processes and outcomes” (Davis, 1998,p. 59). A study exploring the relationship between leadership and student achievement for the years 1980 through 1995. Their results showed leaders have an indirect, but measurable, effect on how well students’ achieve in their schools. The greatest influence the organizations of the school develop and implementation of a clear vision, mission and goals (Hallinger and Heck, 1998). According to Eberts and Stone (1988) determined that a principal’s effect on student achievement results from their interactions with teachers. The interactions include identifying clear objectives, spending time in classrooms, providing support and guidance as well as rewards and incentives.

Teachers who are more committed to organization and members are more likely to adopt instructional practices recommended by the organization to achieve organizational goals. Such commitment would contribute to higher student achievement (Koh et al., 1995; Park, 2004).Student achievement are commonly used indicators in educational research (Smythe & Hess, 2005) but on this study researcher will look into their grades. the barriers to improved teacher quality and student achievement are lack of incentives to teach, lack of respect for the profession, and a lack of comprehensive strategies (Dozier and Bertrotti, 2000).

2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Leadership

Leadership is important in one management. There are various of definition leadership that have been describing in the literature. Leadership is build relationship in an official or unofficial capacity and motivating others finish up their work, learn and process (Burns,1978: Depree, 1989: Gardner,1990).   Leadership as the process of influencing groups to achieve goals, while a leader is someone who can influence others (Cole, 2006; Robbin and Coulter, 2007; Weihrich et al, 2008).  According to Kotter, 1990, leadership means a process that directs and organizes individuals. Bennis (1989) also wrote on his research said that “leadership is like beauty” (p. 123) which means hard to define but you understand when you see it.

Then, there are two aspect of leadership which are the art of leadership which involve (vision, modelling, renewal, judgement, power and trust) and the science of leadership which involve (team building, communication, decision making, conflict management, and planning and resource allocation). Leadership also consist four concept which are bartering, building, bonding and banking. Bartering means the initiatives to get started, building and bonding allow for the support and inspiration needed improvement and banking insure a routinization of improvement efforts (Sergiovanni,1990). In terms of leadership vision are considered which create purpose that binds teacher to reach the goals (Leithwood and Riehl, 2003).

 Earliest studies of leadership, Galton’s (1869) emphasized a basic concept that informed popular ideas about leadership (Zaccaro, 2007). This conception of leadership, known as the great man theory (Glynn & DeJordy, 2010).  Leadership is important in school not for principal but to all teachers. They also a leader when they with their students. Most of teachers nowadays lack of skill in terms of leadership, they do not how to be a leader in class. Successful leader are able to create a shared vision and build a sense of commitment among staff, students and parents (Peterson, 2002). They just come and teach at the class. Teacher also being a facilitator within the school and can be the important element in spreading and strengthen to improve the school academic. Teacher also must use variety of informal and formal channel to exert the leadership (The Center for Comprehensive School Reform and Improvement, 2005).