Transformational Vs Transactional Leadership with Examples

Organizations consist of many functional units and parts as well as workers, all of which must work together for the organization to excel in a competitive environment. One of these parts of any organization is leadership. Leadership creates a shared vision, inspire others, and provide a stable center during times of change. How they exactly carry out this is their leadership style. There are many types of leadership styles which have been identified. Transformational and transactional leadership styles focus on the relationship between leaders and employees and in return influence the level of success of an organization. Leaders are expected to use leadership as a process of ensuring long term goals of the organization are realized especially in a turbulent competitive environment. At the end of the financial year, an organization finally presents its financial reports and shareholders, workers and leaders are keen to hear about success, growth, and reward.  Present corporate environment has gone global and highly competitive and so requires a more efficient leader with clear vision and motivation power, instead of dominant personality. Transactional and Transformational leadership styles got notable attentions of many researchers from decades. This study explores the distinctiveness of Transactional and Transformational leadership from literature. Various differences have been drawn between these leadership styles to identify which one is more applicable for present corporate context. Examples of leaders viewed as transactional and transformational are given from which success was realized in both cases. It was noted that the nature of business was different and hence a probable influence on leadership style.   This paper concludes that both Transactional and Transformational leadership styles have weaknesses and strengths, but recommends an attempt to mix the two leadership styles.