Leadership Theories David Leonard University Of Phoenix Nov

5leadership Theoriesdavid Leonarduniversity Of Phoenix21 November 2021

Reflective Essay: Leadership Theories The success of any organization is determined by the type of leadership approach and style that leaders use. Leaders such as Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Reed Hastings of Netflix, and Steve Jobs of Apple are celebrated worldwide for their successes. Reports indicate suitable leadership styles and approaches should focus on enhancing organizational culture, motivating and inspiring employees to emphasize organizational needs ahead of self-interest, and understanding each employee's needs (Khan, 2017). This paper reflects on a transformational leadership approach, transactional leadership approach, and transactional leadership approach.

Included are the characteristics of these leaders, the skills, and the implication of these approaches.

Transformational leadership theory

The transformational leadership approach was founded in 1973 by James Downton and later expanded by James Burns in 1978. Later, the concept was expanded further by Bernard Bass to accommodate ways to measure a transformational leader's success (Burkus, 2010). The transformational leadership model encourages leaders to demonstrate strong leadership with the knowledge that employees/followers will be motivated to follow suit. Transformational leadership is an approach whereby leaders inspire, motivate, and encourage employees to innovate and create change in an organization.

The transformational leadership model is effective in an organization with excellent culture and behavior. Transformational leaders inspire their employees without micromanaging (White, 2018). Transformational leaders engage their employees in the decision-making process and trust them to take authority over the decision in their assigned roles. Transformational leadership is a style that enables employees to be creative, look to the future, and find new solutions to old challenges. Transformational leadership skills include:

• Encourages positive development of employees/followers
• It fosters an ethical work environment with a clear understanding, values, and standards.
• It establishes company culture by encouraging followers to move toward a mindset working for the common good.
• The theory holds an emphasis on authenticity, cooperation, and open communication
• The theory allows employees to make decisions while at the same time coaches and mentors employees on the decision-making process of their tasks

Leadership in the transformational approach is proactive. The transformational leader works to change organizational culture by introducing new ideas (Burkus, 2010). Transformational leaders inspire employees to achieve company goals and objectives by appealing to high moral standards. Transformational leaders encourage their followers to transcend their interests for those of the group (White, 2018).

Transactional leadership theory

The transactional leadership approach was first discussed by Weber in 1947 (Khan, 2017). Transactional leadership focuses on organizing, planning, controlling, and motivating the essential leadership and management process. Transactional leadership encompasses directing and motivating employees mainly by appealing to their self-interest. The authority of a transactional leader comes from responsibility and formal authority in a company. The goal of an employee is to obey the instructions of the leader—the leader moves through a system of reward and punishment.

The transactional leadership approach is the exact opposite of the transformational leadership approach. The assumptions of the transactional leadership approach include:

• Employees are inspired by reward and punishment
• Employees have to obey the orders of the employer
• Employees are not self-motivated

They have to be closely monitored and to get the work done. The transactional leadership approach implies that it is associated with short-term goals and is also characterized by rules and procedures. The transactional leadership approach is responsive. The approach makes followers achieve organizational goals through rewards and punishments. The approach motivates employees by appealing to their self-interest.

Situational leadership theory

The situational leadership approach means adapting leadership styles to every unique situation to meet the needs of an organization (Thompson & Glasà¸, 2018). The situational leadership approach was developed in 1969 by Paul Hersey and Ken Blanchard (Wolf, 2021). The founders of this approach believed that there is no one-size-fits-all leadership style (Thompson & Glasà¸, 2018). The transactional model allows the leaders to diagnose the development level of an employee; after that, they can determine and adopt an approach that is suitable for the situation. The four situational styles of a manager include telling, participating, and delegating.

Characteristics of situational leadership include:

• Flexibility: Flexibility allows a situational leader to pay attention to the changing needs of employees (Thompson & Glasà¸, 2018). It helps leaders adjust their leadership approach to bring the best out of their employees to ensure successful outcomes (Megheirkouni, Amaugo & Jallo, 2018).
• Active listening enables leaders to understand what is happening in an organization and develop strategies to meet employee needs.
• Clear direction: Situational leaders provide direction to their employees.
• Ability to encourage participation
• Coaching skills

References

• Burkus, D., (2010). Transformational Leadership Theory. Retrieved from
• Khan, N. (2017). Adaptive or transactional leadership in current higher education: A brief comparison. International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 18(3).
• Megheirkouni, M., Amaugo, A., & Jallo, S. (2018). Transformational and transactional leadership and skills approach: Insights on stadium management. International Journal of Public Leadership.
• Pollack, J. & Pollack, R. (2015). Using Kotter’s eight stage process to manage an organizational change program: presentation and practice. Systematic Practice and Action Research, 28(1).
• Thompson, G., & Glasà¸, L. (2018). Situational leadership theory: a test from a leader-follower congruence approach. Leadership & Organization Development Journal.
• White, S., (2018). What is transformational leadership? A model for motivating innovation. Retrieved from
• Wolf, J., (2021). Situational leadership: Learn to develop it through examples. Retrieved from
• FedEx. (2021). Company overview.