B1 Transactional Leadership
Transactional leadership is a style of leadership based on exchanges between the leader and their followers. The leader sets expectations and provides rewards when those expectations are met. When workers do not perform to the required standards, the leader will punish them.
Characteristics of transactional leadership include;
Structure and order
Rewards and punishments
Short-term goals
Self-interest
| Benefits of Transactional Leadership | Drawbacks of Transactional Leadership |
|---|---|
| Can improve productivity through rewarding actions that contribute to organisational goals. | It discourages creativity as individuals are not given room to explore ideas and different ways of doing things. |
| Can improve employee confidence by clearly setting out exactly what employees need to do to suceed. | Puts pressure on individuals to make all of the decisions and monitor staff performance. |
| Set achievable goals by clearly setting out exactly what employees need to do. | It ignores organisational issues that need to be improved such as training and culture by placing responsibility on individual workers. |
| There is a clear chain of command reducing uncertainty in who has authority and in lines of support. | It can create an inflexible workforce who become used to following orders and struggle to adapt to change |
| Easier to measure success against targets when clear targets are set. |