Can Transactional Leadership Keep Your Team In Shape?

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs demonstrates that most people are more likely to act when they expect rewards or fear punishment

. Any social system is more effective when a hierarchy clearly exists. People who are hired to work, implicitly agree to heed all of their manager's instructions, and that is the main reason that subordinates are employed.

When rewarding a subordinate, a transactional leader must create a clear structure of what is required of said worker when following orders. Alongside rewards, there should be a well understood formal system of discipline in place, although not always talked about.

In transactional leadership, negotiation of the contract defines the relationship. The contract needs to spell out salary and benefits, as well as what claim the company has on the employee and his work.

Employees will be punished for their failure if things do not go correctly, just as they would be rewarded for their successes. When a job is given to an employee by the Transactional Leader, the employee is fully accountable for its completion. This accountability applies whether or not the employee has the means or ability to finish the project.

The transactional leader usually leads with the philosophy that if things are going smoothly and working at acceptable levels of success, they don't need to be addressed. Performance that goes above and beyond the expected standard is of course commended, while poor behavior is given some type of punishment and/or corrective measure.

Transactional Leadership has a 'telling style', as opposed to the 'selling style' Transformational Leadership has. Reward or punishment are the two outcomes that follow the performance.

Transactional Leadership leans more towards the management side when put on a Leadership vs. Management scale. Even though there is a lot of research that points out its flaws, Transactional Leadership is still used widely among many managers.

To have an effective model of human behavior, we can't assume that people are mainly motivated by reward and are very predictable. This fallacy is supported by the psychological theory of behaviorism, which was made famous by Pavlov's classical conditioning and Skinner's operant conditioning experiments. Unfortunately, these experiments are often performed in controlled lab conditions using animals as subjects, negating the complexity of the human mind and motive.

Using the Behaviorism to sustain Transitional approach proves true in a practical application, which is confirmed through supply and demand in the employment sector in addition to the effects of deeper needs like Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. However, when the supply of employees isn't enough to meet the needs of demand, then Transactional Leadership is not sufficient; then other approaches prove more effective in the workplace.

by: Steve Wilheir

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