Transactional vs. Transformational Leadership

Transactional vs. Transformational Leadership
    Leadership plays an important role in the organization. While with the development of the society, more and more managers pay attention to their leadership and relationship with employees. James McGregor Burns in his book Leadership (1978) introduces the notion of transactional and transformational leadership, which have remained one of the most popular leadership models. But there are differences with each. The distinction between transactional and transformational leadership was first made by Downton (Barnett, McCormick & Conners, 2001) but the idea gained little currency until James McGregor Burns’ (1978) work on political leaders was published. Burns distinguished between ordinary (transactional) leaders, who exchanged tangible rewards for the work and loyalty of followers, and extraordinary (transformational) leaders who engaged with followers, focused on higher order intrinsic needs, and raised consciousness about the significance of specific outcomes and new ways in which those outcomes might be achieved (Barnett, McCormick & Conners, 2001; Cox, 2001; Gellis, 2001; Griffin, 2003; Judge & Piccolo, 2004). How to choose the model of leadership and how to improve the relationship between leaders and followers are still problems. So I would like to talk about the theories between transactional leadership and transformation leadership, and give some realistic examples for each leadership model. Moreover, according to cite some survey to talk about which leadership is better.
    First of all, Transformational leadership is defined as a leadership approach that creates valuable and positive change in the followers with the end goal of developing followers into leaders. The concept of transformational leadership was initially introduced by leadership expert and presidential biographer James MacGregor Burns (leadership, 1978). According to Burns (1978), transformational leadership can be seen when “leaders and...