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Compare and Contrast Any Two Theories of Leadership Essay

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Compare and contrast any two theories of leadership

In the following essay I will look at leadership, its definition and compare and contrast two theories behind it. I will firstly see if there is a distinction between leadership and management as suggested by John
Kotter(1990) who goes on further to stress that organisations require both a leader and a manager but the function can be provided by a single individual. I will then look at some definitions of leadership such as that by Bryman(1999), “The process of influencing the activities of an organized group in its efforts toward goal setting and goal attainment”. The two leadership theories which I will compare and contrast are transactional and transformational. I will also …show more content…

Transactional leadership relies on the workers behaviour being influenced by means of reward by the leader.
There is co-dependency between the leader and the worker, one has to offer the other something for a desired outcome. A real life example of transactional leadership is the use of commission in the sales industry. Performance to the leader’s requirement or expectation is rewarded. This could be seen as one of the advantages of this type of leadership, that is it provides a clear idea of what is required. Watch any episode of the BBC television programme ‘The Apprentice’ and this theory is clearly demonstrated throughout. The main disadvantage becomes clear, the assumption is everyone is motivated by monetary rewards and this is simply untrue.
In contrast transformational leadership is the infusion of motivation and inspiration into the workers to do the work by their leader as suggested by Anita(2008)“You have to look at leadership through the eyes of the followers and you have to live the message. What I have learned is that people become motivated when you guide them to the source of their own power and when you make heroes out of employees who personify what you want to see in the organisation.” The election campaign that was run by the now US President,
Barak Obama, was transformational. Obama influenced the voters with his charisma and motivated them by addressing issues that appealed to them. This highlights

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