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Reward and punishment are the fundamental motivators of human behavior. These concepts are exemplified clearly in Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. Human social organizations function most effectively when a clear leadership hierarchy is defined. One aspect of employment that individuals must accept and anticipate is that they must submit to the authority of the superior to whom they report. The primary function of a subordinate is to perform to the expectations of his or her superior. Transactional leaders operate by constructing clear algorithms by which they indicate clearly the expectations of subordinates, as well as the rewards received for meeting those expectations. Although punishment is not always explicated, the concept is implicitly understood, and systematic structures for discipline are usually extant. 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. When an employee is assigned work by an transactional leader, the employee is fully responsible for the work, even if they do not have the competency or resources to do so. The employee is thought to be at fault when things do not work correctly, and must suffer the consequences of their failure. Likewise, success is rewarded. The transactional leader usually leads with the philosophy that if things are going smoothly and working at acceptable levels of success, they donâ??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. There are several differences between Transformational and Transactional Leadership. Transformational leadership denotes positive change, and persuading others to participate in achieving this positive change. A good transformational leader will impart the same enthusiasm for achieving the team's goals that the leader himself has. A transactional leader, on the other hand, is concerned with a hierarchical approach -- one of stating what he expects from his subordinates and what they may expect from him. There is no sense of "team" and the subordinates may or may not become personally enthusiastic about completing the task. They may receive praise if the leader deems their work acceptable -- or they may be penalized for poor work. Despite much research that highlights its limitations, Transactional Leadership is still a popular approach with many managers. Indeed, in the Leadership vs. Management spectrum, it is very much towards the management end of the scale. People are not simply driven by monetary rewards and cannot be assumed to be working examples of ideal rational individuals. Psychological theories that attempt to define and describe motivation and resulting actions are Pavlov's Classical Conditioning and Skinner's Operant Conditioning. These theories were devised using simplistic animal experiments and do not correctly model complex societal and human characteristics. In practice, there is sufficient truth in Behaviorism to sustain Transactional approaches. This is reinforced by the supply-and-demand situation of much employment, coupled with the effects of deeper needs, as in Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. When the demand for a skill outstrips the supply, then Transactional Leadership often is insufficient, and other approaches are more effective. Daiv Russell is a management and marketing consultant with Envision Web Marketing. Read more Management Articles, learn about Abraham Maslow and the Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs.
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