Defenition of Transactional Leadership - Essay Example

Leadership Introduction Defining leadership is a difficult job as it does not have a definite form. It depends on the individual as they whether theyare good leader or not. They give their own definition of leadership and identifies that they possess all the qualities of a leader. They have a tendency to compare their kills with that of world’s recognised leaders who have served the nations truly and effortlessly. However, being persuasive and powerful does not create a good leader. It can be stated that Jesus Christ is the only leader who one should look up to. He had requested his subjects to take his stance and serve the poor as a leader in His name. His call was heard and understood by humble Mother Teresa. She took the charge to assist poor and change the way of living of the poor. It is observed that other than following leadership styles there are few indirect leaders too who have the ability to influence individuals around the world. Mother Teresa is one such leader who knowingly or unknowingly formed her own leadership traits. However, her leadership styles are demonstrated by many researchers (Hitchens 2012, 112-120). Bass and Avolio (1993 cited in MacIntyre 2005, 69-117) had made an attempt in introducing leadership styles: transformational and transactional. Transformational leadership has its foundation from the type of relationship shared by the leaders and their followers. The relationship is basically developed with the help of exchange of rewards. The main focus is on the best suited ways employed by the leaders to motivate its followers and influence them to enhance their performance quality. It can be defined as the precursor of developing confidence which is essential for a group when they are encountering challenges. The transformational leaders exhibit charisma and aims at sharing their vision with their followers so that they can perform exceptionally. Bass and Avolio (1993 cited Kolodiejchuk 2007, 116-117) have examined transformational leadership through four main parameters: idealized influence, intellectual simulation, inspirational influence and individual consideration. Idealized influence deals with the attributes that can be assigned to leaders and their behaviour. A charismatic leader poses high code of conduct and ethical codes which directs them to become the role models for all. Inspirational influence highlights the capability of the leaders to take decisions on behalf of their followers and acts as the cheerleaders for them. Creativity forms the real backbone for intellectual stimulation where the followers are encouraged to encounter the problems by employing innovative solutions. Individual consideration deals with the development of single individual in a group. Their development is of high priority to the leaders and they concentrates in propagating two way communication (Hoffmann 1996, 121-130). Transactional leadership engages minds and heart of the individual to become a leader. It takes into consideration concern and trust rather than exercise of direct control. The main aim of this type of leadership is establishment of long term vision, coaching, development of others and empowers other individual to control them. The leaders ascertain a standard for performance which is followed by their followers. This kind of leaders has the ability to prevent an uncertain harmful situation by taking preventive measures from before. The leaders following these leadership traits are evaluated according to their capability of predicting future problems. The leaders who can anticipate any problem in future and take corrective measures they are regarded as efficient leaders. An efficient leader recognizes the hard work of their followers and rewards them appropriately so as to motivate them to remain constant with their good performance (Spink 1997, 56-98). Mother Teresa was a transactional leader. She devoted herself to her followers and assisted poor all her life. She helped people who were in need and secured their life by providing them home and medical facilities. She always found out solutions to every challenges encountered by the individuals. She implanted her best plans to help individuals in India. The first project in India was helping the abandoned people in streets of Calcutta. After receiving Indian citizenship, Mother Teresa visited the Mayor of Calcutta and sanctioned grants for serving the dying people in the streets of Calcutta. She served these homeless individuals with “Nirmal Hriday”, a home for the helpless people. The noble cause was supported by many and they became her followers who believed in her potentials and her urge to help others. She concentrated in teaching the poor children in Motijhil, a slum in close proximity with the school in which she used to teach. She usually held her classes under shady trees and taught them lessons on hygiene and religions. She built a Shishu Bhavan through which she extended her public education system. Currently, such education system operates in countries worldwide. Mother Teresa initiated mobile clinics where few sisters carried small medicine kits and travelled in public transport to the areas which consisted of leprosy affected people. She even constructed centres for treating leprosy. The money for constructing the same was collected from the public and part of the money was provided by Pope Paul VI in 1964 (Sidanius, Pratto, Sinclair and Laar 1996, 45-56). In 1979 she won the Nobel Peace Prize and she used the money for constructing self-governing village in India in a place called Titagarh for rehabilitation of individuals with leprosy. Mother Teresa can also be referred as a charismatic leader who inspired people around the world. She helped people worldwide without considering their races or status. She was confident and esteemed enough to display her qualities which highlighted her goals. Her followers did not question her for her ideas and got emotionally attached to her and her extraordinary power of inspiring others. Mother Teresa motivated her followers to achieve the missions and vision that is set by her which will bring improvement in their life and serve others. She took a multi-disciplinary and multi level developmental approach for assisting other to concentrate in helping the people who are in need. Her career was based on a call which was strong enough to encounter harsh situations. The call was from Jesus Christ who lived and died serving the poor. The call changed her life and she spread this call to everyone. According to researchers, she exhibited transformational leadership (Badaracco 2001, 96-110). She had inspired uncountable number of people for changing their course of life and motivated them to elevate their standard of living. There are many notable traits of Mother Teresa which can be explained as openness and frankness that helped her develop powerful network of individual from different parts of the world. She had tremendous will power that helped her transforming her visions into operations irrespective of their difficulties. She was bold and never hesitated to give any strong comment where needed (Kwilecki and Wilson 1998, 69-110). One of the most criticized qualities of Mother Teresa was her preference of saving other life. Crooke (2004 cited in Joireman and Duell 2005, 101-110) wrote “As Teresa herself openly acknowledged, her work and that of the Missionaries of Charity is not about healing bodies, it is about saving souls” (Joireman and Duell 2005, 101-110). She regarded herself as religious and had the power to bring back life to dead bodies. It was observed that the nun spent a lot of time praying and thus she appointed herself to be the most religious person. However, apart from this negative quality, her leadership brought hope to life of many. She believed in her work and like a true leader motivated her followers to move towards the accomplishment of mission. She allied with many powerful entities worldwide to gather donations so that she can help the poor. This nature made her famous and she treated every individual as a child. She remained consistent in her faith all her life by believing in Jesus and His teachings which she spread among her followers. She motivated the weak to encounter every challenge of life and gave them the strength to resist hard situations. Mother Teresa communicated very well with her followers and she could reach each and every hearts by her strong speeches which she used to give in public. She was very straightforward and disliked a lot of things which questioned the life of an individual. Mother Teresa was courageous enough to expand her leprosy centres to such territories which she did not even know well. She was not afraid of doing anything right even if it was resisted by the government. Rather she became more motivated when she was opposed to construct schools in India. She did not lose hope but gathered more followers who supported her noble cause until she succeeded in doing so (Rein, Atkinson and McCraty 1995, 56-67). Conclusion Leaders can be described as the person who commands or leads a group or a country, but Mother Teresa was much more than this. She not only helped people to get rid of poverty but she also devoted her life by saving other lives. Transactional or transformational, Mother Teresa was a unique leader whose leadership cannot be confined to these two forms. However, researchers have attempted to depict her characteristics by connecting with this leadership styles. Therefore, it can be concluded that Mother Teresa was not only a good and efficient leader but she was a charismatic woman who mesmerised people worldwide by her great work and sacrifices. Reference List Badaracco Jr, Joseph. "We dont need another hero." Harvard Business Review 79 (2001): 120-126. Hitchens, Christopher. The missionary position: Mother Teresa in theory and practice. New York: Hachette Digital, Inc. 2012. Hoffmann, Stanley. "In Defense of Mother Teresa: Morality in Foreign Policy." Foreign Affairs (1996): 172-175. Joireman, Jeff, and Blythe Duell. "Mother Teresa versus Ebenezer Scrooge: Mortality salience leads proselfs to endorse self-transcendent values.”Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 31 (2005): 307-320 Kolodiejchuk, Brian. Mother Teresa: Come be my light. New York: Doubleday. 2007. Kwilecki, Susan and Loretta S. Wilson. "Was Mother Teresa maximizing her utility? An idiographic application of rational choice theory." Journal for the Scientific Study Of Religion (1998): 205-221. MacIntyre, Donald. “ The squalid truth behind the legacy of Mother Theresa.” New Statesmen 18(2005): 24-25. Rein, Glen, Mike Atkinson and Rollin McCraty. "The physiological and psychological effects of compassion and anger." Journal Of Advancement In Medicine 8 (1995): 87-105. Sidanius, Jim, Felicia Pratto, Stacey Sinclair and Colette Van Laar. "Mother Teresa meets Genghis Khan: The dialectics of hierarchy-enhancing and hierarchy-attenuating career choices." Social Justice Research 9 (1996): 145-170. Spink, Kathryn. Mother Teresa: A complete authorized biography. San Francisco: Harper. 1997. Read More