Leadership is a very critical aspect in terms of the results that a patient gets and fulfillment of employees in a health care institution. Whenever the workers in a health care institution have a good role model as leaders, they can contribute constructively when it comes to quality health care. Beginning from the top leadership and walking down the hierarchy in a cooperative manner, is a significant move to make the employees understand their value as the healthcare team (Hoch, Bommer, Dulebohn, & Wu, 2018) . Leadership is the potential to take up a vision from individuals and to motivate and empower them to harmonize their inputs and transform the vision into something tangible. When one understands the leadership style that he is demonstrating, he or she is able to achieve much as a future leader (Northouse, 2018; Fletcher, Friedman, & Piedimonte, 2019 ). The basis of the leadership to be discussed in this essay is transactional and transformational leadership that will be compared and contrasted, and as it applies to modern healthcare. The paper will also highlight the positive and negative outcomes that can arise from each of these leadership approaches. While discussing transformational and transactional leadership, much consideration will be made on understanding the current healthcare environment and the factors that are influencing healthcare providers, such as, changing regulation, globalization, technology, patient engagement, and/or empowerment.
Similarities and Differences between Transactional and Transformational Leadership
Transactional leadership depends on the authority that one is given or has in that organizational position that he or she is occupying, as well as the formal power to give rewards or punishments for performances. This kind of leadership style is fundamental since employees are guided by speculated set of ethical and moral standards and regulations. Martin (2015) elaborated that employees are given a reward for any achievements that they make and punished for instances of failure, as a way of motivating them to improve in those areas. Rewards are essential because they give the employees the feeling that they have succeeded in those positions or areas of responsibilities.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
Transactional leadership is founded on conventional give-and-take relationship so that the attitude of the employees, their inputs, productivity, and devotion are traded with rewards. The relationship could need the employee to agree with the leader’s guidance, while the employee on the other side is not enthusiastic to the attainment of the goals of the organization (Grossman & Valiga, 2016) . The intention of the transactional leader is to ensure that the path to achievement is clearly recognized by the followers, to eliminate any possible chances of distraction to the system, as well as motivate the workers to attain the expected goals.
The major focus of the leader is to have internal players do the tasks that are needed for the organization to meet their scheduled goals. The transactional leader exhibits constructive and corrective behaviors compared to the inspirational behavior that transformational leadership embraces (Afsar, Badir, Saeed, & Hafeez, 2017) . Constructive behavior entails rewards and the corrective aspect has to do with management by punishment or exception. Conditional reward entails giving clear instructions on the tasks that must be successfully accomplished to warrant rewards and the utilization of incentives and other forms of reward to motivate influence (Fletcher, Friedman, & Piedimonte, 2019) . The conditional rewards that are awarded to the followers when they attain the organization’s goals could even mean simple recognition.
A clear understanding of the goals and objectives and recognizing of the followers for their accomplishments should make them and the organization at large attain their overall intended levels of performance. The transactional leader also demonstrates active management by punishment or exception, whereby he projects out the framework to the followers for deference and dictates what needs to be termed as poor performance (Grossman & Valiga, 2016) . This could also entail literally punishing the employees who do not comply with the standards that were speculated at the beginning (Baškarada, Watson, & Cromarty, 2017) . This type of leadership entails watching out for noncompliance, omissions and errors so that they can be eliminated or sorted out as quickly as possible.
On the other hand, transformational leadership is a kind of leadership that is focused on guiding the members of the organization through positive changes and employing workable frameworks to ensure that the changes materialize. Transformational leadership is conscious of the dynamism brought about by technological changes and new approaches of connecting with others and performing a business, as usual, may not be an option (Martin, 2015). To have a competitive edge in the health industry in this new age, health care providers must shift their practices to be coherent with the new organizational environment being created. The healthcare institution must have a strong leadership style; say transformational type that will enable them to influence a change to the positive direction.
In transformational leadership, the employees are the followers and they have the faith, honor, dependability, approval, and respect for their leader. G rossman and Valiga (2016) defines this type of leadership as one that motivates the followers to act beyond what was expected of them. Therefore, transformational leaders stimulate the employees by causing them to be more conscious of the significance of task implications, inspiring them to go beyond their self-regard and to prioritize the organization. He motivates the followers to be critical and creative thinkers so that they can devise new ways to handle dynamism brought about by technology and challenge, amounting to intellectual inspiration (Fletcher, Friedman, & Piedimonte, 2019) . As a result, their ability to perform increases, as well as fulfillment, and dedication to the goals and objectives of the organization is enhanced.
Charismatic tendencies, which are the elements of transformational leadership, also motivate followers to disregard their self-interests for the good of the organization, encouraging the faith of the team in surmounting the problems. According to Martin (2015), followers focus on an immeasurable level of confidence and faith in charismatic leaders. Based on the elements of charismatic characteristics, the transformational leader articulates the vision and a sense of mission, receiving respect and confidence from those they are leading.
Transformational leaders are also characterized with inspirational motivation in which they model and display higher standards. Employees take the inspirational leader as their mentor that has a responsibility of increasing awareness and comprehension of mutually looked-for goals. Afsar, Badir, Saeed, and Hafeez (2017) determined that a transformational leader communicates high expectations to the followers, utilizing signs to concentrate on the struggle, and demonstrating the major purpose in simple and understandable ways. As a transformational leader, communication regarding the future is optimistic (Grossman & Valiga, 2016) . The leader speaks about vision in an attractive way so that he creates a compelling reputation for the organization. He motivates the followers by giving them the reason and challenge to continue engaging in the business of the organization. The leader manages to achieve individual and team spirit of the followers so that they are enthusiastic about their tasks themselves as well as being optimistic for the future. The followers are able to picture attractive future accomplishments, for the organization and even themselves as a person.
Positive and Negative Outcomes that Can Arise from the Leadership Approaches
The negative aspect of transactional leadership is whereby a single person or selected few are reserved the duty to make decisions on behalf of the rest of the healthcare organization. Healthcare decisions are very crucial and should be made by a team and not just one individual (Baškarada, Watson, & Cromarty, 2017). Not giving people the chance to make decisions is almost like a dictatorial type of leadership (Afsar et al., 2017) . Quality care may not be improved when the members of the team are not encouraged to share their views corporately. A team effort of health care practitioners guarantees a lot of success.
Transformational leadership can positively give the leaders the opportunity to gather a vision, be respected, motivate, steer, train and solicit team effort to attain quality care to the patients. Transformational leadership cares for the inputs of everyone to form the corporate contribution. According to Dartey-Baah (2015), the best time to apply transformational leadership is when the leader realizes that the morale of the practitioners has gone down and they do not receive much satisfaction in their workplace. The leader can incorporate ESP training to be a section of the expected standards of care. ESP concentrates on giving exceptional customer services and being self-responsive to tasks and demands. In that way, transformational leadership will ensure that the staff members feel the essence of giving their inputs to the overall team effort (Afsar et al., 2017) . Transformational leaders motivate those serving under him or her to become leaders themselves and lay down frameworks that will guarantee their satisfaction.
Leaders in a healthcare institution have prevalently utilized transformational leadership more often, which has proved to be very effective. Staff fulfillment and workgroup efficiency are more transactional and that increased transformational score is often associated with higher educational levels and encouraging a more participative healthcare environment. Transformational leadership as discussed earlier is very much connected with an extra input, envisioned effectiveness and fulfillment (Cherry & Jacob, 2016). Most studies have revealed that employees derive a lot of satisfaction by working under a transformational leadership style as opposed to being led by a transactional leader (Grossman & Valiga, 2016; Martin, 2017). Transformational leadership has for a long time been connected with increased levels of leadership effectiveness and that the workers in health care institutions, particularly the private hospitals are probably more able to find their leaders to be transformational compared to their counterparts in public healthcare institutions.
In current times, the aspect of leadership and the leadership styles being adopted in a health care institution has been an aspect of concern for all employees. Thus, a good leadership style becomes very appropriate to enhance nursing and health policies in the execution of tasks (Hoch et al., 2018). Leadership training paradigms could be powerful tools for boosting the leadership skills of leaders in an organization, the value of those training paradigms should be underlined, included and stated in any healthcare organization policies.
Transformational leadership gives room for the establishment of a leadership development program, as a central part of developing the talents and skills of the workers. This could be done from the onset to maximize the benefits of transformational leadership. The development programs tailored for incorporating leadership skills could include training, coaching, and mentorship (Cherry & Jacob, 2016). Therefore, when the leader exercises these better models of leadership, the employees can quickly learn the skills and be motivated to incorporate them in their tasks and responsibilities within the healthcare organization.
When transactional leadership style is adopted, it goes well with offering leadership development programs so that the employees are trained to do their tasks effectively. This is to counter the limitation brought about by reserving decision making among the few leaders, who do so on behalf of the rest. Incorporating leadership development programs can be thought provoking for healthcare policies that focus on stimulating actions (Afsar et al., 2017). Such programs, therefore, are beneficial for creating an understanding concerning the vital elements needed for effectiveness in any kind of leadership.
Employees should participate in the process of decision-making at all stages of implementing the policies and goals of the organization. By applying transformational theory to leadership, it is possible to influence the confidence of employees and facilitate their training (Baškarada, Watson, & Cromarty, 2017). The leadership development programs should incorporate the competency structures that will positively influence the health sectors as diverse skills and talents could be discovered and harnessed among the employees (Northouse, 2018). Therefore, it is possible to maximize the benefits of effective operational leadership through transformational approach, avoid the limitations of transactional leadership, and eliminate mechanical and reductionist strategy.
Demonstrating Transactional and Transformational Leadership in the Current Healthcare Environment
A blend of these two leadership styles could be used to enhance teamwork in a healthcare environment. The leader should inspire a culture in which the workers manage up to enhance teamwork. A proper framework of communication is established so that the employees respect one another as they express their views and can confidently correct one another in case they discover disparities or unclear behaviors in the delivery of patient care ( Xenikou, 2017) . The reports on exercising of leadership in healthcare institution indicate that employees feel more satisfied with their fellow colleagues when they are managed up, which is reflected in the fulfillment of the patients who are happy about service delivery (Afsar et al., 2017). Leaders in healthcare institutions should be motivated to manage up and be aggressive in participating in community events. The leaders also need to be role models to their followers who can trust them to be motivated and be even more committed to their duties.
Employees that are managed up in a health care organization will show increased fulfillment. When the fulfillment of the staff members is increased , it will reflect in the ultimate satisfaction of the patients. Putting down personal notes and engagement to various departments make employees understand that they are appreciated and be motivated to give their best output. Departments that perform hard duties are not recognized or noticed (Hoch et al., 2018). Thus, when they are complimented or rewarded in some way, their morale is sparked up to give their best outputs.
Leaders are very instrumental in a healthcare organization in influencing change, particularly by demonstrating transformational leadership. Leaders should remain as transformational agents in these times of transition. To be a successful leader that influences changes, there is a need to move continuously the team members towards standardized, scheduled, achievable goals of the organization ( Xenikou, 2017) . The juniors must be encouraged to be motivated and give their best during this moment of change, and the leader must be open to speaking up their needs. For instance, a leader that feels he or she is not competent enough when a change is being implemented should communicate his or her need for updating his or her skills through planned training (Cherry & Jacob, 2016). A transition to change may also come with endeavoring to understand the use of technology being adopted in a health facility. For example, a leader may influence the change of adopting a healthcare information technology to replace the traditional way of keeping the records of patients and the proceedings of their facility. The healthcare information technology will be learned at this point so that its implementation is beneficial to the health care system.
Both transformational and transactional leaders may choose to influence quality enhancement is several different manners. A committee of members is formed to oversee the testing of products to determine whether their quality will fulfill the needs of the practitioners in the organization. The leader accepts the inputs of all staff members as they allow the new products and approaches to be tested (Hoch et al., 2018). Members of the ESP committee in the health care organization spearheaded to the hospital to come up with enhancements to complete the ESP goals and to boost the satisfaction that staff and ultimately patients receive. Continuous feedback and quality scores are significant to give the leaders a perspective of the progress that the change has made to boost scores. They can use such scores to enhance service delivery and invest some to improve this change (Cherry & Jacob, 2016). The leader will also motivate the followers to comply with the procedures that will guarantee the fulfillment of the patients. Such drastic moves should motivate the leaders to give their follows tools such as ESP training and utilize the feedback of the patients to boost their scores.
The management of conflicts also characterizes the current health care organization in an amicable and progressive manner. A proper framework should exist that the staff members can follow whenever they enter into a conflict to resolve their situations (Baškarada, Watson, & Cromarty, 2017). Thus, the leadership should demonstrate their leadership skills in managing conflicts between the staff members. The leader should not show preference or bias in this aspect of conflict resolution (Fletcher, Friedman, & Piedimonte, 2019). He may even be required to seek the indulgence of a third party expert, or mentor if he realizes that he cannot offer a solution to the conflicting parties.
In conclusion, leaders in the healthcare organization should endeavor to make positive contributions to their entities. A leader should inspire employees to facilitate change and the employees themselves must not be allowed to be a barrier that hinders the goals of the organization from being met, either by exercising transformational or transactional leadership. Some employees may be motivated to demonstrate leadership skills by being change agents, which would be a positive attitude. Other employees can be leaders by managing up. The leadership should quickly resolve the conflicts that arise among the employees so that they can forge ahead in terms of goals achievement. Every health care professional can be utilized or motivated to give their best in any aspect to guarantee quality delivery to the patients.
References
Afsar, B., Badir, Y. F., Saeed, B. B., & Hafeez, S. (2017). Transformational and transactional leadership and employee’s entrepreneurial behavior in knowledge–intensive industries. The International Journal of Human Resource Management , 28 (2), 307-332.
Baškarada, S., Watson, J., & Cromarty, J. (2017). Balancing transactional and transformational leadership. International Journal of Organizational Analysis , 25 (3), 506-515.
Cherry, B., & Jacob, S. R. (2016). Contemporary nursing: Issues, trends, & management . Elsevier Health Sciences. (Cherry & Jacob, 2016)
Dartey-Baah, K. (2015). Resilient leadership: A transformational-transactional leadership mix. Journal of Global Responsibility , 6 (1), 99-112.
Fletcher, K. A., Friedman, A., & Piedimonte, G. (2019). Transformational and Transactional Leadership in Healthcare Seen Through the Lens of Pediatrics. The Journal of pediatrics , 204 , 7-9.
Grossman, S., & Valiga, T. M. (2016). The new leadership challenge : Creating the future of nursing . FA Davis.
Hoch, J. E., Bommer, W. H., Dulebohn, J. H., & Wu, D. (2018). Do ethical, authentic, and servant leadership explain variance above and beyond transformational leadership? A meta-analysis. Journal of Management , 44 (2), 501-529.
Martin, J. (2015). Transformational and transactional leadership: An exploration of gender, experience, and institution type . portal: Libraries and the Academy , 15 (2), 331-351.
Northouse, P. G. (2018). Leadership : Theory and practice . Sage publications.
Xenikou, A. (2017). Transformational leadership, transactional contingent reward, and organizational identification: The mediating effect of perceived innovation and goal culture orientations. Frontiers in psychology , 8 , 1754.
