The Transactional Nature Of Relations Between Leaders And Followers

Effective leaders opt to implement a specific type of leadership style as a result of their personalities and job experiences, and apply it to their organizational structure. However, that particular type of leadership style a leader utilizes may not apply to every job situation (Peak et al., 2010). In order to be an effective leader, an individual must acquire the three basic leadership skills and they are as follows: (1) human relations; (2) conceptual skills; and (3) technical skills (Haberfeld, 2013). Additionally, a skillful leader must also be proficient in motivating, communicating, and problem solving (Hess & Orthmann, 2012).

There have been many observations regarding the characteristics of a leader, but followership has received less attention. Treister and Schultz (1997) “suggests that a "follower is someone who accepts guidance and, on receiving it, takes the appropriate action." Treister et al (1997) also state followership is “considered a passive or submissive role of lesser importance than leadership. However, the effectiveness of leaders to a large measure depends on the qualities of their followers.” Treister et al (1997) go on to say “good leadership enhances followers, just as good followership enhances leaders." So followers are just as important as leaders are to a leader/follower relationship.

A Transactional leader is focused on working to achieve a goal by accomplishing tasks, maintaining a good relationship with followers, and providing rewards for good performance; also, this leadership type is more inhere to rules, expectancy of clarity and achieving a fair deal with their followers (Borkowski, 2016). The transactional leaders when in pursuing of achieving a goal, in return forms a mutual relationship with its followers in offering something of value upon accomplishing a task. Usually, the transactional leader’s goals are short-term due to the ending and the acceptance of the reward when the the task is completed.

Robbins and Judge (2017) concluded that individuals, who possess traits, by themselves, does not guarantee that these individuals will be great leaders; however, presence of certain traits can help to predict the leadership potential of an individual (p. 385). Robbins and Judge (2017) defined leadership as, “the ability to influence a group toward the achievement of a vision or set of goals” (p. 382). Explaining how leadership happens cannot be answered by trait theories (Robbins & Judge, 2017, p. 384).

According to the trait-based theory of leadership, certain integrated patterns of personal characteristics develop the ability to lead a group of people effectively. (Zaccaro 2007). Here the word ‘trait ' is defined as "The distinguishing personal characteristics of a leader, such as intelligence, honesty, self-confidence and even appearance" (pg 612, Samson & Daft 2014). Trait-based leadership is based on the idea that people born with certain qualities and characteristics are more suitable for leadership. It was achieved by identifying the traits of many leaders, both successful and unsuccessful, and looking into their physical, emotional, and cognitive traits that made them who they were. (Derue, D. S., Nahrgang, J. D., Wellman, N., & Humphrey, S. E. 2011). By studying the likes of leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr, Gandhi and even controversial leaders like Hitler, researchers interpreted

The trait approach to studying leadership uses the assumption that some people are natural leaders with certain attributes that pertains to their personality, motives, values, and skills (Yuki, p. 13, 2010). The studies sort to identify what are the specific traits of leadership. Examples of some of the leadership traits the study found are high intelligence and action-oriented judgment, task competence, achievement-oriented, the ability to motivate people, courage, and resolution driven. This approach was one of the earliest processes used to identify what makes a great leader great. The studies conducted

Leadership and followership are two sides of the same coin. However, one of these topics is more closely studied than the other. Leadership is studied in the halls of famous universities and discussed in various books and articles. Many of these discussions involve the same question; what makes a good leader? The question to this answer is both the cause, and the product, of excellent leadership, good followers. What a leader strives to create in the company can only be completed by a force of followers with the ability to realize the leader 's vision. So instead of asking what makes a good leader, it must first be asked what makes a good follower. As leadership and followership mirror one another, looking at the parallels between the two may help to answer this question. Leaders are meant to lead teams in an ethical manner in order to realize a vision for the company. Therefore, in order to support the leader, followers must be able to work in a team and help actualize the leader 's vision in an ethical manner.

The trait approach (Theory of Leadership) is the view that people are born with the traits of leadership and that these traits are inherited. This means that leadership theory has evolved from an emphasis on traits and behavioral styles (Germain, 2012). According to Northouse (2013) trait approach does not actually provide a definitive set of traits, but rather it provides direction regarding which traits are good to have if one aspires to a leadership position. This means that leadership traits are not transferred. In the past, attention was put in identifying these traits by studying other successful leaders. However, the focus then was not finding ways to teach these “skills” to people so that they develop to become leaders, but was

While Trait theory has helped us understand how traits are related to leadership behavior and effectiveness, it does not identify which traits are the most important for effective leaders and, there is no proven correlation between leader qualities and standards of leader success. Additionally, leadership qualities and traits alone are not sufficient for achieving effectiveness. Thus, some of the problems with the trait approach to leadership were the theory’s failure to address leadership development and the how or why traits develop. The theory does not account for personality changes. Moreover, Trait theory does not consider situational factors relating to the leader’s role in the organization, the culture of the organization, or the environment affecting the organization.

Kendra Cherry (2016) describes the trait based approach to leadership as “different personality traits and characteristics that are linked to successful leadership across a variety of situations”. In addition Zaccaro, S. J. (2007) has a view that “the unique attributes of such individuals in their inherited or genetic makeup and that personal qualities defining effective

From this approach occurs that there are certain qualities in some people that define them as leaders or potential leaders. Traits therefore are the distinguishing personal characteristics such as intelligence, values and appearance. Leaders extend their power and use their abilities to influence events. Effective leaders are usually more intelligent, more dependable, responsible and more active. They usually ask for more information and give out more information. However, the appropriateness of a trait or a set of traits depends on the leadership situation. The same traits do not apply to every organisation or situation. (Appendix 2, p.11 summarises the physical, social and personal leadership characteristics)

Trait theory of Leadership is founded on the principle that leaders are born and not made and that they poses inherent characteristics not found in non-leaders. Research early in the twentieth century examined leaders who had achieved a level of greatness and hence became known as the Great Man approach (Daft, 2015). Honesty, adaptability, sociability, initiative, self-confidence, and mentoring are traits of a leader according to the proponents of trait theory, (Northouse, 2010) and (Van Wart, (2011). It emphasizes the importance of

Traits are the distinguishing personal characteristics of a leader, such as intelligence, honesty, self-confidence, and appearance (Daft, 2014, pg. 36). Trait theories assume that people ingrained certain qualities and traits that make them better suited to leadership. Trait theories often identify particular

Followership is the study of the nature and impact of followers in the leadership process (Uhl-Bien et al.). It is interesting to notice that followership has a negative connotation in today’s society, as it is mistakenly considered as the simple ability to follow the directions of people in charge. The term “follower” is linked to a passive, weak, conforming, and negative image (insert Bjugstad, Thach, Thompson, & Morris, 2006); therefore, individuals in organizations avoid being labeled as followers. In contrast, the term “leadership” has appeal and is linked to positive images which increase the motivations to be leaders instead of followers. However, individuals in organizations are very likely to play both roles (as he/she has both bosses and subordinates) so the ability to be effective followers is vital to the success of the organization.

This theory states that learned knowledge and acquired skills/abilities are significant factors in the practice of effective leadership. Skills theory by no means disavows the connection between inherited traits and the capacity to be an effective leader – it simply argues that learned skills, a developed style, and acquired knowledge, are the real keys to leadership performance. It is of course the belief that skills theory is true that warrants all the effort and resources devoted to leadership training and development