leaders (Valle, 1999).
On the other hand, executives who are more flexible in their dealings with others are also more likely to be comfortable working in a bottom-up environment rather than a top down environment. For these executives, process is to be valued over substance since process can, in the long-run, yield strong results. These leaders are likely to seek consensus rather than confrontation. Traditionally, executives with these leadership characteristics are transformational leaders (Friedman, et al, 2000).
Through the years, transactional and transformational leaders, as well as executives who favor Theory X or Theory Y, have waxed and waned in approval by management analysts. Transactional leadership fell from favor with their command structure leadership technique during the 1970s and 1980s, while transformational leadership became popular. During the 1990s, when the so-called "new" economy took hold, transformational leadership approaches were particularly popular.
However, when the "new" economic bubble burst, there was an emphasis on a return to "old" leadership values, sometimes to a large degree. Business analysts began re-examining the cultures of successful companies and found that transformational and transactional leaders could be equally effective depending on the large environment in which they participated. Jack Welch led General Electric to strong performance during the 1980s and 1990s, and did so through confrontation and top-down lea
...