Traditional approaches to leadership focus on issues such as transactional and transformational leadership, and how to ensure that leaders in today's companies act ethically and within the values set up by their organization. These are the results of leadership that led entire companies and stakeholders astray through the disasters that were Enron, Tyco and Worldcom. Yet today's leaders still face the challenge of working within an environment that tends to value financial performance above all other types of measurements in the workplace, and with executives who are used to traditional activities such as cost cutting and layoffs rather than pay freezes for executives or foregoing the annual bonus. This research considers traditional approaches to leadership and then explores the relatively new area of "authentic" leadership. Finally, various types of leaders are identified using the selections at Starbucks Coffee as a way to pair leaders with particular characteristics.
AN OVERVIEW OF TRADITIONAL LEADERSHIP APPROACHES
Transactional leadership suggests that leaders respond to lower level subordinates' basic and security needs (Kouzes, 2003). Leaders and subordinates are viewed as bargaining agents where relative power regulates an exchange process as benefits are issued and received. There are two types of behavioral patterns used in transactional leadership: passive and active. The passive style is described as management by exception where employees do not receive notice for their positive contributions to the organization, but instead are paid attention by their manager only when an error or problem arises. Punishment or disciplinary action is often the medium used in this approach. Active transactional leadership uses contingent rewards. With this approach, employees are praised for their performance and may be eligible for pay increases or other incentives (Flannery, 1996).
Transformational leadership incorpora...