For the past twenty-five years, leadership research has generated an extensive number of leadership models. While some of these leadership models are more suited for specific organizational contexts than others, the following selection is particularly useful for governmental, for-profit, and not-for-profit health care organizations.
Transformational Leadership, as the name suggests, is a leadership model that emphasizes the implementation of change within an organization. The notion of change used in this theoretical model does not just pertain to organizational structure but also to change in followers (Bass & Riggio, 2006). Transformational leaders motivate followers and thus enhance their performance and willingness to embrace change. Ideally, leaders using a transformational approach enable followers to become leaders themselves by encouraging them to take ownership of their work, to develop their own identity and thus positively contribute to corporate identity (Bass & Bass, 2008). Developing a goal and a shared vision for an organization is one of the primary objectives of transformational leadership, as it is believed that these are necessary to implement positive change.
Models of Transactional Leadership focus on interpersonal transactions in promoting stability (Lussier & Achua, 2010). In contrast to transformational leadership which is on-going, transactional leadership is conceptualized as a temporary leadership model aimed at promoting stability and creating and exploiting knowledge (Lussier & Achua, 2010). Transformational and transactional leadership styles are thus most useful in their specific contexts; while transformational leadership might be more useful in creating and sharing knowledge and bringing about dynamic change, transactional leadership is more useful in exploiting knowledge or stabilizing and structuring chaotic organizational structures (Lussier & Achua, 2010). Transactional leadership can a...