Transformational Leaders and Transactional Leaders †Free Sample

Questions: 1. Explain your understanding of transformational leaders and transactional leaders. Next, do you consider the leader of your project organization ( COSTCO WHOLESALE) to be a transformational or transactional leader? Why? Provide specific examples to support your position. 2. Find a research article on QWL (quality of work life). Provide a brief synopsis about the article. Describe the important components of QWL programs. In your opinion, are QWL programs important to organizations? Why or why not? Answers: Introduction A leader can simply be defined as a person who has the ability to guide others while the other people tend to follow them. The process by which a leader generally guides the people is called leadership. In other words, it can be said that, leadership is a method by which team members are motivated to achieve the similar objectives. There are various types of leadership styles, like Autocratic, Democratic, Paternalistic, Bureaucratic, Laissez Faire, Charismatic and Missionary leadership styles. Different leaders use different styles of leadership, according to their personality. Similarly, there are various types of leaders also. But mainly, Leaders can be classified into two types - Transformational leaders and Transactional leaders. 1. Transformational leaders are those leaders who are mostly change oriented. They influence, guide and encourage their followers to bring about an all round change. They believe in motivating and engaging followers with a vision of future. They are mostly inspirational in nature and charismatic in personality which helps them transforming their followers. Hence they are capable of creating a strong long term relationships which leads to a high percentage of trust between the leaders and followers which acts as a motivational factor. Transformational leaders make effort to attain positive results from the workers by motivating them and keeping them involved in their respective jobs, leading to a high reward system. They are known as proactive leaders. Transactional leaders are those who does not believe in bringing about an all round change, they work between set established goals and organizational boundaries. Transactional leaders are task and outcome oriented; they lay emphasis on organization, performance evaluation rewards, supervision and group performance. Transactional leaders are mostly efficient when they develop a reinforcing environment, for which the individual and the organizational goals are in accord with each other. Transactional leaders demand the self-interest of employees who seek out rewards for themselves. Their rewarding and punishment techniques are mostly in traditional ways according to organizational standards. They are known as active leaders. It can be considered that the leader of the project organization, COSTCO WHOLESALE, is a transformational leader as the leadership theory followed by COSTCO WHOLESALE is Flexible Leadership Theory and one of the characteristics of Transformational Leadership Theory is that the rules and regulations are flexible in nature, guided by group norms. Moreover, in the given organization, the managers influence organization-level processes that determine a firms financial performance; they have a future oriented approach. Human capital or talent, efficiency and process reliability, innovative adaptation and flexibility are the key focus areas of the given organization (Blanchard, Carlos Randolph, 2010). This has lead to the success and sustained growth of the organization. For example, the given organization believes in providing value to its customers and hence lays emphasis on innovative adaption and makes effort to provide new and innovative products to the customers and hence it can be concluded that the organization is change oriented, and has a clear vision of the future, and hence the leader is a transformational leader ( Weibe, 2014). The other example of the presence of Transformational Leader, in the project organization, that is, Costco Wholesale, is that, the company considers its employees as the most vital property or asset of the organization. Thus, the company provides rewarding challenges, that is, competitive wages, huge benefits, healthy and safe work environment, opportunities for career, fun and challenging job, harassment free work atmosphere. All these indicate that the company goes beyond the daily basis of operations to enrich the team work to next higher level, for better performance and success. 2. Quality Of Work Life Quality of work life is all about ones job-related experience, the overall perception of an individual about his job. Quality of work life can also be defined as the favourableness or unfavourableness of a job environment for the people working in an organisation. During the period 1969 to 1974, Quality of work life (QWL) was considered to be a joint employee-employer cooperative projects, predominantly those intended to improve the outcomes of both the individual and the organization. The late 1970s and early 1980s brought renewed interest in the QWL. QWL is a worldwide concept and is frequently perceived as a universal remedy for coping with overseas competition, grievance problems, quality related issues, low productivity rates, etc. : (Yourarticlelibrary.com, 2015) During the period 1969 to 1974, researchers, scholars and union leaders became interested in influencing an individuals on thejob experience. Quality of work life is also one of an important interventions of Organizational Development which is a part of Human Resource Development (HRD). Job satisfaction is one of the key factors of measuring quality of work life as it is all about how an individual feels about his job or about his work life. Job satisfaction includes satisfaction with pay and relationship with colleagues. (Indianmba.com, 2015) Another important factor to be considered is that of stress management. The ability of an individual to manage stress also has an impact on ones perception of his quality of work-life, it also is a major factor in maintaining work-life balance. The more effectively and efficiently an individual is capable of managing stress, the more efficiently will he be able to struck a proper work-life balance (Srivastava Kanpur, 2014). The major components of Quality of Work Life includes- Communication- Open and free communication is very important in work-life. One must share ones views, opinions, thoughts and desires with his colleagues. This not only helps in reducing stress but also helps in building strong-relationships among colleagues. Job Security- Job security is very essential for each and every individual, as everyone wants to feel secured in his job, it also helps motivating employees to work harder. Workers participation in decision making of the organization- Employee participation in decision making helps increase the trust factor of an employee towards theorganization Career growth and Reward system QWL programs are very important for organizations as it helps motivating the employees and as a result the productivity increases and hence maximization of profit takes place. The article which is chosen for the assignment is Sainsburys to axe hundreds of UK store jobs. New management approach: Generally, new management approach means change of management, where from the view point of the organization and an individual, the systematic approach changes. Here the above quoted article is a new management approach, as cutting the jobs of higher designation, and employing more ground staffs is a new view to both the industry and the individuals. Improvement of current management strategies: A question may arise regarding the article which has been chosen for the assignment, that, cutting off jobs are for improvement of the company or not. It is very common that ordinary people will think that the company is not running smoothly, the company might go under bankruptcy, thus they are cutting off their employees. But there is an important inner meaning to this activity. To compete with the competitors of the company, Sainsbury has decided to cut off 800 employees of higher designation, instead, they will incorporate more ground staffs at lower cost, to serve the customers well and thus restructuring the company, and save money for that is essential for Sainsbury. Management practise: Jobs cut off seem to be a bad practise by the management. But in actual it is not. For the improvement of the company, but without raising the cost, that is, within the present budget, the company wants to restructure it and compete with the competitors to gain more customers. Thus, the management practise is not bad. Synopsis: On the fourth week of April 2015, Sainsbury, decided to cut off 800 jobs from their retail store (Retail-week.com, 2015).To adhere the demand of the customers they have decided to restructure their stores and also cost saving. Roger Burnley, the retail and operations director of Sainsbury has said that it was a tough decision from their part. They are working hard to deploy their employees in other stores, departments or shifts keeping in mind the welfare of the employees (tugby, 2015) Management issue: When a company faces economic problems where they have to take decisions to alter their structure according to the customer demands, it can be termed as management issue ('Journal of Management: Upcoming Issues', 2010). Sainsbury has to take this tough decision to cut off 800 jobs to restructure their resources and departments as per the customer needs hence bringing problem both for themselves and the employees ('Journal Of Management: Upcoming Issues'). Here, the company did not suffer from economic problems still it is a management issue. Because, the idea to maintain the present cost of the company on one hand, and within that economic limit, to restructure the whole company and to prepare it for competing with its cheap competitors like Aldi and Lidl for retaining superior customer service and more attractive stores. Factors Leading To The Decision The change in customers taste, demand and need has led Sainsbury to take such a decision. Again, the changes which reflect in the customers style of shopping, also bound the company to take such a decision. Also their plan to achieve the cost saving of 500m has urged Sainsbury take such a drastic step (Wiggenraad, 2015). Chance Of Recovery It can be said that, this new management approach is a success of the management department of the company, as they can reach their goal by the new plan. But on the other hand, job loss is an important factor, which also affects the economy of the country. Thus, recovery of this issue is also very important. Recovery can take place by providing job to these 800 jobless persons. Thus, instant recovery is not in the cards right now. They have said that, they are planning to cost save in the coming three years. Hence, a long term recovery plan is what they are aiming at. Conclusion The management is trying to handle the situation in the best possible way by deploying their employees in other departments, store or shifts, it may be in other industry, or in early morning shifts, and many more. But it will be difficult for them to accommodate all the 800 employees at once when all other rival stores are also adopting this technique to restructure themselves (Lipman, 2014). Thus, management should plan some other way out to give the jobs back to these 800 jobless people, and to make the overall economic condition of the country better. Reflections on A Transformational leader are encouraging and inspirational in nature, as a result helping the organization with a strong leader-worker relationship. In COSTCO WHOLESALE, they adhere by the group norms, give priorities to the human talent, efficiency and welcome new ideas. In contrast to the transactional leaders, who purely work on prior established goals, transformational leaders believe in change. COSTCO WHOLESALE also adapts to new ideas and change so that they can produce new and innovative products to the customers. Hence, we can say, COSTCO WHOLESALE entirely works on transformational leadership theory. Reflections on B According to me, QWL (Quality of work life) is the most important factor when it comes to professional career. Quality of work life is based on various components including, communication, security of job, involvement of the employees and careers growth of individual employees. It is the QWL of an organization that helps it grow in international levels. To add to this, QWL can also be termed as a remedy to cope up with stress, grievances and competitions. Reflections on C Sacking of employees in an organization, not only affect the individual but also the organization as whole as the organization has to face a lot of legal issues when it comes to termination of an employee. As per the news, not only Sainsbury but its rival companies like, Tesco, ASDA and Morrison has taken similar steps to cope up with the demands, hence it will be difficult for the employees to look for an alternative job. Hence, we can see it is a serious management issue, which do not hint at a instant recovery but a long term plan. Though the employees are being deployed but all other companies going the similar way, the deployment is not going to be a easy way out. References Journal of Management: Upcoming Issues. (2010). Journal Of Management, 36(6), 1608-1610. doi:10.1177/0149206310386551 Lipman, V. (2014). 3 Very Common Management Problems - And How To Avoid Them. Forbes. Retrieved 11 July 2015, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/victorlipman/2014/04/15/3-very-common-management-problems-and-how-to-avoid-them/ Retail-week.com,. (2015). Top 50 UK retailers 2009. Retrieved 11 July 2015, from https://www.retail-week.com/property/top-50-uk-retailers-2009/5011196.article tugby, l. (2015). Sainsbury's to axe 800 jobs as part of in-store management restructure. Retail Week. Retrieved from https://www.retail-week.com/sectors/food/sainsburys-to-axe-800-jobs-as-part-of-in-store-management-restructure/5074294.article Wiggenraad, P. (2015). Analysis: Top 50 UK retailers 2012/13. Retail Week. Retrieved from https://www.retail-week.com/city-and-finance/analysis-top-50-uk-retailers-2012/13/5057111.article Blanchard, K., Carlos, J., Randolph, A. (2010). The 3 keys to empowerment. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers. Indianmba.com,. (2015). Quality of work life. Retrieved 11 July 2015, from https://www.indianmba.com/Faculty_Column/FC1374/fc1374.html Srivastava, S., Kanpur, R. (2014). A Study On Quality Of Work Life: Key Elements Its Implications (1st ed.). Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publictopics.PublicPostFileLoader.html?id=556f34f75e9d977c9c8b45d8key=9717a6d5-a444-42c3-b7a0-078be51e2105 Weibe, V. (2014). Flexible Leadership Theory: A Costco Case Study. Retrieved from https://wwwiebe.com/flexible-leadership-theory-a-costco-case-study/ Yourarticlelibrary.com,. (2015). Quality of Work Life: its Meaning and Definition | Employee Management. Retrieved 11 July 2015, from https://www.yourarticlelibrary.com/employee-management/quality-of-work-life-its-meaning-and-definition-employee-management/26112