Transformational leadership and transactional leadership
Bass (1997) summarized transformational leadership and transactional leadership as "the full range leadership,” which is a comprehensive summary of leadership. "Transformational leadership is charismatic, inspirational, intellec- mally stimulating, and individually considerate” (Avolio et al., 1999). Transformational leadership helps get others to go beyond their own self-interests for the good of the group, while transactional leadership motivates individuals primarily through contingent-reward exchanges and active management-by- exception (Avolio et ah, 1999). Operating within an existing system, transactional leaders seek to strengthen an organization’s culture, strategy, and structure. Bass (1985, 1997) views them as distinct dimensions, which allows a leader to be transactional, transformational, both, or neither. Research results on transformational leadership show that transformational leadership has a significant impact on individual work attitude and work performance (Lowe et ah, 1996; Li & Shi, 2003, 2005), group atmosphere and group performance (Wu & Wu, 2006), and organizational innovation (Jung et ah, 2003; Keller, 2006).
The relationship between transformational leadership and transactional leadership and organizational learning
The literature shows that there has been some theoretical analysis and empirical research on the relationship between leadership and organizational learning. In terms of theoretical analysis, Vera and Manor (2004), with their systematic theoretical model, proposed that both transformational and transactional leaders stimulate exploration and exploitation, yet transformational leaders usually inspire learning that challenges the status quo, and transactional leaders facilitate learning that reinforces existing practices. Berson et ah (2006) conducted a systematic theoretical analysis on the nexus between leadership and organizational learning and believed that leaders play a role in promoting organizational learning through culture development and human resource management practices. Senge believes that organizational learning needs a coaching leadership.
In terms of empirical research, recent empirical studies have explored the relationship between different leadership styles and organizational learning. Amitay et ah’s (2005) findings attest to the central role of organizational leaders in determining the effectiveness of organizational learning. The research results of Nemanich et al. (2009) show that transformational leadership influences the whole explorative learning and exploitative learning through partial mediation of learning culture. All the aforementioned smdies have explored the relationship between transformational leadership and organizational learning, but none of them studied the role of transactional leadership in organizational learning. The studies of Rui Mingjie and Lv Yufang (2005) show that leadership is an important variable in promoting organizational learning. Yu Haibo et al. (2008b) found that transformational leadership plays a positive role in promoting organizational learning, but it also hinders organizational learning in some aspects. They have also found that paternalistic leadership style of benevolent leadership can promote organizational learning, while authoritarian leadership has a significant negative effect.
However, the empirical research on the relationship between transformational leadership, transactional leadership and organizational learning needs to be strengthened. Jansen et al. (2007) found that transformational leadership has a significant positive impact on explorative learning, but not on exploitative learning; transactional leadership exerts significant positive influence on exploitative learning, but has a significant hindrance effect on explorative learning. Bass (1990,1997) also held the belief that transactional leadership can facilitate organizational learning. This view is different from the general view that organizational learning needs transformational leadership more than transactional leadership.
In conclusion, these studies have explored the relationship between transformational leadership and organizational learning, and all showed that transformational leadership can influence organizational learning through some mediator variables. But how transformational leadership and transactional leadership jointly influence organizational learning requires further study.
