Transactional Leadership styles

 Transactional leadership relies more about 'trades' between the leader and follower by which followers are compensated for meeting specific goals or performance criteria . The transactional leader will first validate the relationship between performance and reward and then exchange it for an appropriate response that encourages subordinates to improve performance .

Transactional leadership in organizations plays an exchange role between managers and subordinates  Transactional leadership style is understood to be the exchange of rewards and targets between employees and management . Bass and Avolio explained Transactional leaders motivate subordinates through the use of contingent rewards, corrective actions and rule enforcement.

Bass Bernard explained that transactional leadership depends on contingent reinforcement, either positive contingent reward or the more negative active or passive forms of management-by-exception. Transactional leaders motivate followers through exchange; for example, accomplishing work in exchange for rewards or preferences . Kahai et al found group efficacy was higher under the transactional leadership condition. According to Burns , transactional leader tends to focus on task completion and employee compliance and these leaders rely quite heavily on organizational rewards and punishments to influence employee performance.