In Couto’s article, I found it interesting when he explained his opinion that “transformation” was more about modifying leadership and the condition of the leader while “transforming” is the process of leadership. These two words are very similar and yet, they have different meanings that all relate back to this one topic of leadership. The definitions vary a little as well with Bass’s idea of transformational leaders transforming the followers and Burns’s idea of followers transforming leaders based on their interactions. I honestly find all of these different views to be confusing because then I can’t tell if I like transformational leadership or not, especially with the articles from the previous class and those alternating opinions as well.
The second article goes into a very simplified definition of transactional leadership, which is focused on the structure and order of something like a business or other large company/group of people. It drove home the idea that transactional is more about a set idea while transformational is about the opportunity and potential of something. Transactional leadership coming from “rational-legal” leadership was also an interesting idea because it states that it is “the exercise of control on the basis of knowledge” and I think that in this explanation, transactional leadership is portrayed as, in a way, more useful/vital than transformational. Although, the same issue arises with this article as the last in that all of the differing views from the articles last class make it difficult to tell which type of leadership is better or more efficient but I think that also goes to show how these situations that call for leaders are very subjective and are all different.
I agree that through evaluating these types of leadership we seem to keep trying to decide if they are good or bad. But that distinction depends on how each individual leader uses their own type of leadership.
I agree that Cauto’s differentiation of “transformation” and “transforming” was clarifying. The terms are so similar yet so different I definitely did not think about it before the reading mentioned it. I also agree that leadership is most determined by circumstance and context. A transformational leader may appeal to a group of people at one time but not another and same with transactional leaders. This makes me curious as to whether a leader who begins as transactional can morph into a more transformational leader based on what their followers want in that moment. Transformational leaders can and somewhat need to be transactional but I wonder if there are moments where we could observe a distinct change.