Resilient leadership: a transformational-transactional leadership mix

Abstract

Purpose– This paper aims to bring to bear the resemblance between the current resilient leadership theory and the transformational–transactional leadership theories. It does this with the view of re-focusing discussions of leadership on an effective mix of the transformational–transactional leadership theories to achieve the desired organisational performance, rather than a new look at leadership from the resilient leadership perspective – which is quite the same.Design/methodology/approach– It achieves this purpose by reviewing literature on the three leadership styles; and further goes on to draw a conceptual link among them to buttress the point that resilient leadership is a repetition of the ideas underlying the two already existing theories – transformational and transactional.Findings– A review of the three leadership theories in literature showed that qualities such as strategic thinking, emotional intelligence, adaptation/change orientation, learning, performance orientation and collective leadership as captured under the resilient leadership theory are already considered under the transformational–transactional leadership theories, and thus, constitutes a repetition not needed in the search for the best leadership approach.Originality/value– The current volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous environment calls for a new leadership thinking/approach – one that is known and empirically tested to yield best results. In this regard, the present study advocates for a consideration of the transformational–transactional approaches, which have been proven to yield best results, to focus the discussion on leadership.