Transformational and Transactional Leadership Styles on Organisational Change in the United Arab Emirates

Abstract

Leaders play essential roles in developing an organisation. The underlying factors of the organisational mechanism, such as process-oriented systems, motivation, and vision, are provided by the leader. Therefore, the study aims to identify and examine the role of transactional and transformational leadership styles in the organisational change process. The researcher believes that those styles of leadership are essential in achieving a positive change in organisations. A focus group session of 120 participants, consisting of subordinates and employees from varying and diverse organisational backgrounds, has been conducted and the study found that certain leadership qualities and attributes are valued over others. Transactional and transformational leadership styles need to be integrated for the success of the organisation. Their association and relationship with factors such as organisational knowledge management, attitudinal and perceptual changes in employee perspectives, cultural changes, development in productivity and efficiency are also among the factors of organisational success. This paper looks at how the leadership styles are associated with each other, along with the reasons why each of these styles might be relevant in their way depending upon circumstances and organisational objectives concerning change and restructuring. The study showed that employees in the private sector prefer the transformational style rather than the transactional style.