The Effects of Transformational and Transactional Leadership Style on Employee Voice and Empowerment

Abstract

This paper seeks to examine the effects of transformational and transactional leadership styles on employee voice and empowerment. Because of an individual's characteristic traits, a manager may either be a transactional or a transformational leader; he/she cannot be both. This paper argues that the concept similarly applies to employees who may also be categorized as either transformational or transactional employees. The study analyzes prior literature on transformational and transactional leadership styles and identifies a gap in the practical application of leadership styles whereby mismatches in characteristic traits between managers and employees prohibit optimization of employee performance. For this reason, a proposed model for a new conceptual approach is presented. Theories describing leadership styles have been established by scholars such as Burns and these theories are used to build the theoretical framework in the proposed model. In this manner, the impact of leadership styles to employee voice and empowerment is explored and the probability for optimization of employee performance is enhanced. Finally, implications to theory, practice, and future research directions from the study are discussed.