Transactional Leadership, Research Paper Example

Joseph McCarthy, American politician from the state of Wisconsin, was born in November 15, 1908 and died in 1957. In a one-room schoolhouse, McCarthy managed to attain his education up to eighth grade where he decided to engage in chicken business. However, his farming did not prosper, and decided to work as a clerk. In his workplace, he managed to move up the ladder and was promoted to be a manager. By profession, McCarthy was a lawyer, and managed to move up the corporate ladder at a tender age. Joseph McCarthy was a U.S. Senator from the Republican side who was a political thug, screamer, and a master of the mob (Herman, 2000, p. 2). Furthermore, whenever he was struck by the fancy, he managed to usurp judicial authority and executive. Even though he stirred up the motions of anticommunism and patriotism, he never believed in the monstrous crusades (Herman, 2000, p. 2). To him, profanity was present in everything thus, he was a pathological liar.  Investigations done on McCarthy and anti-Communism brought about professional disgrace and harassment among other suffered indignities. Paradoxically, during his reign claims are that he never sent anyone to prison (Herman, 2000, p. 6).

• From the beginning, he was his own leader and made decisions pertaining to his life goals and career
• Had the zeal to prosper at a tender age since he engaged in farming and at 19, he became the manager of a grocery store
• Finished his high school in one year and after finishing his law study, he won judgeship
• Joe was enlisted in the Marine Corps
• In 1944, he attempted for a senatorial seat, but was beaten by Alexander Wiley
• He planned to run against Robert La Follette and decide to use money in order to win the elections
• He started propaganda on the presence of communist, which diverted the attention of people and fear engulfed them all.

McCarthy won over his followers by showing them how anti-communism is bad and looked for those followers who had a feeble spirit. This is because it is essential to calm them down before giving them the news (Mayer et al., 2009). Therefore, McCarthy applied the reward strategy that captivated people to engage in anti-communism and thus, his strategy was well planned. Additionally, it is important to ensure that all members are flowing in the same direction to reduce the chance of having conflicts amongst themselves (Zhu., Riggio, Avolio & Sosik, 2011).

McCarthy was a transactional leader, because he did not enter leadership role to serve people (transformational leadership), but he was driven by the will to gain power. This motivation is illustrated by the speed of his career progression from clerk to a manager. The main characteristics of transactional leadership, according to Lai (2011) are listed below. First of all, within this leadership method, “effective transaction and exchange is set-up between leader and followers”. (Lai, 2011, p. 3). He offered a propaganda that made people believe that he is able to protect them from international conflicts with the Soviet Union. The second element is that leaders act to prevent or solve problems (management-by-exception). He changed his rhetorics often, reacting to the needs of the public and the expectations. He clearly was not driven by belief or vision. Transactional leaders only interfere when the situation becomes dangerous. The final characteristic of transactional leadership is that the leader does not engage in behaviors determined by the “laissez-faire leadership” model (minimizing the leader’s involvement in decision-making).

Further, McCarthy was a transactional leader and managed to lead his followers in an ethical way (Zagorsek, Domivski & Skerlavaj, 2009). He started his leadership from an early age and forged on to lead others because that was his passion.

References

Herman, A. (2000). Joseph McCarthy: Reexamining the life and legacy of America’s most hated senator. New York: Simon and Schuster.

Lai, Andrea, “Transformational-Transactional Leadership Theory” (2011). 2011 AHS Capstone Projects. Paper 17.

Mayer, D. M., Kuenzi, M., Greenbaum, R., Bardes, M., & Salvador, R. B. (2009). How low does ethical leadership flow? Test of a trickle-down model. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 108(1), 1-13.

Zagorsek, H., Domivski, V. & Skerlavaj. (2009). Transactional and transformational leadership impacts on organizational learning. Journal for East European Management Studies, 14(2), 144-165.

Zhu, W., Riggio, R. E., Avolio, B. J., & Sosik, J. J. (2011). The effect of leadership on follower moral identity: Does transformational/transactional style make a difference?. Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, 18(2), 150-163.