Leadership

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The transformational leadership styles are highly significant in the strategic development of firms (Barbuto, 2005). Organizations with transformational leaders aim at ambitious goals and also aspire to achieve success through their team-building skills and effective vision. The key driving force in effective performance is the ability of a leader to relate his behaviors with external transformation, thereby leading to organizational transformation. For instance, when a leader believes that his work can make a difference, he intends beyond personal motives and aims towards greater benefits. It has been stated by Schuster (Cerni, Curtis and Colmar, 2014) that this style appeals to increased innovation, while enhancing quality of life of organizational members. The leader is more concerned with empathizing with developmental needs of his followers.

The intrinsic attributes of transformational leaders act as key drivers for effective behaviors. It has been revealed from studies that the behavior of a leader is greatly impacted by factors such as integrity, honesty, self-confidence and personal values. The key driving force in effective performance is the ability of a leader to relate his behaviors with external transformation, thereby leading to organizational transformation. For instance, when a leader believes that his work can make a difference, he intends beyond personal motives and aims towards greater benefits. It has been stated by Schuster (Kenmore, 2008) that this style appeals to increased innovation, while enhancing quality of life of organizational members. The leader is more concerned with empathizing with developmental needs of his followers. This style enhances the morale of the team members.

In contrast with above mentioned transformational leader, a transactional leader aims at accomplishing objectives by means of rewarding employees who pursue to meet expectations. Such rewards come by means of recognition, advancement and pay increase. Those employees, who fail to deliver as per expectations, are penalized (Lindgreen et al., 2008). Thus transactional leadership seems less appealing when leaders rely greatly upon passive management by exception. In this leadership style, both the leader and his followers are in an agreement on what they would receive on achieving level of negotiation of performance (Nye, 2013). The transactional leader attains success which is based on the extent of satisfaction the leader and his followers have in incorporating such a performance system based on appraisals. It may be inferred that a transactional leader relies upon power as well as authority for leading members.

Transactional leaders effectively use reward as well as coercive power while transformational leaders use referent or reward power. Reward power refers to the perception of the target of the agent’s ability to control organizational resources and rewards. When a manager rewards any employee by utilizing power by rewarding employees who take increased responsibilities with effective empowerment, this would be perceived as positive since people are rewarded for leading to action and are empowered to make key decisions (Oshagbemi, 2004). Hence, when organizational members take any initiative they are rewarded. Contrast to this, in transactional leadership, being awarded to perform as per expectations leaves no motivation to go beyond the call of duty. As this leadership style is based upon a system of rewards as well as penalties, it would not offer much as inspiration, for motivating individuals to go beyond basics (Prince, 2010). In this leadership style, both the leader and his followers are in an agreement on what they would receive on achieving level of negotiation of performance.

In Asia, leadership is an imported concept from the West. In Western cultures with a high value individualism, the urge to stand out as a leader among a group becomes a natural and widely accepted notion. Southeast Asian societies are more collectivist and there are other cultural values that push superior subordinates relationship toward a type of leadership defined as headship. No doubt, it has been part of the South Asian ethos to show reverence to certain political families. Nehru in India, Bhutto in Pakistan and Bandaranaike in Sri Lanka were great leaders who rendered enormous sacrifices for their countries, and their sons and daughters had to be politically rewarded.

Pakistan can be described as country under the influence of headship. Dynastic politics in Pakistan also served a useful purpose of holding the party together during periods of high stress, when unscrupulous military rulers were ruthlessly trying to eliminate them. But with passage of time and evolution of democratic institutions, exclusive reliance on hereditary politics and arbitrary choice of political leaders has become a self-defeating and unsustainable proposition. This approach only further entrenches the tribal and feudal mindset where promotion of family interest and personal loyalty takes precedence over national considerations.

Pakistan after its independence has been lacking quality political leadership. After Muhammad Ali Jinnah no good political leader has emerged till time. Pakistan has been since facing a lot of internal and external issues, and these deep rooted problems have only increased with time. Some of the current major problems faced by the country are: corruption, combating terrorism, poverty, illiteracy and high rate of unemployment, and its current position in the global economy with ongoing conflicts with neighbors like India. A critical look at Pakistan’s volatile world of diplomacy and statecraft reveals a total collapse of leadership. The absence of morality has shown disastrous outcomes for otherwise powerful leaders. With the inflation rate well above 26% and rising, and a frustrated work force of over 50 million, the sole hope for Pakistan lies in transformational leadership.

Standing amidst an avalanche of problems and challenges, Pakistan needs a complete “transformation” by a leader who possesses transformational qualities and characteristics. As mentioned earlier, this leadership style focuses upon motivation, team building and collaboration with all sub-ordinates to achieve better results in all areas. Hence keeping in mind the present state of Pakistan, such a leader should be in power who very strategically drives the entire country towards the solution of these problems, and should have such an effective vision that he addresses to the problems even before they surface. Determination and a strong, persuasive personality are the key aspects which could keep external intruders at bay, like the verbal assaults of India against Pakistan to which the Pakistani government acts as mere puppets. Thus, the leader should be successfully