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.