In Oklahoma and it feels weird

I arrived to Oklahoma City on Saturday night. It has been a good time but everything is so different. I know that it would be different and I guess that I would still be fine. I have been hanging out with my friend. I have gone almost everywhere with him and is wife-to-be. Although it is fine to hang with them and it is a little weird like tag along weird. This is not the first time and I know that will not be last but some times I wish that I would have someone to share my time with instead of being include as a side kick. When they start talking between themselves, I just think what how wonderful it must be to have someone. I have never really been a person that opened up will to others. I tend to get a lot back and I am total not good at talking to strangers. I am a shy person and really do not talk to people until I get to know them. After that, I tend to ramble on, so in other words, I am dull. But I realize that God has control and I should let him do what he needs to do. I have been trying to think that but I want to hurry up the process. I look at the fact that I am now 21 and almost 22 and have yet to have a girl friend. In a way this seems pathetic and in another way not healthy state. Again I need to trust the Lord that he is doing this for a reason. I really want to know the reason. It makes it harder to handle when I start to think that the Lord is not helping me out. I know this is a trick of the devil. Questioning if God is really helping me or just wants to hurt me, which is not a characteristic of God. Sometimes I think God is punishing me for all the times I found comfort in my adulterous behavior. But when the dust settles, I still feel like something is missing, like something is wrong. It might just be that I see having a relationship with a female as the world sees it and not the way the Lord sees it. Looking at relationships in my fallen state as a person. Maybe that is why hated to attend a weddings when I was in high school. I hated to see everyone happy with others when I was not happy. I even told my cousin and his wife-to-be (at that time) that I did not want to help. Of course they lived in my parent's house they were renting out. My cousin used my mother to force me into being an usher, which I was displeased with. This is also a time where I was thinking about suicide. My parent knew that I stated I wanted to commit suicide in middle school nut after that threatened to sent me to the mental hospital. I just stop telling them. In fact since I am talking about suicide, I elementary school, I would draw pictures of me jumping off a cliff onto a road with tanks and people shooting me. Also bombs where being drop on me. I guess I really wanted to go out with a bang. (now back to the post). Now the feeling is loneliness. There is a little envy mixed in but I throw that off because I do not take action towards meeting a female. Well it is 230am and I should be sleeping but not tired.

LEAVE BABY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!(that is what Dicky V would say)

I LEAVE IN 3 DAYS FOR LEAVE BACK IN THE STATES. That is why I will quote Dicky V from ESPN college basketball. LEAVE BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAABYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


The End

A bad week but praises still there

This has been a trouble week for me from the beginning. The week started like normal but quickly fell down hill. In a matter of one 8hrs shift, My leave was canceled and I was denied a chance to eat before I leave work. This presents a problem because I only get 2 chances to eat free food from the dinning facility. Most days, I will only get 1 meal. Not healthy. I still not able to sleep during the day at all. I get anywhere between 2 -6 hrs everyday. On thursday, I found out that I was not paid and did not have enough money to pay for my bills. With God's help, I will be able to pay just my bills. Then today (friday), I lost a mag light somewhere and do not know if an airplane that is flying had it on board which could have caused damage and possible kill some people. BUT!!! God is still good and has help through the problems. They now a good chance that I will still go on leave. I have enough money to pay my bills. I have an interest-free loan that will help. And then there is AWANA. That is a big help through out the week. It is a great time to release anger in a positive way. Let the Lord have it. Even when I was going to return to the problems at work that night. AWANA helps me focus on what God has for me. It allows me to share His grace with kids to strength them. It allows me not to think about the problems I have because that is not what matters. Anyways I was looking a new Song for my Myspace and found Casting Crown. I enjoy listen to their music. I saw they were on tour with John Waller. So you what his video on you tube. The video is Still Calls Me Son. Here it is. If the video is broken, click on the name to get sent to YouTube.



By the way, this is the third repost.

The Air Force makes me mad! REAL MAD!!!!!!!!

Today, Wednesday and so far the worst day of 2008. This day has been building up and the explosion is going to hurt someone, more and likely me. It started when my leave was canceled because I did not have a section chief look at my leave. Now with the shop short manned, it appears that my leave is truly gone. A best friend's money out the window and all the Air Force will do is laugh. As I learn more about the maintenance career field in the Air Force, the more I see how almost everyone tries to hurt everyone else to gain rank. Like in my two situations, an o-6 is telling my section chief that I must have my 5-level. My section chief is not going to argue with an O-6. It turn I am force to say I know how to complete a job when I really do not even know what the task is for. Another problem a raises because QA can pick any task that I am signed off on to make me preform. Since I do not know the to complete the task, I will fail and receive paper work because I failed. Yet the o-6 will make sure I am punished even since he is the one that force to get a task signed off before I was ready. But this is how the Air Force works. To make rank you have to destroy the people around you. You have to make think that are the worst airmen around so show that they are better. That is the secret in getting rank in the Air Force.

Transformational and Transactional Leadership: What Leadership Style Proved to Work the Best?

*****WARNING*****

This is the longest research paper that I have ever wrote. It is approx. 2800 words on 10 pages at 12pt Time New Roman font. This was a blog worthy paper. It is quite boring.

*****WARNING*****
NOTE: DO RESET MIND AFTER READING

Transformational and Transactional Leadership: What Leadership Style Proved
to Work the Best?
Michael A. Miller
University of Maryland University College





Intro

Art Vandelay is a manger at the nations largest import/export company. He has always thought he was a good manager. He always rewarded his employees with bonuses when they gave him the numbers he wanted. Art was noticing that many of his employees were burning out and did not want to work. So to increase moral, he started to give out other rewards that should increase the moral of his employees. His plan failed and the employee’s moral fell even more. After going to a management class, Art found out that he was a transactional leader. He learned that a transformational leader tended to increase production and moral, so Art decided to change his style. Since Art changed his leadership style, the moral of his employees went up and also the company’s production numbers. Is transformational leadership style really better than a transactional leadership style? What is the history between the two different leadership styles? What does a transformational or a transactional leader look like? What do some of the studies say about the production of a transformational leader verse a transactional leader?

History and Defining Transactional and Transformational
History of Research
In history, we see that leaders are remembered and not the people that followed. To figure out what drive these ordinary people to become leaders, we study their character and personal traits. With the study, we find different leadership styles that help push these people into the history books. One of the theories found in these studies was the transformational theory. The theory has it roots in work done by Max Weber in 1963 on charismatic leadership and Downton’s study of rebel leadership in 1973 (Klinsontorn, 2007, p. 18). These studies came in a time that researchers were looking for different traits that a leader needed to be successful. The studies also looked into the effects leaders had on subordinates moral and performance (Klinsontorn, 2007, p. 23). What most of the studies found was a definition for a good leader. The definition for a good leader is “someone who integrated getting the job done with concern for those doing the work” (Klinsontorn, 2007, p. 26). As the global economy began to increase in the early 1980s, new leadership theories were discovered so companies could compete in the global economy (Klinsontorn, 2007, p. 26). In 1978, J. M. Burns identified transactional and transformational as leadership styles (Kuhnert & Lewis, 1987, p. 648) from researching political leaders (Klinsontorn, 2007, p. 24). B.M. Bass would go farther then the political arena and apply Burns theory to organizational management in his 1985 study (Kuhnert & Lewis, 1987, p. 648). From there, many would study the differences in the two theories to find which worked best for producing the numbers required to sustain a business.

Transactional Leadership
Definition

Burns researched that there are 2 different styles of leadership; the styles were transactional and transformational. According to Burns, a transactional leader was someone “who ‘ approaches followers with an eye to exchange one thing for another: jobs for votes, or subsidies to include for campaign contributions’” (Klinsontorn, 2007, p. 35). Kuhnert and Lewis (1978) would make a broader definition by defining transactional “when one person takes the initiative in making contact with others for the purpose of an exchange of something valued” (p. 648) In both cases, a transactional leader would exchanged an reward for something they want. An example using Burns definition, it would be a like presidential candidate telling people that if they vote for him, he will reduce taxes paid to the government. In the business world, it would be a manager giving a bonus to an employee for the most sells or redesign how to organize company’s files. Bass expanded on the definition by saying that a manger must also clearly define how the work is needed to be accomplish so an employee may receive his reward (Klinsontorn, 2007, p. 35). Bass explains that the reason behind clear explanation of work would increase moral as the employee see that is doing what the manger told him. Also employees would know how much work is required to achieve the goals (Klinsontorn, 2007, p. 35). An auto repair floor manager would be an example of using transactional leadership. The floor manager must make sure a certain number of cars are fixed and also make sure the cars are fixed by a certain time. Employees know that they are required to fix cars in a certain amount of time to get breaks. If an employee takes to much time, he may lose his break to catch up and deliver the goal for the day. On the floor manager side of the ball, he must give the breaks that are promised to his workers.

Rewards

Even if a leader gives the followers what they want, they still might not be happy. Studies have shown that the exchanges of rewards might not be of equal value. The studies showed that there are actually two different levels of exchanges. These two levels are high-quality and low-quality exchanges (Kuhnert & Lewis, 1987, p. 649). A low-quality exchange is “based on the exchange of goods or right” (Kuhnert & Lewis, 1987, p. 649). The goods and right would be pay, bonuses, work hours, and etc. So a high-quality exchange would be more about bonds between leaders and followers (Kuhnert & Lewis, 1987, p. 649). A study done by Graen, Liden, and Hoel on the two levels of exchanges show that followers with high-quality exchanges with leaders will more likely with a company longer where as a low-quality exchange followers (Kuhnert & Lewis, 1987, p.649). An example of high-quality exchange is trust. Trust is a “modal values that bond leaders to followers in an attempt to actualize the needs of both parties” according to Burns (Kuhnert & Lewis, 1987, p. 649). Archbold (2004) said in his dissertation, that trust “is essential to leaders credibility in fulfilling with the agreed upon reward once the task is completed within the present parameters” (p. 53). A follower must trust that is leaders is going to follow through with his part, if the follower does what he told to do. In the car repair example, if the floor manager does not allow his workers break that he promised, workers might not work as hard because the know that no matter what they do, they will not get a chance to take a break beside for lunch.

Factors

As trust is something to gain, a leader using the transactional will use different ideas to gain that trust. Sarros & Santora say that there are two factors in a transactional leadership, they are: contingent and management by exception. Contingent means to reward a follower that meets the expectation or punish for they fail to meet the expectation (Klinsontorn, 2007, p. 37). A problem that Klinsontorn (2007) would write about, is a follower might see a short-term goal and not see that the long term effects of the decision (p. 37). This could cause a problem in creating a trust bond between manager and employees.
Another factor within transactional leadership is management by exception. There are two different types of management by exception: passive and active (Klinsontorn, 2007, p. 38). In Washington’s (2007) dissertation, she describes active management by exception as a “leaders actively monitoring follower performance in order to anticipate deviations from standards prior to their becoming problems (Hater & Bass, 1988)” (p. 19). This could help followers to stay on track to receive the rewards. If a supervisor is always trying to help his/her employees will get the employees to trust them. The follower knows that the leader wants the rewards he promise to the follower. The follower would continue to reach the goal that was created by the leader. In a passive management by exception leadership factor, the leader only corrects when the performance is not meeting with goals (Klinsontorn, 2007, p. 38). Only intervening when there is a problem would also hinder the trust in the leader-follower relationship. The worker might be able to know if they are doing what is right to achieve their reward for working. A passive management by exception on come around when on had already missed a mark, they follower would not know where he/she went off track.

*****STOP*****
Stop here and take a 5 min break. Grab a snack, hit the toilet, whatever you feel like doing for 5 mins.
*****GO*****

Transformational Leadership
Definition

A transactional leader uses rewards to motivate employees to get work done. Transformational leadership is when leaders and followers engage to increase motivation and morality (Klinsontorn, 2007, p. 20). Bass would compare the two using a John F Kennedy speech. Bass wrote, “’The transformational leader emphasized what you can do for your country – the transactional leader, what your country can do for you’ (Bass, 1999, p.9)” (Klinsontorn, 2007, p. 18). Kuhnert and Lewis (1987) would define transformational leadership as “more than the compliance of followers; it involves shifts in the beliefs, the needs, and the values of followers” (p. 648). Boerner, Eisenbeiss & Griesser (2007) states a transformational leader would align personal goals with organizational goals “and provide the follower with support, mentoring, and coaching” (p. 16). A transformational leader would need to be able to challenge the followers to send then to new heights and making go farther then expected (Boerner, Eisenbeiss, & Grieser, 2007, p. 16)
Just like a transactional leader needs to clearly speak so followers know what to do, transformational leaders must also be able to communicate well. The difference is a transformational leader must captivate followers, use “direct eye contact, show animated facial expressions, and have a powerful, confident, and dynamic interaction style” (Klinsontorn, 2007, p. 20). A transformation speaks to convince the followers to raise and beat the expectation. It is like a college football coach. The coach must be able to make a team believe that they can win that game. When to coach speaks, he must be able to connect with the players. Off the field, the coach must be able to mentor the players in to better people. The coach also uses the personal goals of player and other coaches to prefect a team that will be able to reach goals the coach has for the team. Sometimes a coach must convince his team that they can win a football game.

Rewards

In transactional leadership style, rewards were high- and low-quality exchanges between leader and followers; transformational also has high-quality exchanges. For the most part, these high-quality exchanges are not tangible like bonuses and paid vacation (Klinsontorn, 2007, p. 20). An exchange that happens is power to the leader given by the followers (Klinsontorn, 2007, p. 20). The leader gains the power because he has become a role model to his/her followers (Klinsontorn, 2007, p. 20). Both Klinsontorn (2007) and Archbold (2004) say that followers have trust in a transformational leader. This trust comes from the fact that the leader is trying to achieve both person and organizational goals. The follower must know that the leader is going to achieve the goals before the trust can be built.

Factors

Just like transactional, transformational also have factors. The components of transformational leadership are: idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, and individualized consideration (Boerner, Eisenbeiss, & Griesser, 2007, p. 16-17). Idealized influence is influencing followers to be like the leader or charisma (Washington, 2007, p. 16). This is where the trust comes in to play. Leaders are to be role models to their followers. (Boerner, Eisenbeiss, & Griesser, 2007, p. 16). A leader will also consider follower’s goals before himself (Boerner, Eisenbeiss, & Griesser, 2007, p. 16). Klinsontorn (2007) writes that there are “two distinct factor of idealized influence are: idealized behaviors displayed by the leader and idealized attributes perceived by subordinates (Ball, 1988)” (p. 32). That is the leader must show behaviors and personalities that one would follow. Klinsontorn (2007) also says that idealized influence is the most important part of a transformational leader (p. 32).
Next factor is inspirational motivation, which is “providing meaning and challenge to follower’s work” (Boerner, Eisenbeiss, & Griesser, 2007, p. 16). To inspire the followers, a leader would demonstrate their goal commitment and shared vision with followers (Washington, 2007, p.17). With this quality, leader would show enthusiasm and optimism to motivate followers and raise individual and team spirit (Boerner, Eisenbeiss, & Griesser, 2007, p. 16). Some signs would be ready to start a new adventure or when a problem is finished. The leader might giver encouragement to people that might be down to raise their hopes.
The third factor is intellectual stimulation. Intellectual stimulation would allow followers to approach an old problem in a new way or question why things are done in a certain way (Boerner, Eisenbeiss, & Griesser, 2007, p. 16; Klinsontorn, 2007, p. 32). The leader will encourage followers to think outside of the box to develop the new ideas for solving problems. An example that uses the intellectual stimulation is the United States Air Force’s Air Force Smart Operation 21. The Air Force encourages its Airmen to think of new and better ways to do daily operations. This program is used to cut time and money to perform daily operations like aircraft mechanics learn about other systems to have the job done faster.
The fourth factor is individualized consideration or a leader notices an individual’s differences and also help the follower grow to do more work (Klinsontorn, 2007, p. 33). The leader is more of a mentor or coach (Klinsontorn, 2007, p. 33). The leader will ensure the follower is developing properly (Boerner, Eisenbeiss, & Griesser, 2007, p. 17). With this characteristic, the leader wants the followers to develop a plan to get ahead in the company by taking care of education to develop the skills and talents need to advance (Klinsontorn, 2007, p. 33). An example would be a high school teacher helping you get into your college of dreams. The teacher will mentor you to develop the skills need to get into college and also the skills need to be successful in college after you leave high school.

What Studies have Shown to Work the Best
Sarros and Santora (2001) did a study on 500 of Australia’s executives, only 181 responded to the survey (p. 384). Their study concluded that a middle ground was what the executives seem to land. They concluded that “the executives in this study feel most comfortable in a coaching their people to achieve results, but see the need for direction and some autocratic behavior when occasions demands” (Sarros & Santora, 2001, pg 390). In other words, there is a time for a transformation leadership style and a time to lead by using the transactional style. Sarros and Santora (2001) did found out that transformation was more about caring for employees where as transactional was more for “results through organizational processes such as reward structures and implementation of policies and procedures” (p. 391).
Another study was done with 186 leaders and 793 senior subordinates that worked for the United States Navy (Klinsontorn, 2007, p. 40). The study concluded, “the outcomes of extra effort, leadership effectiveness, and job satisfaction were highly positively related” (Klinsontorn, 2007 p.40). Transactional had positive but not much as transformational and laissez-faire had a negative outcome (Klinsontorn, 2007, p. 40). One outcome of the study was when a transformational was building on a transactional base, the results in higher performance (Klinsontorn, 2007, p. 41).
Bass and Avolio did a study on 150 males and 79 female leaders in 1994 (Klinsontorn, 2007, p. 42). The study showed that women tend to have more of the transformational leadership qualities. Males rated better then women in management by exception and laissez-faire (Klinsontorn, 2007, p. 42). In a study by Yammarino et al, showed that females tend to form a “unique one-to-one interpersonal relationship with their male and female subordinates” (Klinsontorn, 2007, p. 43).
Conclusion
Transformational leadership has more positive qualities that have shown that it increase production on employees that are under the leaders. These qualities make it seem to be a better fit for production. Some of the studies showed that transactional help increase production but production greatly increases when a transformational leadership is add to it. The negative seem to out weigh the positive effects that transactional leadership produces. With a transformational leadership, employees seem to feel wanted and them are pushed to produce what the leader wants. Trust seems to be a big factor in both transactional and transformational leadership styles.

References
Archbold, R. H. (2004). The Perception of Leadership Style: Effects on the Work Environment. Dissertation Abstracts International. (UMI No. 3132802)
Boerner, S., Eisenbeiss, S. A., & Griesser, D. (2007). Follower Behavior and Organizational Performance: The Impact of Transformational Leaders. Journal of Leadership and Organizational Studies, 13(3), 15-26. Retrieved January 10, 2008.
Klinsontorn, S. (2007). The Influence of Leadership Styles on Organizational Commintment and Employee Performances. Master's Abstracts International. (UMI No. 3255207)
Kuhnert, K. W., & Lewis, P. (1987). Transactional and Transformational Leadership: A Constructive/Developmental Analysis. The Academy of Management Review, 12, 648-656. Retrieved January 10, 2008.
Sarros, J. C., & Santora, J. C. (2001). The transformational-transactional leadership model in practice. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 22, 383-393. Retrieved January 10, 2008, from ABI/INFORM Global database.

I hate money but I love to have it.

As many who do not read this blog now, money is the root of all evil. (For the people who do read it, satan is the root of all evil) I have spent much of my Saturday trying to figure a way to fund my trip to Oklahoma in a couple of weeks. I went to check my credit score. It was a huffy 330, okay not really. I found a debt solution company to help bring my debt down. In about 48 months, I will have no debt, according to them. One problem, I will have to reenlist or find a job on the outside world fast. I do not know what I want to do yet. If I do reenlist, I can stay in England 3 more years and get paid more. I will have time to think about when type my 10 page paper. Trust me it is fun!! Sarcasm, my best tool to keep my simple mine working.

Come on Mr. President, Give Me a Break!!!

I think media has destroyed Bush in his fight to bring the terrorist down. The Leader of the Free World is now on or already there in the Mideast to talk peace. I look that he is getting out but I do not like it at my expense. The Pres. took away my 48hrs off from my weekend duty that I had to pull last weekend. Since last weekend, I have not had time to start my 10 page research paper which is due Sunday. I started to work Mids and it seems like it is Swings. That is not cool. In the end, I make the difference is security to our commander-in-chief. There is always more than what meets the eyes. As I will leave it at that because I know more and you do not need to know jack.