Final answer:
Transactional leadership is centered on achieving goals through rewards and punishments, with a manager's reward power playing a central role. This type of leadership creates a direct, performance-based relationship between managers and employees, deeply influencing job satisfaction and career progression.
Step-by-step explanation:
Transactional leadership is a management style that is characterized by a focus on supervision, organizational goals, and maintaining the status quo through a system of rewards and punishments. A manager's reward power is a significant tool in this leadership approach, which addresses the performance of telecommuting employees, who have the ability to set their own hours and work from various locations. Transactional leadership contrasts with transformational leadership, where leaders are seen as charismatic role models, inspirational, intellectually stimulating, and individually considerate, seeking to enact changes within the organization.
The power dynamic in the workplace is critical, and a manager's influence on an employee's career and job satisfaction cannot be overstated. Managers not only offer opportunities for skill development and influence decisions about raises and promotions but also affect the daily work environment and overall job satisfaction. Adhering to the principles of transactional leadership, managers provide rewards for compliance and contributions to the organization's goals, while possibly using penalties for non-compliance.