Using transactional leadership practices to achieve and sustain organisational harmony

Transactional leadership is often viewed as an antithesis to transformational leadership. Although the discourse on leadership styles oftentimes views this as contradictory ideals, the use of both transactional and transformational leadership is vital in achieving outcomes related to inclusion in multicultural schools. Thus, this chapter explains how transactional leadership can be employed by school leaders in multicultural schools to achieve organisational harmony. In comparison with transformational leadership, transactional leadership puts emphasis on managerial rather than motivational practices. Hence, school leaders are also expected to be transactional in their ways in leading in multicultural schools, as supported by evidence from schools in Malaysia and in other countries.