Leadership theory and motivation of medical imaging employees.

*This literature review explores how transactional, transformational, and charismatic leadership theories might be applied in a typical stressful hypothetical department situation. *Transactional department leaders motivate employees using extrinsic rewards, encouraging them to do what is needed to get the minimal results with no encouragement for higher levels of thinking. *Transformational department leaders motivate employees by transforming their beliefs and values to be more in alignment with the organization's values and goals. This alignment helps create higher levels of intrinsic motivation. *Charismatic leaders exhibit the same behaviors as transformational leaders to motivate employees; however; because of their specific characteristics, their effectiveness can be limited to only times of distress or crisis. The situation in the particular department determines which leadership theory is likely to be most successful.