The study first found that “On the average, groups generated more original solutions and perceived greater group efficacy under transactional leadership than under transformational leadership.” However, it also found that “anonymity led to a decrease in group efficacy and satisfaction with the task and an increase in the originality of solutions in the group rewards condition relative to group efficacy, satisfaction with the task, and originality of solutions in the individual rewards condition” (518) but that “anonymity helped transformational leadership overcome the relative advantage of transactional leadership in promoting certain process and outcome variables (i.e., supportive comments with arguments, group efficacy, and satisfaction with the task) in the identified condition…anonymity is likely to enhance the effects of transformational leadership relative to transactional leadership by providing a favorable social condition that is consistent with transformational leadership’s emphasis on collective action.” (517) This research was conducted as a follow up to a 1991 study that argued “Anonymity reduces inhibitions to question others’ ideas and enables group members to abandon old ways of thinking in favor of new ones (Nunamaker et al., 1991), thereby enhancing a transformational leader’s effect on promoting participation as well as questioning, clarification, and critical behaviors” (504). 

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In sum, individual contributions to group work benefit more from transactional leadership while collective work benefits more from transformative leadership. Anonymity, the study suggests, reduces the emphasis on the individual’s contribution, freeing members to offer critical, creative solutions, albeit with an increased risk of “loafing” as some individuals under transformative leaders find their work less personally incentivized. The strategy suggested by the study is for online communication to begin as a transactional process, where participation and innovation is rewarded, and then transitioned to a transformative one where the whole group as a whole is encouraged to question and experiment.
 

The anonymous classroom would benefit from a similar model. In order to encourage investment and participation in the digital forum, instructors should first assume a transactional style, offering incentives and rewards for contributions. The change to a transformative style should come quickly, however, to distance the online space from the classroom itself. Ideally, the initial incentivization of anonymous participation will generate enough course content that the students find it easier to participate in online discussions and draw upon the feedback and resources provided by their peers than to work in isolation.