Followership

Question 1

Leaders & Followers

• Historically, leaders have captured most of our attention.
• Leaders have been viewed as the causal agents for ______________ ________.
• However, Followers play a ________ role in the leadership process.
• Followership views organisational outcomes as a product of the _________ between leaders and follower rather than one ‘heroic’ leader.
• Followership is a _____________-based process that includes how followers and leaders interact to co-construct leadership and its outcomes.
• Leaders and followers are ________________

Answer 1

• Historically, leaders have captured most of our attention.
• Leaders have been viewed as the causal agents for organisational success.
• However, Followers play a central role in the leadership process.
• Followership views organisational outcomes as a product of the interaction between leaders and follower rather than one ‘heroic’ leader.
• Followership is a relationally-based process that includes how followers and leaders interact to co-construct leadership and its outcomes.
• Leaders and followers are interdependent.

Question 2

Followership

• Followership is a process whereby an individual or individuals _________ the ____________ of others to ____________ a common goal.
• Followership has an _________ _____________; it is not __________ __________.
• There are __________ ___________________ to followership; the character and behaviour of followers has an impact on organisational outcomes.

Answer 2

• Followership is a process whereby an individual or individuals accept the influence of others to accomplish a common goal.
• Followership has an ethical dimension; it is not morally neutral.
• There are ethical consequences to followership; the character and behaviour of followers has an impact on organisational outcomes.

Question 3

A Relational-Based Perspective (3)

Answer 3

• Based on social constructivism: People create meaning about their reality as they interact with each other.
• Followership is co-created by the leader and follower in a given situation through communication.
• Leadership occurs as people exert influence on each other and respond to those influence attempts.

Question 4

Leadership & Followership as Dance

Answer 4

One person leads and one follows. This isn’t about superiority or dominance or submission. It’s just a practical issue of who initiates a movement, but there is always an interplay” (Ashgar, 2016)

Question 5

Some Follower Types (5)

Answer 5

Effective

• Independent and active

Alienated

• Disillusioned and negative in outlook

Survivors

• Do enough to get by

Sheep

• Waits for orders and not motivated by organisational goals

Yes-people

• Enthusiastic workers but no critical thought processes

Question 6

Zaleznik’s Typology (1965)

Answer 6

Two axes of follower behaviours:

• Dominance/Submission
• Passivity/Activity

Four types of followers

Withdrawn followers (submissive/passive)

• care very little or not at all about what happens at work and consequently take little part in work activities other than doing the minimum necessary to keep their jobs.

Masochistic followers (submissive/active)

• want to submit to the control of the authority figure, even though they feel discomfort in doing so. In this way, they gain pleasure from being dominated.

Compulsive followers (dominance/passive)

• want to dominate their leaders, but hold themselves back. They typically feel guilty about their compulsive tendencies.

Impulsive followers (dominance/active)

• often rebellious, trying to lead whilst being led. They are sometimes spontaneous and courageous.

Question 7

Kelley’s Typology (1992)

Answer 7

• The most recognised followership typology
• Perceives Followers as enormously valuable to organisations
• Emphasis on the motivations of followers

Two axes of follower behaviour:

    - Independent critical thinking/Dependent, uncritical thinking
  	- Active/Passive

4 types of followers

Passive followers (Dependent critical thinking/passive)

• Look to leader for direction and motivation

Conformist followers (Dependent critical thinking/active)

• On the leader’s side but still look for direction and guidance

Alienated followers (Independent Critical Thinking/passive)

• Think for themselves and exhibit negative energy

Exemplary followers (Independent critical thinking/active)

• Active, positive, and offer independent constructive criticism

Question 8

Effective Followers Kelley (1992) (4 principles)

Answer 8

1. They self-manage and think for themselves; they exercise control, they can work without supervision.
2. They show strong commitment to organisational goals and well as personal goals.
3. They build their competence and master job skills.
4. They are credible, ethical, and courageous.

Question 9

Chaleff’s Typology (1995, 2003, 2008)

What did he ask?
What does he believe? (3)

Prescriptive approach to making courageous followers: (5)

Answer 9

Chaleff asked why do people follow toxic leaders like Hitler and what can be done to prevent this from recurring?

• Followers serve a common purpose along with leaders.
• Followers need to take a more proactive role.
• Followers need to take more responsibility, feel more agency, and confidence in ability to influence others.

Prescriptive approach to making courageous followers: (5)

• Assume responsibility for the common purpose
• Support the leader and organization
• Constructively challenge the leader if the common purpose or integrity of the group is being threatened
• Champion the need for change when necessary
• Take a moral stand that is different from the leader’s to prevent ethical abuses

Question 10

Chaleff’s Typology (1995, 2003, 2008)

Two axes of courageous followership:

Four styles of followership

Answer 10

Two axes of courageous followership:

• courage to support (low–high)
• courage to challenge (low–high)

Four styles of followership

• Resource (low support, low challenge)
• Individualist (low support, high challenge)
• Implementer (high support, low challenge)
• Partner (high support, high challenge)

Question 11

Kellerman’s Typology (2008)

2 principles?
Followers differentiated on one attribute: Level of engagement (low–high) (5)

Answer 11

• Developed from a perspective of political science
• Leaders’ importance overestimated because they have more power, authority and influence; importance of followers is underestimated.
• Followers are “unleaders” with less rank and who defer to leaders.

1. Isolates are completely unengaged.
2. Bystanders are observers who do not participate.
3. Participants are partially engaged and willing to take a stand on issues.
4. Activists feel strongly about the leader and the leader’s policies and act on their own beliefs.
5. Diehards are deeply committed to supporting the leader or opposing the leader.

Question 12

Schultz interview

Schultz describes the emotional toll of his decision to speak out (3)

Schultz reveals the biggest lies that Theranos told (4)

Schultz explains why Theranos was able to deceive so many people (4)

Schultz warns about the dangers of cutting corners in biotech (3)

Answer 12

Schultz reveals how he discovered the fraud and deception behind Theranos, and what he went through to expose it to the public. He also shares his insights on the risks of cutting corners in biotech, especially in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Schultz describes the emotional toll of his decision to speak out

• Felt like a compulsion to stand up to the bullies
• Faced pushback from Elizabeth Holmes and Sunny Balwani
• Got support from his parents

Schultz reveals the biggest lies that Theranos told

• Claimed to do hundreds of tests with a drop of blood
• Could only test one thing at a time
• Device was not reliable or accurate
• Lied about revenues and partnerships

Schultz explains why Theranos was able to deceive so many people

• Holmes was charismatic and convincing
• Had a great story and vision
• Evaded due diligence and tough questions
• Lies were so big that they were beyond questioning

Schultz warns about the dangers of cutting corners in biotech

• Need solutions quickly but also safely
• Mistakes have been made in diagnostics
• Hopes that vaccine and therapy developers do good science

Question 13

The value of Follower Typologies (4)

Answer 13

• They provide labels for follower types which can assist leaders in effectively communicating with them.
• They highlight the many ways in which followers have been conceptualized.
• They share some commonalities among them.
• They provide a starting point for research.

Question 14

Theoretical Approaches to Followership (2)

Answer 14

• Uhl-Bien (2014): Followership is comprised of “characteristics, behaviours and processes of individuals acting in relation to leaders.”
• Followership is a relationally-based process that includes how followers and leaders interact to construct leadership and its outcomes.

Question 15

New Perspectives on Followership (Carsten, Harms, and Uhl-Bien, 2014) (5)

Answer 15

1. Followers get the job done
2. Followers work in the best interest of the organization’s mission
3. Followers challenge leaders
4. Followers support the leader
5. Followers learn from leaders

Question 16

The Leadership Co-Created Process (3)

Answer 16

• One person’s leadership behaviours interact with another person’s followership behaviours to create leadership and its outcomes.
• Leader behaviours are influence attempts.
• Follower behaviours grant power to another, comply, or challenge.

Question 17

Leadership & Followership: Influence Triggers (Barbuto, 2000)

Answer 17

• Investigates follower’s compliance or non-compliance with leadership directives.
• Barbuto argues that a leader can use several different triggers to secure follower compliance with leadership directives such as rewards and incentives.
• However, followers may also resist leadership directives because of incongruence with their values, interests and goals.

Question 18

Follower Resistance

Answer 18

• The dominant view of followers as passive and obedient has resulted in much less attention being paid to other types of followership behaviour.
• However, not all Followers follow…

Tepper et al (2001) identified two types of resistance:

  - Constructive resistance involves well-intended efforts to open a dialog with the supervisor (e.g., ask for clarification or negotiate).
  - Dysfunctional resistance involves passive–aggressive responses in which subordinates might act as if they are too busy to complete the request, pretend they did not hear it, or say they forgot.

Question 19

Follower Self-Concept (3)

Answer 19

• Carsten et al. (2010) state that followership style played by the followers is affected by cultural norms which finally forms a self-concept.
• An individual’s self-concept refers to a personal characteristic which distinguishes an individual from another (Howell and Mendez, 2008).
• Hence, some forms of follower resistance may be rooted in a rejection of leadership directives which are perceived to violate a follower’s self concept.

Question 20

Influence Tactics of Followers (Ansari & Kapoor, 1987) (4)

Answer 20

• Influence tactics used by subordinates are significantly affected by the manager’s leadership style and vary as a function of the goals the seeks to achieve by influencing the leader.
• When followers seek personal benefits (e.g., career advancement), ingratiation is the most often employed tactic.
• When followers seek organisational goals, they invoke a combination of rational and non-rational tactics, such as blocking, upward appeal, and rational persuasion.
• With respect to leader style, followers have a greater tendency to use non-rational tactics—such as blocking, upward appeal, and ingratiation—when responding to an authoritarian manager, and rational strategies (i.e., rational persuasion) when responding to participative managers

Question 21

Reactions to Follower Resistance (3)

Answer 21

• Tepper et al. (2000) studies how managers evaluate follower resistance and their influence attempts. They found two types of reactions:
• Some managers have a uniformly dysfunctional perspective (i.e., managers regard all manifestations of resistance as indicators of ineffective influence and rate subordinates unfavourably when they resist).
• Some managers have a multifunctional perspective (i.e., managers regard some manifestations of resistance as more constructive than others and rate subordinates more favourably when they employ constructive resistance tactics).

Question 22

Leadership & Followership Dysfunctions (3)

Answer 22

• A follower’s action can make or break the leader. Poor followership can severely damage the organisation and harm those who depend on it.
• Chronic and extreme criticism of leaders ultimately reduces the quality of leadership, causing the organisation itself to become ineffective.
• Uncritical compliance, represents another form of leader-follower dysfunction. Leaders surrounded by “yes-people” lack an essential resource. Habitually uncritical subordinates can permit their leader to develop delusions of grandeur and set impossible objectives for the organisation.

Question 23

Why do Followers follow Destructive Leaders?Lipman-Blumen: The Allure of Toxic Leaders (2005) (6)

Answer 23

1. Our need for reassuring authority figures
2. Our need for security and certainty
3. Our need to feel chosen or special
4. Our need for membership in the human community
5. Our fear of ostracism, isolation, and social death
6. Our fear of powerlessness to challenge a bad leader

Question 24

Folie à Deux (4)

Answer 24

• At the extreme, such leader follower relationships can develop into a psychiatric condition known as folie à deux, in which two or more afflicted individuals reinforce each other’s delusions.
• A famous example of folie à deux is said to have occurred in Hitler’s bunker during the final days of World War II.
• Hitler’s forces had been reduced to a few battalions fighting in Berlin. But believing that his vast armies remained intact, the Nazi leader ordered non-existent units into action.
• High-ranking officials in the bunker were unwilling to contradict Hitler and instead reinforced his delusions. On the eve of final defeat, these officials came to believe the lies themselves. They all lived in a world of complete and mutually reinforced fantasy.

Question 25

Followership: Contributions and Cautions (5)

Answer 25

• Recognition that followership as an integral part of the leadership process.
• Forces a whole new way for people to think about leadership, and to focus on followers.
• Views leadership as co-constructed.
• Provides a set of basic prescriptions for what a follower should or shouldn’t’ do to be effective.
• Leaders can learn how to understand followers and how to most effectively work with them but need to be wary of typecasting