Followership in educational organizations: a pilot mapping of the territory

A new lexicon of followership terms is suggested to develop this innovative area of research, helping to recognize that both our followership and leadership roles are important to organizational success

Comparison of Rwandan and American Followership Styles

Leadership research is plentiful and multifaceted yet followership, an essential component in leadership, attracts little research attention. This research paper measures followership styles in two cultural contexts: American and Rwandan. Although cultural aspects of followership have been studied to some extent, the literature in this area is lacking. Data are collected from two organizations of similar size and function, one in Rwanda, and the other in Oregon, USA. It is hypothesized that Americans’ cultural preferences influence followers to favor critical thinking and active engagement while Rwandan cultural preferences predispose followers to less critical thinking and less active engagement. Results of the research show no significant difference between the cultures on critical thinking and active engagement. However, followership type is significantly different by country. Kelley’s (1992) followership survey and the organizational contexts are probed for possible reasons that no significant differences were found between critical thinking and active engagement, while power distance is seen as the main reason for the difference in followership type. Presently little research has been dedicated to the cultural effects on followership and organizations that work internationally would benefit greatly from a deeper understanding of cultural effects on followership

The United Kingdom Ministry of Defence – the Case for Followership as a key Element of Leadership Development

Published in Strategic Management Quarterly (2015) Vol 3 Issue 4Using the Kelley (1992) Followership Style instrument this study explores the role and perceptions of Followership within the UK Ministry of Defence. In particular, within the Armed Services and the Civil Service it was apparent from the literature that only the RAF formally recognised the role of Followership within their Leadership staff development programmes, hence the research aimed to see whether this was reflected in self-perceptions of Followership Style and the extent to which it is applied within the organisation. The analysis concluded that the analysed sample (298 responses) produced an atypical profile compared to other studies that have used the instrument. The RAF showed statistically significant higher scores than the other Armed Services or the Civil Servants and scores increased with Rank/Grade. The analysis also highlighted that the individuals seemed not to be recognised as good Followers by their leaders, they appeared not to recognise their reports as good Followers and in all cases the organisation seemed not to recognise their value. These aspects provide scope for further research to better understand the organisational culture, processes and practices that appear to act as a barrier to the extraction of the benefits of having good Followers even in an area where Star Followers dominate

The Leader as Catalyst: On Leadership and the Mechanics of Institutional Change

Individual leaders have been central to the transformation of organizations, political institutions and many instances of social and economic reform. In this paper we take a first step towards analyzing the role of leadership to ask: when and how does a leader engineer change? We show that while underlying structural conditions and institutions are important, there is an independent first-order role for individual agency in bringing about change and thus transforming the institutions. We emphasize the key nature of the symbiotic relationship between followers decisions' to willingly entrust their faith in the leader and the leader's initiative at leading them. This two-way interaction can endogenously give rise to threshold effects; slight differences in the leader's ability or the underlying structural conditions can dramatically improve the prospects for successful change. Given the centrality of this leader-follower relationship, we further explore conditions under which an individual may deliberately prefer to follow an ambitious leader with divergent interests rather than a benevolent one with congruent preferences. Thus by virtue of having followers, both `good' and `bad' leaders may be effective at bringing about change.Leadership, Followers, Change

‘No More Heroes’: Critical Perspectives on Leadership Romanticism

This paper revisits Meindl et al’s (1985) ‘romance of leadership’ thesis and extends these ideas in a number of inter-related ways. First, it argues that the thesis has sometimes been neglected and/or misinterpreted in subsequent studies. Second, the paper suggests that romanticism is a much broader and more historically rich term with wider implications for leadership studies than originally proposed. Arguing that romanticism stretches beyond leader attribution, we connect leadership theory to a more enduring and naturalistic tradition of romantic thought that has survived and evolved since the mid-18th century. Third, the paper demonstrates the contemporary relevance of the romanticism critique. It reveals how the study of leadership continues to be characterized by romanticizing tendencies in many of its most influential theories, illustrating this argument with reference to spiritual and authentic leadership theories, which only recognize positive engagement with leaders. Equally, the paper suggests that romanticism can shape conceptions not only of leaders, but also of followers, their agency and their (potential for) resistance. We conclude by discussing future possible research directions for the romanticism critique that extend well beyond its original focus on leader attribution to inform a broader critical approach to leadership studies

Quantifying discrepancies in opinion spectra from online and offline networks

Online social media such as Twitter are widely used for mining public opinions and sentiments on various issues and topics. The sheer volume of the data generated and the eager adoption by the online-savvy public are helping to raise the profile of online media as a convenient source of news and public opinions on social and political issues as well. Due to the uncontrollable biases in the population who heavily use the media, however, it is often difficult to measure how accurately the online sphere reflects the offline world at large, undermining the usefulness of online media. One way of identifying and overcoming the online-offline discrepancies is to apply a common analytical and modeling framework to comparable data sets from online and offline sources and cross-analyzing the patterns found therein. In this paper we study the political spectra constructed from Twitter and from legislators' voting records as an example to demonstrate the potential limits of online media as the source for accurate public opinion mining.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figure

Leaders, Followers, and Free Riders: The Community Lawyer’s Dilemma When Representing Non-Democratic Client Organizations

This article will explore various aspects of the dissonance between the democratic ideal and the reality of groups in disenfranchised and disempowered communities. We will discuss the intersection of democracy and community action by examining the sociology of groups and the social psychology of leaders and followers. We will also examine the role of, and choices presented to, an attorney working in a community and for local community groups

The Leader as Catalyst – on Leadership and the Mechanics of Institutional Change

Individual leaders have been central to the transformation of political institutions, organizations and many instances of social and economic reform. Why are some leaders able to take advantage of opportunities to successfully catalyze large-scale change while others fail? In this paper we argue that the key to understanding a leader’s effectiveness lies in dissecting the symbiotic nature of the leader-follower relationship. While the expected dynamism of a leader attracts followers, at the same time, followers empower the leader and contribute to his dynamism. This two-way leader-follower interaction can endogenously give rise to threshold effects: ‘small’ differences in leader ability can have a large impact on the degree of effective leadership and dramatically alter the prospects for change. The framework also naturally allows us to explore when individuals may deliberately prefer to follow an ambitious leader with very different preferences rather than a leader with more congruent preferences. Moreover, by empowering the self-interested ambitious leader, such followership may make him a more effective agent of (both good and bad) change.

Introducing Followership into the Leadership Classroom: An Integrative Approach

Developing followers is just as important as developing leaders. This brief outlines strategies for integrating material on followership into three leadership course units: introduction to leadership, leadership theories, and leadership ethics. Instructors can highlight the importance of followership by emphasizing that (a) leaders and followers have an interdependent relationship, (b) followers are essential to group success, (c) followers are an important component in many leadership theories, and (d) followers are responsible for their moral choices and face their own set of ethical challenges