Leadership and Followership Concept

Introduction

Leadership is a practice of inspiring individuals to work towards the same target. On the other hand, followership is the willingness to work together towards achieving set goals using teamwork. Ward (2007) suggests that successful followers are responsible for the development of the leadership cycle.

Leadership-followership studies are moving away from compartmentalized solutions to integrated methods that help us better understand the phenomenon. Such new methods also allow us to develop theoretical and realistic structures that better describe the complexities of the relationship between leadership and followership. There is a broad range of research analyzing the two topics separately, but little is known about the relationship between leadership and followership (Surbhi, 2018).

goal of this study was to understand and clarify the perception of leaders about the position, work, construction, and type of the relationship dynamics of leadership and followership. The research introduces the relational theory of LFP, which is represented in five complex styles of LFP. There are individualism, authoritarianism, collaboration, integration, and holoubuntu. Such types are the product of the intersection of social frameworks — detachment to interdependent relationships and organizational frameworks — hierarchy to hierarchical relationships. This thesis clarified the underlying fundamental concepts, types, basic features, and theoretical significance of leadership and followership relational theory (Surbhi, 2018).

 

 

Is Leadership Learned or Innate

According to Surbhi (2018), decision-makers also believe that an individual showing competence and achieves a lot at their workplace or school is likely to be a good leader or manager. However, being a manager or a leader requires skills that are different from the roles someone plays in their day-to-day activities. This is why new leaders and managers find themselves in unprepared positions.

If they assume that leadership is a trait that is born with, they are likely to feel insecure and overwhelmed by the demands that lie ahead of them. In certain situations, they prefer to resolve these issues by concentrating on content and position, therefore, ignoring managerial and human elements. Sadly, the aspects of their current positions are the ones that form the base of good leadership. Others don’t question their style of leadership or the ideology of their members at all. They are always plowing forward and doing things the way they want, even when they are oblivious of the effect on the individuals they want to inspire (Can Leadership Be Learned or Are You Born with It?, 2015).

The good thing is that leadership skills can be strengthened if you are able to reflect on yourself. Studies show that the leadership appears to be just 30% hereditary. Therefore, it would be wise for all newly appointed managers to find it important to refine and sharpen their leadership skills (Surbhi, 2018).

Is There a Gender Gap in Leadership?

Chapter 2: What Makes a Good Leader, and Does Gender Matter? (2015) suggest that on a variety of leadership traits, the general population sees no difference between both genders. A majority agree that when you are looking at intellect and creativity, both sexes are equal. A majority see no gender disparities in motivation, integrity, and determination. Today, Americans can differentiate between men and women in the nature of their leadership. Two-thirds of grownups (65 percent) agree that women are compassionate than men, while just 2 percent agree that it describes men better than women.

Although a large majority of the population see no difference on the basis of ambition and commitment, the people who can differentiate on these characteristics say that men have an advantage over women. 27 percent of the people find men to be decisive than women, while just 9 percent say vice-versa. Around six-in-ten (62 percent) suggest that both genders are equally decisive. Similarly, 21 percent of the public claim that men are more ambitious than women, half while 9 percent say the opposite. (68% of the population sees no gender disparity in this feature.) (Surbhi, 2018).

Two additional aspects of leadership are obviously gender tossup in the public mind. More than eight-in-ten adults (86 percent) agree that knowledge is equally important for men and women. An additional 9 percent say that women are smarter than men are, and 4 percent say the contrary. Completely three-quarters of adults suggest that men and women are similarly creative. Those who see a difference in this attribute are evenly split about which gender has an advantage: 11% say that creativity best represents women and 12% claim that it is more true of men (Surbhi, 2018).

Importance of Character and Ethics in Leadership

Surbhi (2018) argues that character is significant in our daily lives and as a leadership qualification. We cannot separate our values and characters and reveal them only when we think they would help us. Successful leaders have stable lives. Real honesty is the driving force behind the ethical process.

We still think about corporate ethics as if it could be different from the day-to-day running of school ethics. Ethics is ethics. However, an ethical leader should be ethical about everything they do, both in a company and personal lives. Ethics is talking to an entirely new human. When leaders behave differently at work than how they usually behave at home, you can begin to see cracks that can lead to ethical conduct collapses (Surbhi, 2018).

Events that have occurred over the years 2001 to 2004 will shed light on the importance of the character of our leaders. You can remember that this debate reached a feverish peak when the bad character of ex-President Bill Clinton. Like the rest of the boardrooms around America, he always represented us (Hall & Pearson Education, Inc, 2005).

 

How Does Leadership Vary From One Context to Another and Why?

Work-related leadership includes trade unions, military groups, politics, colleges, and sports. Labor unions require leadership when followership action is voluntary, whereas military leadership takes place in extreme circumstances (Hall & Pearson Education, Inc, 2005).

Openness in political leadership encourages a study of the ethos and the mental and physical conditions of members. Academic leadership shows that high-quality leadership has an effect on school teachers and their students. Extensive individual and team performance data in the field of sport allows a detailed study of the impact of leadership. In these particular contexts, the main lesson is that high-quality leadership exercises its influence by transforming the way followers see themselves, their work, and their leaders have verified once again (Hall & Pearson Education, Inc, 2005).

 

Difference between Management and Leadership

Management refers to a way used to communicate with people of various age groups to work together to accomplish a shared goal, whereas the ability to encourage and lead a group of people in a path is known as leadership. Leadership is the value of leading people by empowering them, while management is the method of handling the organization’s activities. Leadership is the power to control others, while management is the consistency of the governing. In leadership, rules and regulations are laid down, while in management, strategies and procedures are enforced. Leadership brings in transition. On the other side, management will offer stability (Surbhi, 2018).

The two are of an inseparable sort. The qualities of a manager require leadership skills in order to inspire his subordinate. (Surbhi, 2018).

 

 

Other Research on Leadership and Followership

Research makes an important and unique contribution to the scholarly debate and offers practical guidance to organizations that are involved in bringing about a relational transformation of their LFP. The current background of leadership and follow-up is increasingly dynamic, unpredictable, and multi-faceted, according to beliefs, goals, and requirements. The dynamics of globalization, increasing competition, far-reaching socio-cultural, and technological change and the speed of change are creating new difficulties for organizations. External and internal market environments are constantly fragmented, vague, and changing, requiring the modification of traditional principles of leadership and follow-up (Bell & Smith, 2010).

Apart from the practical complexities of leadership as a business practice, theoretical and analytical advances and empirical studies have demonstrated shortcomings and limitations in modern leadership theory. Other approaches that are debated on leadership research and practice take an individual viewpoint and depend on heroic leadership stereotyping. Through this view, power is seen as flowing from one leader to the individual follower and reflects an entitative, egocentric, monological, and modernist perspective that reconstructs hierarchical subject-object relations (Surbhi, 2018).

Consequently, relationships between leaders and followers are interpreted as connections and processes between autonomous individuals. The relationship of the leader is reduced to an individual activity carried out in order to learn and control the other. Leaders are thus placed as understanding and structuring, as having influence, and as being able to behave rationally as essential subjects for the organization of cultures and worlds. We use rhetoric or vocabulary for control purposes, to define and represent, rather than co-construct, independently defined contexts (Surbhi, 2018).

The focus is, therefore, on the relationship between the monadic individual (abilities, qualities, behaviors, and actions) of the leader and, through cause-effect relationships, the social environment or circumstances in which the leader tends to function. For example, in the field of leadership education, growth and training, much of the practice consists of editing and analyzing the characteristics or behaviors of leaders and leaders and trying to change them through various means in order to enhance performance, effectiveness, competitiveness, and profitability (Surbhi, 2018).

Conclusion

Many leadership development initiatives will reinforce leaders’ self-concerns by concentrating on self-growth, self-awareness, and self-improvement, making them more concerned about their identity and constrained in their perception of multiple factors and followers (What is Followership?, 2019).

Therefore, what prevails in this entitative debate is the viewpoint of the chief, whereas the roles and viewpoints of the followers are not granted authority, and significance. Followers are devalued and exploited in a given subject-object relationship. As a result, followership was either ignored or limited to concentrating on the assigning of outstanding attributes to leaders or success by followers. As followership has been an understudied subject in academic literature, only a limited amount of attention has been paid to followers of sui generis who offer or withdraw support to leaders (Surbhi, 2018).

 

References

Bell, A. H., & Smith, D. M. (20). Developing leadership abilities. Pearson.

Can Leadership Be Learned or Are You Born with It? (2015). Psychology Today. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-squeaky-wheel/201502/can-leadership-be-learned-or-are-you-born-it

Chapter 2: What Makes a Good Leader, and Does Gender Matter? (2015, January 14). Pew Research Center’s Social & Demographic Trends Project; Pew Research Center’s Social & Demographic Trends Project. https://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2015/01/14/chapter-2-what-makes-a-good-leader-and-does-gender-matter/

Hall, P., & Pearson Education, Inc. (2005). Prentice Hall literature, timeless voices, timeless themes. Silver level. Pearson Prentice Hall.

Surbhi S. (2018, July 26). Difference Between Leadership and Management (with Examples and Comparison Chart) – Key Differences. Key Differences. https://keydifferences.com/difference-between-leadership-and-management.html

Ward, S. (2007, July 17). Leadership Definition. The Balance Small Business; The Balance. https://www.thebalancesmb.com/leadership-definition-2948275

What is Followership? (2019). Constantcontact.Com. https://myemail.constantcontact.com/What-is-Followership-.html?soid=1106397659446&aid=f8VEGt4gXQQ

‌