Followers and Followership

1
Chapter 12

• Followers and Followership

2
Chapter Goals

• The goal of this chapter is to examine the role
  of followers in terms of the influence
  relationships have between leaders and followers,
  effects of followers individual characteristics
  on leadership follower styles, partnering, and
  SYMLOG analysis of interactions within a team.

3
Effective followers

• Effective followers have the vision to see both
  the forest and the trees, the social capacity to
  work well with others, the strength of character
  to flourish without heroic status, the moral and
  psychological balance to pursue personal and
  corporate goals at no cost to either, and, above
  all, the desire to participate in a team effort
  for the accomplishment of some greater purpose.

4
Characteristics of Followership in High
Performing Teams

• Cohesion
• Supporting top leadership
• Raising issues with top leadership
• Taking initiative
• Taking personal responsibility for team
  performance

5
Two-Dimensional Taxonomy

• Categorizing Follower Behavior Using a
  Two-Dimensional Taxonomy
• Independent, Critical Thinking ? Dependent,
  Uncritical Thinking
• Active ? Passive

6
Five Style of Followers

• Alienated Followers
• Conformist Followers
• Pragmatist Followers
• Passive Followers
• Exemplary Followers

7
Partnering

• Partnering deals with the quality of
  relationships between leaders and followers
  rather than on characteristics of leaders and
  followers.

8
SYMLOG

• SYMLOG (SYstematic Multiple Level Observation of
  Groups) A Method for Rating and Graphing
  Follower Behavior

9
Robert F. Bales and his SYMLOG model

• The work of Robert F. Bales and his SYMLOG model
  were presented as a way to help followers
  identify the behaviors they are presenting to
  other team members and to give them direction
  should they decide to change. Equally important
  is the notion Bales presents of more than two
  dimensions as important for followers to be aware
  of. His concept of images in field space
  provides a useful way to conceptualize these
  complexities that better represent reality.

10
Situational Characteristics

• Crises
• Task Interdependence
• Innovation
• More Receptive to Change
• Organizational Downsizing

11
Basss Theory of Transformational and
Transactional Leadership

• Transformational leaders possess
  charismatic-leader characteristics (vision,
  rhetorical skills, etc.).
• Transactional leaders do not possess these leader
  characteristics, nor are they able to develop
  strong emotional bonds with followers or inspire
  followers to do more than they thought they
  could. Instead, transactional leaders motivate
  followers by setting goals and promising rewards
  for desired performance.