Taking the focus off the leader (Followership,

Distributed and Shared Leadership)

Agenda• Setting the scene• Sharing leadership • Servant leadership• Follower-centred

perspective• Interactive leadership• Democratic

approaches

Rationale

Leading on from the last lecture...• Shared responsibility for leadership functions &

empowerment – more effective than heroic leadership (Bradford & Cohen, 1984)

• Shared responsibility unlikely to occur as long as people expect individual leader to take full responsibility for fate of organization

"Business Publications dedicated to the analysis and attributes of great leaders tend to ignore half of the equation. The nature of leadership can be best understood by turning over the coin and studying followership"

Goffee & Jones (2006)

• Bradford, DL and Cohen, AR (1984) Managing for excellence: The guide to developing high performance in contemporary organizations. John Wiley: New York

• Goffee, R. and Jones, G. (2006) The Art of Followership. European Business Forum, Issue 25, p. 22

The New Reality for Leadership

OLD Paradigm• Stability• Control• Competition• Uniformity• Self-centered• Hero

NEW Paradigm• Change / crisis management • Empowerment• Collaboration• Diversity• Higher purpose• Humble

Source: Daft, R. (2004) The Leadership Experience. 3rd ed. Cengage Learning: USA - Cpt 1

Follower-Centred approaches

• Grint (2005) believes we have become ‘overly preoccupied with individual leaders when, in fact, we should have been focussing more on leadership”.

• Rost sees a co-production of leadership by leaders and followers...

“an influence relationship among leaders and followers who intend real changes that reflect their mutual purposes” (Rost, 1993: 102)

Source: Johnson, B. and Parry, K. (2011) A very short, fairly interesting and reasonably cheap book about studying leadership. (2 nd ed). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

.... Sharing Leadership...

• “...rejects the distinction between leaders and followers. Leadership is seen not as a role, but as a function or an activity that can be shared among members of a group or organisation. Fundamentally, at the core of this approach is a belief that followers can and should be given their chance to lead, as it not only the right thing to do but also the smartest thing to do”.

Source: Jackson and Parry 2008: 55

Co-leadership Shared Leadership Distributed or Dispersed Leadership

Source: Johnson, B. and Parry, K. (2008) A very short, fairly interesting and reasonably cheap book about studying leadership. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Continuum of Leader-Follower Relationships

Stage 1Control

Stage 2Participation

Stage 3Empowerment

Stage 4Service

Authoritarian manager

Obedient subordinates

Participat-ive manager

Team players

Self-responsible contributors

Stewardship-empow. leader

Whole employees

Servant leader

Active

Passive

Control Centered in the Leader/Organization

Control Centered in the Follower

Follower

Leader

Source: Daft (2004) cpt 6

Source: Daft, R. (2004) The Leadership Experience. 3 rd ed. Cengage Learning: USA

Some key ideas / research

• 1958 Hollander - two-way influence and social exchange relationship between leader and follower

• 1970/1977 Robert Greenleaf - ‘servant leadership’• 2005 Messick – leadership as a mutually beneficial

relationship based on psychological exchange • 2006 Collinson’s work on contested follower

identities. “Followers are more smarter and more cunning than they tend to be given credit for, whether it is in the way they appear to support, conform, or resist”

Source: Johnson, B. and Parry, K. (2011) A very short, fairly interesting and reasonably cheap book about studying leadership. (2 nd ed). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Servant Leadership work by Greenleaf 1977

“Helping others to accomplish shared objectives by facilitating individual development, empowerment, and collective work that is consistent with the health and long-term welfare of followers.”

Greenleaf, R. (1977) Servant Leadership: A Journey into the Nature of Legitimate Power and Greatness. New York: Paulist Press

Key Characteristics of Servant Leadership (van Dierendonck 2011)

Servant Leaders:

1. empower and develop people

2. show humility

3. are authentic

4. accept people for who they are

5. provide direction

6. are stewards who work for the good of the whole.

van Dierendonck, D. (2011) Servant Leadership: A Review and Synthesis. Journal of Management Vol37 pp. 1228-1261

Servant leadership - links to other leadership theories and concepts

There are seven leadership theories that reveal the most overlap with servant leadership:

• transformational leadership • Level 5 leadership • authentic leadership• ethical leadership

• Plus: empowering leadership, spiritual leadership, self-sacrificing leadership

See: van Dierendonck 2011 for a great paper!!...

van Dierendonck, D. (2011) Servant Leadership: A Review and Synthesis. Journal of Management Vol37 pp. 1228-1261

Definition of followership (Kelley, 1988: 146–47)

"People who are effective in the follower role 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 others, and, above all, the desire to participate in a team effort for the accomplishment of some greater common purpose."

Kelley R (1988) In praise of followers. Harvard Business Review 66(6): 142–148.

Categories of followership(Jackson and Parry 2011, based on work of Meindl)

5 traditional categories

1. Followers as recipients of leadership influence

2. Followers as moderators of leader impact

3. Followers as substitutes for leadership

4. Followers as constructors of leadership

5. Followers as leaders: Shared Leadership...

Johnson, B. and Parry, K. (2011) A very short, fairly interesting and reasonably cheap book about studying leadership. (2 nd ed). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Follower Styles of Kelley (1994)

Independent, critical thinking

Dependent, uncritical thinking

Passive Active

Passive

Alienated Exemplary

Conformist

Pragmatic Survivor

Kelley, R. (1992). The Power of Followership, Bantam Dell

The Art of Followership(the paper for the seminar)

For Goffee & Jones 'The Art of Followership' means followers look for: • Authenticity• Significance• Excitement• Community

… in their roles, organisations and leaders

Goffee, R. and Jones, G. (2006) The Art of Followership. European Business Forum, Issue 25, p. 22

An example of an approach in action: Interactive Leadership

A leadership style in which people develop personal relationships with

followers, share power and information, empower employees, and strive to

enhance others’ feelings of self-worth

Daft cpt 11Source: Daft, R. (2004) The Leadership Experience. 3rd ed. Cengage Learning: USA - Cpt 11

Interactive leadership• Encourage participation

– Inclusion & developing group identity through participative mechanisms

– Need to give up control and takes time• Share power & information

– Creates loyalty & signals trust– Rejection and challenge of leader’s authority

• Enhance self-worth of others– Give credit, praise and signals of recognition

– avoid exerting superiority• Energize others

– Spread enthusiasm– Negatively seen as ‘cheerleading’

Rosenor, J.B. (1990) The way women lead. Harvard Business Review. Nov-Dec, 119-125

Interactive Leadership – Women’s Way of Leading?

• “Research indicates that women’s style of leadership is typically different from most men’s and is particularly suited to today’s organizations….scoring higher on abilities such as motivating others, fostering communication, and listening” (Daft 2008)

• Men and women can be interactive leaders !• Minimising personal ambition and developing others• Consensual & collaborative process• Influence from relationships not positional

power/formal authority• Values include personal humility, inclusion, relationship

building and caring

Source: Daft, R. (2008) The Leadership Experience. 5th ed. Cengage Learning: USA

Case Example: Terri Kelly (CEO of W.L.Gore) - Interactive and Distributed Leadership

(Seminar activity based on this)

• FORTUNE List for 13th Consecutive Year 2010 list of "100 Best Companies to Work For."

• No formal in-house titles, no bosses and a free flow of ideas

• "Your team is your boss, because you don't want to let them down. Everyone's your boss, and no one's your boss."

• "It takes a lot of energy…but we believe if you really want to harness the energy in the organization, you've got to allow it to be free."

• "All of our leaders are ranked by their colleagues. It's not based on seniority. It's not based on role or title. It's based on who's making the biggest impact to this organization."

On the more radical end of the spectrum: Economic Democracy

Economic democracy is where workers have voting rights and high participation in decision making.• Employee-owned businesses where

employees/followers own shares in the companies and therefore have some influence as shareholders OR other form of input into the decision-making process (but not always much in practice!) e.g. John Lewis Partnership, ARUP

• Worker co-operatives which can be representative democracies OR direct democracies e.g. Mondragon, SUMA Wholefoods

20

Autocratic vs. Democratic Leadership - early research

• Democratic approach advocated for fostering effectiveness & satisfaction

• Authoritarian approach may result in heightened productivity in short term

• Likert (1961)1. Authoritative

2. Benevolent autocratic

3. Consultative

4. Democratic

• Likert demonstrated that moving organization away from systems 1 & 2, and towards 3 & 4 would result in increases in productivity & employee satisfaction

Likert, R (1961) New patterns of management. New York, NY, US: McGraw-Hill

Modelling the Internal Dynamics of workplace democratization (Bernstein 2012)

Bernstein’s research into 15 cases across the world suggest these are necessary aspects in order to achieve effective economic democracy in workplaces:-

1. Participation in decision-making

2. Economic return

3. Sharing management information

4. Guaranteed individual rights

5. Independent judiciary

6. A participatory / democratic consciousnessBernstein (2012) Workforce Democratization: Its Internal Dynamics. Educational Services Publishing: Chelsea Mass. USA

Followers as owners

The core HRM practices of the ‘ownership-High-Performing Work Systems (HPWS)' are:

• employee ownership• participation in decision-making• profit sharing• information sharing• training for business• literacy• mediation

Kaarsemaker, ECA & Poutsma, E (2006) The Fit of Employee Ownership with Other Human Resource Management Practices: Theoretical and Empirical Suggestions Regarding the Existence of an Ownership High-Performance Work System . Economic and Industrial Democracy November 2006 vol 27(4) pp. 669-685

Continuum of Leader-Follower Relationships

Stage 1Control

Stage 2Participation

Stage 3Empowerment

Stage 4Service

Authoritarian manager

Obedient subordinates

Participat-ive manager

Team players

Self-responsible contributors

Stewardship-empow. leader

Whole employees

Servant leader

Active

Passive

Control Centered in the Leader/Organization

Control Centered in the Follower

Follower

Leader

Source: Daft (2004) cpt 6

Source: Daft, R. (2004) The Leadership Experience. 3 rd ed. Cengage Learning: USA

Key reading and resourcesREADING FOR SEMINAR • Goffee, R. and Jones, G. (2006) The Art of Followership. European Business Forum,

Issue 25, p. 22

KEY TEXTS• Northouse (2012) Chapter 10 (Servant Leadership)• Jackson and Parry (2011) Chapter 3 (Follower-centred)

OTHERS• Daft, RL (2011) Leadership. 5th edition. Australia : South-Western Cengage Learning -

CHAPTER 7• Art of Followership. By: Bennis, Warren. Leadership Excellence, Jan2010, Vol. 27 Issue 1, p3-4• Distributed Leadership. Ancona, Deborah; Backman, Elaine. Leadership Excellence, Jan2010,

Vol. 27 Issue 1, p11-12, 2p • Eagly, A.H. & Carli, L.L. (2003) The female leadership advantage: An evaluation of the

evidence. The Leadership Quarterly,14, 807-834• Great Leaders Teach Exemplary Followership and Serve As Servant Leaders. Banutu-Gomez,

Michael Ba. Journal of American Academy of Business, Cambridge, Mar2004, Vol. 4 Issue 1/2, p143-151

• van Dierendonck, D. (2011) Servant Leadership: A Review and Synthesis. Journal of Management Vol37 pp. 1228-1261

• Crossman, B. and Crossman, J. (2011) Conceptualising followership – a review of the literature. Leadership Vol 7 pp 481-497