Leader-Follower Theory
In organization, leaders and followers play a significant role in maintain the competitive edge. Smooth business operations and high quality services are achieved when leaders and followers cooperate to adequate leadership. Due to the rapid change and growth of competitive organizations, effective leadership is essential as it will help the organization adapt to the changes. Focusing on leader-follower theory and the related various perspectives, RUYI et al, (2016) assert that self-sacrificial leaders help employees create self-sacrificial behavior.Self-sacrificial leaders are committed to their work; they are charismatic, legitimate, build trust and motivate workers to increase performance as well as to follow positive behaviors. The article asserts that self-sacrificial leaders have prosocial behaviors and strong goals that motivate she team in behaving ethically and engaging in prosocial behaviors. Self-sacrificial leaders help the organization achieve effectiveness as employees are motivated to improve performance thus accomplishing the desired effects (RUYI et al, 2016).When leaders exhibit self-sacrificial behaviors and demonstrates value, employees gains the willingness to follow and more importantly becomes committed to the organizational task. Furthermore, when self-sacrificial leadership builds employees’ self-sacrificial behaviors, there is a leader-follower relationship which leads to higher job satisfaction and organization efficiency (RUYI et al, 2016).
In analyzing leader-follower theory perspectives, Lee et al (2017) introduce the ethical leadership and its role in developing employees’ ethical behaviors. The author asserts that ethical leadership and employees’ ethical behaviors create value congruence. This means that through ethical leadership, employees develop a moral voice and a moral efficacy. The two help employees conduct business operation with self-image (Lee et al, 2017). Leaders demonstrate ethical leadership through personal actions, communication and decision-making. The results of ethical leaderships is job satisfaction, high job performance and organization effectiveness. The reason for achieving these desirable outcomes is because ethical leaders act as moral manager, show honesty, trustworthiness, collective motivation and reinforces ethical standards. Ethical leadership rewards ethical followers and disciplines employees who violate ethical standards image (Lee et al, 2017). Thus, ethical leadership develops moral voice and moral behaviors, and the two leads to commitment toward organization goals and objectives, thus achieving the organization effectiveness.
According to Malakyan (2013), the literature on leadership does not put attention on followership but rather it focus on leaders’ perspective. However, the article asserts that there is a new paradigm which values the relation between leaders and followers. The emerging literature is based on follower-centered research and it mainly seeks to education on the role and importance of leader-follower relationship in organization. The article introduces various theories which support the new paradigm. For example, path-goal theory asserts that leaders have the reasonability to set goals and help the employees achieve the goals through motivation and empowerment. In addition, leaders ensure that there are no obstacles which hinder better performance. Organization achieves effectiveness when leaders are supportive, directive and goal-oriented. Psychodynamic approach also support the leader-follower theory in that leader understands the psychological world of the followers in carrying out effective roles (Malakyan, 2013). Authentic leadership tells that leaders create relationship with followers through building interpersonal perspective, transparency and authenticity. Last, the article introduces the leader-follower trade approach and asserts that organization effectiveness is achieved when leaders and follower act as two separate roles. The trade different functions and the build intrapersonal perspectives and mutual effectiveness (Malakyan, 2013).
Hollander (2009) asserts that leaders and followers play a significant role in organization. Both have an active role in that all the organization levels require the active role of the leader and the passive role of the follower. The article asserts that leadership functions which correlate with attention and influence are followed by employees. Good leaders show honest, competency and trustworthiness in carrying out roles such as goal setting, decision-making and more. Though there is power imbalance between leaders and followers, they both influence each other through leader-follower interaction. Leader-follower theory argue that organization effectiveness is achieved when leaders’ traits becomes the attributes of followers (Hollander, 2009). For example, followers respond to leaders’ competency and motivation.
Cropanzano et al (2017) assert that leader-member exchange theory (LMX) explains the organizational leadership by connecting the leaders and followers. The article asserts that the relation between the two produce positive outcomes which are achieved through job satisfaction and high performance. Leader-member exchange theory asserts that the relationship between the two is a associated with role taking (Cropanzano et al, 2017). During the initial interaction, there is high-quality relationship and leaders are able to guide the followers on the right direction toward organization effectiveness. The latter is achieved through role making and members increase performance on the role assigned by the leaders.
Reference
RUYI, Z., LIRONG, L., & PO, H. (2016). POSITIVE AFFECT, ENVIRONMENTAL UNCERTAINTY, AND SELF-
SACRIFICIAL LEADERSHIP INFLUENCE FOLLOWERS' SELF-SACRIFICIAL BEHAVIOR. Social Behavior
& Personality: An International Journal, 44(9), 1515-1524.
doi:10.2224/sbp.2016.44.9.1515
Lee, D., Choi, Y., Youn, S., & Chun, J. (2017). Ethical Leadership and Employee Moral Voice: The
Mediating Role of Moral Efficacy and the Moderating Role of Leader-Follower Value
Congruence. Journal Of Business Ethics, 141(1), 47-57. doi:10.1007/s10551-015-2689-y
Malakyan, P. G. (2013). Followership in Leadership Studies: A Case of Leader-Follower Trade
Approach. Journal Of Leadership Studies, 7(4), 6-22. doi:10.1002/jls.21306
Hollander, E. P. (2009). Inclusive Leadership : The Essential Leader-Follower Relationship. New York:
Routledge.
CROPANZANO, R., DASBOROUGH, M. T., & WEISS, H. M. (2017). AFFECTIVE EVENTS AND THE
DEVELOPMENT OF LEADER-MEMBER EXCHANGE. Academy Of Management Review, 42(2), 233-
- doi:10.5465/amr.2014.0384
