The Role of Followership in Effective Leadership Practices

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Jun 10, 2024

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Eric Bernholc Followership The quote conveys to me us that leading and following go hand in hand. To be an effective leader you must have effective followers and followers need a good leader to guide them. While these two things go hand in hand, there is more of an emphasis on being an effective leader. People tend to glorify leaders and view followers as not as smart or important which is why they may be disparaged. Uhl-Bien, et. al., mentions that this may be due to the romance of leadership which is the tendency to attribute all organizational outcomes-good or bad-to the acts and doings of leaders. The romance of leadership reflects our needs and biases for strong leaders who we glorify or demonize in myths and stories of great and heroic leaders…While we heroize (or demonize) leaders, we almost completely disregard followers. (2015, p. 288) This is evident by the fact that when the name of a company comes up, we almost always think of the leader of the corporation. We will always hear the names: Buffett, Gates, Bezos, Jobs, Branson, Rockefeller, Carnegie, etc. This is a product of our infatuation with leaders. I would be hard pressed to come up with the name of an effective follower. People are attracted to the glory, power, and recognition that comes with being a leader. Therefore, one hears about being an effective leader but is never recognized for being an effective follower. In all honesty, I have never experienced a situation where I was told to be an effective follower. There are a few different leadership theories and practices that can be used to help an organization recognize the importance of followers. One practice would be to reduce the power distance between leaders and followers. “Power distance is the extent to which followers see the leader as having much high status than them,” (Uhl-Bien, et. al., 2015, p. 310). By reducing the

power distance, followers will not see themselves as being less important than their leaders. If a follower and leader in a reduced power distance orientation sees themselves as similar in status to each other, the follower is less likely to heroize the leader. These followers will then realize that like the leader, they are just as important. I feel empowerment leadership would help accomplish this goal. This involves “allowing participation in decision making, removing bureaucratic constraints, and instilling confidence that performance will be high. Empowering leadership emphasizes the importance of leaders delegating authority and employees assuming responsibility” (Uhl-Bien, et. al., 2015, p. 320). I feel this style of leadership goes hand in hand with reducing power distance. Here the leader is taking the focus off themselves and instead, giving each follower the chance to act as their own leaders by making their own decisions. Here the hierarchy structure is broken down and followers are free to act. This elevates their status in the power distance relationship. “When low-power-distance consumers consider a user-design philosophy, a feeling of vicarious empowerment may emerge, as they are predisposed to desire situations in which they can imagine themselves participating in the decision” (Paharia & Swaminathan, 2019, P. 93). Many people would feel more important and valued if they had the opportunity to participate and make their own decisions. This increases their self-value and helps to better emphasis the importance of followers.

References Paharia, N., & Swaminathan, V. (2019). Who is Wary of User Design? The Role of Power Distance Beliefs in Preference for User-Designed Products. Journal of Marketing , 83(3), 91-107. https://doi-org.ezp.scranton.edu/10.1177/0022242919830412 Uhl-Bien, M., Schermerhorn, J., & Osborn, R. (2015). Organizational Behavior, 13th Edition (13th ed.). John Wiley & Sons.

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