A lot of people want to be a leader. Whether this is in an organizational setting, a sports team, or even a group project. People always talk about how to be the next millionaire, and what their personal philosophies are on how to be an effective leader. With all of this discussion about leadership however, it is forgotten that the majority of us are followers. In addition, even if we are leaders in some aspects of our lives, we are followers in others.
What I found most surprising when reading about followership is how many typologies I fit into depending on the setting. When looking at the Kellerman Typology, follower types fall on a spectrum of their level of engagement (Northouse, 2019). These types, from least engaged to most are: isolates, bystander, participants, activists, and diehards (Northouse, 2019).
I am a part of the Student Programming Association (SPA) Concerts Committee at Penn State. In this club, I can easily be classified as a bystander (Northouse, 2019). I show up to club meetings and I help operate the concerts, but nothing else. I do not really participate and speak my opinion when we discuss which artists to bring, I am only an active listener to the discourse.
This bystander followership is contrasted however when you compare it to my participation in my sorority. I was on the executive board of my sorority and an active member for all of my time. I would be classified as an activist (Northouse, 2019). Depending on the environment I am in, I may change which follower typology I fit into.
This idea that people are different types of followers in different settings can even transfer to organizational settings as well. When looking at the organization chart below you can see two managers. These managers are leaders as they are each in charge of two individuals. However, at the same time they are followers under the CEO. This shows that even within an organization, you are more likely to be a follower than a leader, and you may even be both in different settings.
Going forward, it is necessary to continue to do research and create theories on followership. This is because, more often than not, we will be put in positions of followership than we are leadership. If we are to be good followers, we must understand as much as we can about it.
References:
Benegal, S. (n.d.). Followership. Lecture. Retrieved February 3, 2021, from https://www.slideshare.net/sachidananda_bs/followership-45552463
Nishadha. (2021, January 8). Types of Organizational Charts (Organizational Structure Types) for Different Scenarios. Retrieved from https://creately.com/blog/diagrams/types-of-organizational-charts/
Northouse, P.G. (2019). Leadership: Theory and Practice. Los Angeles: Sage Publications.
Hi Madison,
I totally agree with you that we are all followers. With every organization, group or club that we are involved in, followership comes hand in hand with that. As followers, it is our duty to remember that our actions have influences on the leader’s attitudes, behaviors and outcomes (Hamel, 2021). This is called the role-based perspective, and I think it’s one that we can carry with us to everything that we’re involved in. For example, I am a member of a THON committee at Penn State. I work below my two committee captains, and sometimes it is easy to forget that what I put into THON and our mission also has a direct effect on them. As followers, it is still our responsibility to ensure that our actions and our leaders actions are in the best interest of the goal as a whole. We should still take initiative, resist, provide feedback and consult with each other. If both leaders and followers contribute to the goal, the team is on the path to success.
Hi Madison
I agree with you very much! Especially on the topic that you created, we are all followers. It is true that in a huge organizational setting, even we are the supervisor or the management team in a certain department, but we are still a follower for our upper management team. What’s more, even we are the CEO of the company, there is a board of directors and other board members that we have to follow. Even we are the board of directors we still have to follow the government’s order. Then as we all learned in our history or political class, the government’s primary function is to serve the citizen of their country. And we can not forget there are other countries in the world. Thus what you said about we are all followers, I can not agree more.
However, we can not forget we are also leaders in many cases, as if there are light, there are dark. We may be the follower of our supervisor, but we may be the leader in our department or our family. Thus, it is important for us to be able to know what we should be done in both situations.