Waiting for Clearance-A Case Study in Followership
The case study, ‘Waiting for Clearance’, concentrates on the leadership concept of followership and how it affects followers and leaders within an organization. The company involved in the case study is Alvon Biometrics. The case study and analysis by our virtual team is about the relationship between CEO Tony Bussard, and his COO, Juan Carlos De La Vega. The case study questions concentrate on exploring followership concepts relating to how COO Juan De La Vega’s handling of repairing the follower-leadership relationship that he has with CEO Bussard a year after being hired by the Alvon Biometrics Company. The next several sections of this paper will answer key questions, followed by identifying
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The CEO raved about how knowledgeable De La Vega was when he was hired as the new COO. Our group agreed that he would tried to use the expert power that De La Vega had to get the subordinates to come to him instead of going straight to Bussard for direction. De La Vega was not sure that he had any legitimate power with his new position, but he could have used his knowledge of bio metrics to have expert power that would have helped him have his subordinates shift their attention from Bussard to him. Expert power is “…power resulting from a leader’s special knowledge or skill regarding tasks performed by followers” and “…when a leader is a true expert, subordinates go along with recommendations because of his or her superior knowledge” (Daft, 2015, p. 372). We believe that De La Vega could have used this to get his subordinates to stop ‘by-passing’ him and going to the CEO for …show more content…
Managing ‘up’ “…means consciously and deliberately developing a meaningful task-related, mutually respecting relationship with one’s direct superiors” (Daft, 2015, p. 196). De La Vega should have strived to gain a clearer understanding of what his role would be as the ‘day-to-day’ operational leader. He could have employed the five principles of followership to establish a successful relationship with Bussard as CEO. The CEO failed to ‘manage up and down’ the hierarchal scale of his own organization as a leader and would not relinquish power. The CEO was dependent upon De La Vega to be his key “point man” in day-to-day operations. The follower-leader relationship is important to both the leader and the follower because “…Leaders of higher organizational levels depend upon their subordinates for information, support, and assistance in accomplishing the organization’s goals” (Daft, 2015, p. 197). Had the principles and strategies of effective followership, combined with the desirable followership traits of “cooperation, honesty, dependability and competency” (Daft, 2015, p. 211) been utilized by the CEO and COO, the outcome of the case study would have been
There have been countless books, lectures, and and trainings, and retreats constructed around the idea of cultivating leadership in an individual. However, cultivating individuals’ ability to follow great leadership has received far less attention. Who are these people leading if each person within an organization is being trained to be a leader? The word follower has negative connotations, evoking the images of a weak, uncreative, milquetoast personality. However, Jimmy Collins, in his book, “Creative Followership: In the Shadow of Greatness”, suggests that the ability to be led brings as much creativity, consciousness, and indeed leadership to an organization or team as the leader himself. Great followership is a reflection of great leadership. In this, the follower is just as important as the leader in the relationship. Many great leaders have asserted that a leader with even a modicum of understanding of what drives their subordinates can take their organization to previously undreamt-of heights in creativity and productivity. Collins does not disabuse us of this notion, he does however add that the follower is indispensable agent in this interplay between leader and follower.
Across the globe, there are CEO’s, managers, and several other individual’s in leadership-type roles that have the expectation of making their company successful in the eyes of the investors, the employees, and the customers that they serve. This may be measured by a company’s gross profitability, employee engagement or overall customer satisfaction. Most companies have leadership models and strategies in place that leaders are expected to use in order to drive the expectations of the company while maintaining consistency across the business. In an effort to examine various types of leadership styles, I have conducted interviews with two individuals that are or have been previously tasked with leading their teams and their company towards success.
This case study demonstrates a young woman leader, Toby Johnson, who used to serve in the military as a pilot and attended Harvard Business School, joined PepsiCo’s Leadership Development Program (LDP), and was working in the management team at the Williamsport plant. She determined to forge ahead, and led the plant to achieve the Level 3 CI and also won the Doolin Award, which the Williamsport plant had never achieved before. The problem that Johnson encounters currently is that if the plant should continue to forge ahead and achieve the ultimate Level 4 CI, which will cost huge amount of money and efforts with the risk of her sudden leave of plant.
Steve Jobs and Fr. Jose Arizmendiarrieta were the founders and leaders of two different but highly successful and profitable organisations, Apple and Mondragon. The two companies are from different parts of the world, in different industries, and can only be compared by their organisational and financial success. Fr. Jose and Steve were the architects of this success, leading and inspiring confidence and support among the people who were needed to achieve their vision and organisations goals (DuBrin, 2013). This essay will compare and contrast the leadership of Steve Jobs with that of Fr. Jose Maria Arizmendiarrieta based on Andrew J. DuBrin’s leadership theory.
Küpers, W. (2007). Perspectives on Integrating Leadership and Followership. Retrieved 4 22, 2014, from International Journal of Leadership Studies: http://www.regent.edu/acad/global/publications/ijls/new/vol2iss3/kupers/kupers.htm
...rming relationships with employees was made clear by being efficient and fair to preserve and inspire their workforce. These results can be further studied in a dissertation that is duplicated in a different culture to test the consistency of its findings. Using the information from these two studies, it is clear that transformational leaders behaviors have an impact on their follower’s perception (Bacha and Walker, 2012; Cho and Dansereau, 2010).
It seems self-evident that one cannot be a leader unless he or she has followers; put differently, one cannot hold a leadership role unless others are prepared to hold followership roles. These roles are more or less symbiotic - done effectively, each role can support and benefit the other. Nevertheless, the term “follower” has acquired a negative connotation, and leadership is generally considered to be the pinnacle to which we should all strive in our working lives, if not our personal lives as well. However, thanks to the work of authors such as Robert E. Kinney, who introduced the concept of followership, the characteristics, roles and paths of followers now receive increased attention. Kinney’s groundbreaking article, “In Praise of Followers”, appears along with the work of other authors on followership in The Leaders Companion.
Ivey Business Journal. (n.d.). Followership: the other side of leadership. Retrieved January 14, 2014 from http:iveybusinessjournal.com/topics/leadership/leadership/followership-the-other-side-of-leadership#.UtbFeaFMHIU
Vecchio, R. (Ed.). (2007). Leadership: Understanding the dynamics of power and influence in organizations (2nd ed.). Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press.
House et al. (2007) discovers that leadership and Organisational culture are closely linked together as leaders influence the culture of their organisations. Researches talk about a range of leadership definitions but it is not easy to define. (E.g. Western, 2008; Yukl, 2010). However, Cohen (2009) critically analyses definitions from Dracker (1996), Eisenhower (1969), Northouse (2004) and finally summarised the definition of leadership constitutes five elements. First of all, ask question to set direction, which means effective leaders need to listen to followers’ voice respectfully and then share the common goals and ideas with them. In addition, leaders need to seek insights and allocate resources optimally; act ethically; allow their employees to work in a conformable and most effective way. This essay will explain different leadership styles and how they influence the organisations with examples of organisations and leaders with main focus on well-known entrepreneur: Sir Alan Sugar. He grows from nothing to incredible success (£ 730 million), is a legend in the UK business history; his reality TV show “The Apprentice”, a great entertainment for recruitment appeals to the public without reasons. However, he as a person is controversial amongst people, probably due to his leadership style as bullying or harassment (destructive). There are four schools of leadership styles: Trait, behavioural, contingency and transformational. Nevertheless, in the case of Alan Sugar, trait and transactional styles match him which will be illustrated following in detail.
Followership is an active role which, when successful, enhances the performance and effectiveness of a leader. As Uhl-Bien & Pillai (2007) define it, followership is “deferring to the directives, decisions, or desires of another, thereby giving another higher status and legitimacy in determining the course of events”. To do so in an authentic manner, followership requires truth and integrity. This is valid for both the individual’s beliefs, preferences, and feelings, as well as in commitment to the organization and its leadership.
It is very common in this day and age to become discontent with where you are at in leadership. One of the reasons for this discontentment can be because influencing all of those around us is not an easy thing to do. If we are to not only stay content, but also excel in leadership we must keep in mind that ninety-nine percent of leadership does not come from the top of any given organization, but the middle. John C. Maxwell, author of The 360-Degree Leader, speaks to us about the principles that leaders can use to bring value and influence to any organization from any level within the organization, enabling them to do, what John C. Maxwell describes as leading up, leading across, and leading down.
Suddenly, some companies become extremely successful, while rest of them unfortunately remains a failure. There can be off-course a lot of reasons for this failure but one of the main reasons is lack of leadership qualities. There are many s...
Leaders come in all forms, whether they are a boss or a coach of some sort. Leaders are expected to motivate their followers. The failure of the company typically divulges on the non-achievement of the leader and the goals of the followers, (Giessner & Knippenberg, 2008). The theoretical approach of this article is essentially processed on the social identity approach. Social identity focuses primarily on how and what type of credit a leader achieves by their followers when success is a factor and vice versa. Giessner and Knippenberg(2008) argue that most leaders whom are less desirable and trustworthy should not be compared as deeply as those who are more desirable and trustworthy. The theory of “license to fail” is discussed by Giessner and Knippenberg(2008). Generally in an organization, a leaders’ prototypicality determines the amount of support they have in an organization. This is generally determined by how often the follower follows the leaders’ instructions and obeys their
Organizational success is dependent on both leaders and followers. A strong leader “cannot expect others to follow; leaders must provide a good reason for others to follow” (Satterlee, 2013, p. 6). Similarly, effective followers “share a number of essential qualities, including intelligence and self-reliance”, and do not require constant attention or approval (Satterlee, 2013, p. 6). A necessary element in building the foundation for functioning relationships, trust is an “intangible intellectual asset, a skill, and an influencing power” for leaders and followers (Savolainen & Hakkinen, 2011, Abstract section, para. 1). This literature review considers the concepts of leadership, followership, and trust by examining how each is important to organizational leaders, as well as, strategies for implementing within an organization. “A good manager gets others to do what he/she wants them to do. A good leader gets others to want what he/she wants.”