Discussion: The Leader/Follower Relationship

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Discussion: The Leader/Follower Relationship

Discussion: The Leader/Follower Relationship

Discussion: The Leader/Follower Relationship

The Leader/Follower Relationship Clarifying the relationship between leading and following is the final step

in defining leadership. Earlier we noted that leaders and followers function collaboratively. Recognizing that leaders and followers work together toward shared objectives should keep us from overemphasizing the importance of leaders or ignoring the contributions of followers. Unfortunately, we generally pay a lot more attention to leaders than to followers. Leaders get the vast majority of credit when businesses like Facebook or Twitter are successful. However, these companies would not have succeeded without the hard work of software and hardware engineers, programmers, supervisors, customer ser- vice representatives, administrative assistants, and other followers. Scholars, too, have been slow to recognize the value of followers. An analysis of articles in Leadership Quarterly from 1990 (the first year the journal was published) to 2008 revealed that only 14% included any form of the word “follower” in the title or abstract.45

Shifting some of the spotlight from leadership to followership is one way to assure that followers get the credit they deserve. This shift appears to be taking place. Not only are more followership books and articles being pub- lished, but there is also evidence that followers play an increasingly important role in the modern world. In America, the decades of the 1960s and 1970s saw the birth of the civil rights, antiwar, and gay rights movements, all of which were driven by followers. Americans of all political persuasions learned to dis- trust authority. As a result, constituents gained power at the expense of lead- ers, a trend that has continued to the present. Information and computer technology have empowered followers around the world. Time magazine recog- nized the power of followers by naming “the protester” as the 2011 Person of the Year.46 Protesters brought down regimes in the Middle East, challenged corruption in India and Russia, and drew attention to economic inequality in Europe and North America.

Recognizing that leadership duties can be widely distributed is another way to ensure that followers are properly recognized. In shared leadership, group and organizational members share the responsibility for achieving collective goals.47 Shared leadership can take several different forms. Two individuals might func- tion as coleaders by jointly occupying a leadership position, as in the case of William Hewlett and David Packard, cofounders of the technology giant HP. In another form of shared leadership, group members divide up leadership func-

Hackman-Johnson 6E.book Page 19 Tuesday, March 12, 2013 12:54 PM

20 Chapter One

tions or take turns rotating in and out of leadership roles. For instance, mem- bers of a firm’s executive team may each take responsibility for one component of a merger plan (finance, operations, products, personnel). Or different team members may take the lead depending on the plan’s stage of development. The chief financial officer (CFO) might be in charge as the company determines if a proposed merger will be profitable. The human resource director will likely coordinate salary and benefits when the two groups of employees are brought together after the merger is approved. In yet another form of shared leadership, leadership duties are disbursed throughout the organization rather than con- centrated in the hands of a few individuals at the top of the hierarchy. Frontline supervisors and their teams are empowered to make hiring and firing decisions (see chapter 5), for example, or to shut down the production line. (Turn to box 1.6 for more information on disbursed organizational leadership.)

You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes.

Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages.

Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor.

  • The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE CLASS

    Discussion Questions (DQ)

    • Initial responses to the DQ should address all components of the questions asked, include a minimum of one scholarly source, and be at least 250 words.
    • Successful responses are substantive (i.e., add something new to the discussion, engage others in the discussion, well-developed idea) and include at least one scholarly source.
    • One or two sentence responses, simple statements of agreement or “good post,” and responses that are off-topic will not count as substantive. Substantive responses should be at least 150 words.
    • I encourage you to incorporate the readings from the week (as applicable) into your responses.

    Weekly Participation

    • Your initial responses to the mandatory DQ do not count toward participation and are graded separately.
    • In addition to the DQ responses, you must post at least one reply to peers (or me) on three separate days, for a total of three replies.
    • Participation posts do not require a scholarly source/citation (unless you cite someone else’s work).
    • Part of your weekly participation includes viewing the weekly announcement and attesting to watching it in the comments. These announcements are made to ensure you understand everything that is due during the week.

    APA Format and Writing Quality

    • Familiarize yourself with APA format and practice using it correctly. It is used for most writing assignments for your degree. Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for APA paper templates, citation examples, tips, etc. Points will be deducted for poor use of APA format or absence of APA format (if required).
    • Cite all sources of information! When in doubt, cite the source. Paraphrasing also requires a citation.
    • I highly recommend using the APA Publication Manual, 6th edition.

    Use of Direct Quotes

    • I discourage overutilization of direct quotes in DQs and assignments at the Masters’ level and deduct points accordingly.
    • As Masters’ level students, it is important that you be able to critically analyze and interpret information from journal articles and other resources. Simply restating someone else’s words does not demonstrate an understanding of the content or critical analysis of the content.
    • It is best to paraphrase content and cite your source.

     

    LopesWrite Policy

    • For assignments that need to be submitted to LopesWrite, please be sure you have received your report and Similarity Index (SI) percentage BEFORE you do a “final submit” to me.
    • Once you have received your report, please review it. This report will show you grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors that can easily be fixed. Take the extra few minutes to review instead of getting counted off for these mistakes.
    • Review your similarities. Did you forget to cite something? Did you not paraphrase well enough? Is your paper made up of someone else’s thoughts more than your own?
    • Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for tips on improving your paper and SI score.

    Late Policy

    • The university’s policy on late assignments is 10% penalty PER DAY LATE. This also applies to late DQ replies.
    • Please communicate with me if you anticipate having to submit an assignment late. I am happy to be flexible, with advance notice. We may be able to work out an extension based on extenuating circumstances.
    • If you do not communicate with me before submitting an assignment late, the GCU late policy will be in effect.
    • I do not accept assignments that are two or more weeks late unless we have worked out an extension.
    • As per policy, no assignments are accepted after the last day of class. Any assignment submitted after midnight on the last day of class will not be accepted for grading.

    Communication

    • Communication is so very important. There are multiple ways to communicate with me: 
      • Questions to Instructor Forum: This is a great place to ask course content or assignment questions. If you have a question, there is a good chance one of your peers does as well. This is a public forum for the class.
      • Individual Forum: This is a private forum to ask me questions or send me messages. This will be checked at least once every 24 hours.

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