School structures are designed with teachers,
staff, and administrators in the roles of followers and leaders. Followership
is key in the relationship between administrators and staff. Without followers
there can be no leadership roles. Both followers and leaders are equally
important and balance each other out for the success of the school environment.
“To date, several models have been proposed for assessing effective leadership.
The GLOBE project highlights six leadership dimensions that appear to characterize
effective leadership across cultures; these dimensions evaluate whether a
leader is charismatic, team oriented, participative, human-oriented, autonomous
and self-protective (House et al., 2004). In a different model, Offermann,
Kennedy, and Wirtz (1994) proposed eight leadership characteristics, six of
which have been replicated and validated in several studies (e.g. Epitropaki
& Martin, 2004; Bray, Foti, Thompson, & Wills 2014). They included six
leadership prototypes (sensitivity, dedication, charisma, attractiveness,
intelligence, and strength) and two anti-prototypes (tyranny and masculinity)
(Offermann et al., 1994),” (Da'as & Zibenberg, 2021, p. 3). Followers are
individuals who willingly and effectively follow the parameters of the leadership
or administration. Some characteristics that a good follower holds are: ability
to take directions well, good listening skills, support the leadership goals,
team player, and able to deliver what is expected. Other key characteristics
include: loyalty, sportsmanship, focus on their efforts, committed to the
common goal, honest, and able to manage themselves well. “Employee perceptions
of effective followers have been found to include the attributes of integrity,
dependability and communication skills, among others (Carsten, UhlBien, West,
Patera, & McGregor, 2010). Sy (2010) identified that the content and
structure of IFTs suggested the followership prototypes: industry (hardworking,
productive, goes above and beyond), enthusiasm (excited, outgoing, happy) and
good citizen (loyal, reliable, team player); and followership anti-prototypes:
conformity (easily influenced, follows trends, soft-spoken), insubordination
(arrogant, rude, bad-tempered) and incompetence (uneducated, slow,
inexperienced),” (Da'as & Zibenberg, 2021, p. 4). The ideal followers are
defined as confident in their abilities and the abilities of leadership. Good
followers do not need to be told repeatedly what needs to be done, they already
know what is expected of them and commit to completing all tasks for the
success of the school and organization.
Reference.
Da'as, R., &; Zibenberg, A. (2021). Conflict, control and
culture: implications for implicit followership and leadership theories.
Educational Review, 73(2), 194–208.
