Leader Follower Communication Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Leader Follower Communication - Research Paper Example This paper illustrates that a leader is expected to be honest, and manage to gain his followers’ trust, as the latter determine if the leader is effective or not. Moreover, followers are in a position to determine whether a leader should be followed or not. Followers are different and hence require different forms of leadership. For instance, new employees may require more supervision compared to experienced employees, while an employee who is de-motivated may require a different form of leadership compared to the motivated employee. The growth of followers is determined by the effectiveness of a leader. Generally, there exist several types of followers, including the effective follower, who is independent and active, the conformist follower who is dependent of the leader but also active, and the alienated follower who is independent but not much of a team player. In addition, there is the passive follower who is prone to resistance and therefore requires a high level of super vision, and the pragmatic follower who is normally stuck in the middle, as he is not sure on his stand and sometimes maximize on their self-interest only. In addition, leadership varies with situations, such that a certain type of leadership may be applicable in one situation but it may not be applicable in another. Leaders and followers differ in that everyone can be a follower but not all can be leaders since leadership is not only a position defined by a state of mind and character. Followership is the willingness to follow a leader or to be led; however, a leader can as well be a follower, as he has to follow his superiors and his followers. For instance, in the case of a flight captain who gives orders to his crewmembers, if the crew does not understand, he goes ahead and teaches them on how to attend to that particular matter, thereby becoming a follower since he reacted to the actions of his followers. In this research, a selection of followers was made from nurses who report to doctors, a clerk who reports to the manager, a personal secretary who reports to the managing director and technician who reports to the head engineer.