Reactional And Autocratic Forms, The Types Of Leadership

Many leadership researchers and scholars have stated that leaders do not exist without followers. Leadership has been described as the process of influencing, in which a person can enlist the support of others to accomplish a task or goal (Nye, 2010 and Oc & Bashshur, 2013). A leader is one whom others agree to follow, but a follower must be willing to be led. In developing leaderships styles and theories, the traits and behavior of the leaders were considered by Bass (2008). Bass described these styles as transactional and transformational leadership (2008). For the purposes of this short essay, I will discuss two leadership styles, the types of followers, and the autocratic style being used by this organization’s new VP.

Leadership Types:

As defined by Kellerman (2008), there are five types of followers: bystanders, isolates, participants, activists, and diehards. At any given point, an organization can include members who fall into some or all of these categories. The isolates care very little for their leaders and the organization and generally just want to get the job done and do not respond well to leadership. In fact, isolates resent the idea of leadership. Bystanders on the other hand, are those followers who follow passively, observing from the side, rarely getting involved. They do not resent leadership as the isolates do, but offer very little support to the leaders. Participants care about the group/organization and generally want to make an impact, if they feel that the leader will support them. On the other hand, activists have strong beliefs about the organization and their leaders. If they agree with their leaders, they follow them almost blindly, but if they do not, they work to get rid of their leaders. Those employees with the highest level of engagement within an organization are diehards. If they agree with the path their leaders is taking them down is the right direction, they will follow. However, if they think their leader is destructive, “imposing goals on constituents without their agreement of regard for their long-term welfare” (Padilla et al., 2007, pg.177), then these followers

Authoritarian leaders, provide clear expectations about what, when, and how something is to be done. However, these leaders lead with an iron fist, marking a clear delineation between the leaders and the followers (Bass, 2008). This sort of leadership style inherently alienates group members since they feel they have no input on changes being made. Research has shown that employees are less creative and less innovative under this style of leadership (Bass, 2008). A successful leader achieves his goals by granting power to his followers through influence (Nye,