Leadership has always been the main focus of management research. There has been various studies that suggest or teach leaders how to become effective leaders among their followers. Until recently little attention has been paid to followership in leadership research (Baker, 2007; Bligh, 2011; Carsten, Uhl-Bien, West, Patera, & McGregor, 2010; Kelley, 2008; Sy, 2010 as cited in Uhl-Bien, Riggio, Lowe, & Carsten, 2013). It takes two to tango in this kind of relationship, without followers, there will be no leaders, and vice versa. In this particular study, followers will be given focus in order to determine what ways of employee cynicism can affect leader identity.
Since the 5th century B.C., cynics viewed civilization as unreal and unreliable. …show more content…
It is as an attitude characterized by frustration, hopelessness, and disillusionment, as well as “contempt toward and distrust of business organization, executives, and/or other objects in the workplace” (Cook & Medley, 1954 as cited in Andersson & Bateman, 1997, p. 4). When an employee possess this attitude, they see their supposed leaders as someone who does not care who they hurt in the process of pursuing their goals. Employees would see their leader as “representing the ‘other side’ of the system”(Shamir, Zakay, Breinin, & Popper, 1998, p. 391 as cited in Gebert, et al., 2015). Cynicism is generally viewed as negative, and is therefore a sensitive topic to managers and organizations. Because of this sensitivity, negative attitudes as well as the organizational practices that foster then have been relatively neglected in management research (Andersson, …show more content…
Past research have focused mainly on how leadership styles have affected employees and followers and not the other way around. This study adopts the proposition of Gerbert, Heinitz, Buerengeler (2015) as a recommendation for future research to explore the ways by which employee cynicism can affect leader identity. Leader identity is commonly depicted as “intrapersonal, one-directional, and static.” In an organization, a member would claim and act as a leader and the rest would follow if and only if the followers accept him as a leader. Once there is a clear designation of roles, follower and leader identities will emerge (DeRue & Ashford,
Since the 5th century B.C., cynics viewed civilization as unreal and unreliable. …show more content…
It is as an attitude characterized by frustration, hopelessness, and disillusionment, as well as “contempt toward and distrust of business organization, executives, and/or other objects in the workplace” (Cook & Medley, 1954 as cited in Andersson & Bateman, 1997, p. 4). When an employee possess this attitude, they see their supposed leaders as someone who does not care who they hurt in the process of pursuing their goals. Employees would see their leader as “representing the ‘other side’ of the system”(Shamir, Zakay, Breinin, & Popper, 1998, p. 391 as cited in Gebert, et al., 2015). Cynicism is generally viewed as negative, and is therefore a sensitive topic to managers and organizations. Because of this sensitivity, negative attitudes as well as the organizational practices that foster then have been relatively neglected in management research (Andersson, …show more content…
Past research have focused mainly on how leadership styles have affected employees and followers and not the other way around. This study adopts the proposition of Gerbert, Heinitz, Buerengeler (2015) as a recommendation for future research to explore the ways by which employee cynicism can affect leader identity. Leader identity is commonly depicted as “intrapersonal, one-directional, and static.” In an organization, a member would claim and act as a leader and the rest would follow if and only if the followers accept him as a leader. Once there is a clear designation of roles, follower and leader identities will emerge (DeRue & Ashford,