Engaged Followership Theory Paper

Followers are major contributors to the success of any organization. It is important for leaders to understand this and empower followers to take on the ethical traits found in effective leaders. The importance of a follower’s ability to cooperate with leadership in achieving goals and metrics dictates their value to the organization. Leaders can develop inspired followers though the modeling of the followership behavior which they desire (Reynolds, 2015).
The Johnson text book outlines four principles of followership: servant, engaged, courageous, and authentic. This paper will examine the principle of engaged followership. Validity, examples, and implementation of this followership style will be analyzed. Finally the principle will be discussed in the perspective of a Christian worldview.
Engaged Followership
Academic Barbara Kellerman uses the level of engagement to evaluate the value of a follower. Her principle includes five categories of engagement: isolates, bystanders, participants, activists, and diehards. Isolates exhibit the lowest level of engagement. They apply little effort and can barely be considered followers at all. Bystanders, when given the choice, will not engage with leadership and tend to remain disinterested. Participants …show more content…
However, activity in itself is normally viewed as valuable (Kellerman, 2007). This idea brings merit to the categorization of more actively engaged follower being “better”. Kellerman clarifies her point further with the notion that isolates and bystanders will not engage in opposition to poor leadership. This premise means that good followers, such as activists, are invested as much in the cause as they are in the leaders themselves. They will take action if the leader is not meeting expectations (Kellerman, 2007). Examining the principle in this light brings validity to the good versus bad