Characteristics of Effective and Dynamic Followers Essay

Article Review on the Characteristics of Effective and Dynamic Followers Leadership, defined as the influence over a group of people, is one of the essential elements in organizations and defines the type of followers in an institution. Webber, in one of his leadership letters, discusses characteristics of followers in an organization or a society. This paper seeks to review Webber’s article ‘Kinds of followers.’ The author compares an organization to a human body whose functionality is impaired as long as one part of the body is not well. This, he argues, is the foundation of spiritual strength in the sense that a church works under functionalist theory in which different parts depends on each other for sustenance. According to the author, this establishes the essence of effective followers, besides effective leaders, for a successful organization. Followers can be classified according to the way they think or the way they act. Classification according to how people think leads to two groups, independent followers, also known as â€Å"critical thinkers†, and dependent followers, â€Å"uncritical thinkers† (Webber, 2003, p. 1). Independent followers are considerate of their environment, initiatives, and even other people’s initiatives. They exhibit and are willing to exploit their capacity to generate solutions and alternatives. Dependent followers, however, lack creativity and only cling to offered directions. This level of obedience instructions among ‘uncritical thinkers’ is reported even in cases that demands creativity into alternative actions. Followers can also be classified according to their actions as either active or passive. Active followers participate in activities and engage with other members of the organization while passive members are limited in their actions and relations, and require regular supervision. While different other categories of followers may exist with a combination of these characteristics, survivors exhibits combined characteristics of active, passive, dependent and independent followers (Webber, 2003). Webber, therefore, successfully explores the five categories of followers and points to survivors as the most effective and dynamic followers because of their diversified characteristics. Reference Webber, M. (2003). Kinds of followers. Retrieved from: http://www.leadershipletters.com/2003/02/13/kinds-of-followers/