Why are emergent leaders good?

Emergent leadership occurs when a group member is not appointed or elected as leader, but rather that person steps up as the leader over time within-group interactions. Have you ever faced challenges in getting accepted into your new role of position as a leader? Groups don't automatically accept a new "boss" as a leader. Emergent leadership is what you must do when taking over a new group. Learn more about emergent leadership.

Índice Show

1. Valence model of Emergent Leadership:
2. Theory of Idiosyncrasy Credit:
3. Social Identity Theory:
4. Neo-Emergent Theory:
Characteristics of Facilitative Leadership:
Conclusions:
Related Links
You May Also Like

Have you ever noticed that the person who has been assigned to a leadership position does not always become the real leader in spite of having a formal leadership position in an organization? Similarly there exist informal leaders because of the way they are treated, their commands and directions followed, the respect they command, the way other group members respond to them. When others perceive an individual as the most influential member of a group or an organization, regardless of the individual’s title, the person is exhibiting emergent leadership. How a group member emerges and maintains a leadership position, has been a subject of study for more than a century now and since then various phenomena, theories, and techniques of emergent leadership have been identified, developed, and advocated. The individual acquires emergent leadership through the support and acceptance of other people in the organization and it is the “emergent leader” who is most respected and most followed in any leadership setting.

1. Valence model of Emergent Leadership:

This model is based on Tuckman's (1965) group-development sequence proposed by Stein, Hoffman, Cooley, & Pearse in 1979. According to this model, the process of emergent leadership passes through three distinct stages; Orientation, Conflict, and Emergence. During the orientation stage potential leaders announce their candidature, during the conflict stage there is more than one leader competing for the same emergent leadership position and finally, in the emergence stage, group members willingly start following and obeying the leader who has passed the "emergence threshold."

2. Theory of Idiosyncrasy Credit:

This theory was proposed by Hollander (1958, 1961) where he theorized that the group member who emerges as the leader is perceived by other group members as meeting expectations that the group has for the leader. The more leaders are believed to meet the groups' expectations, the more leaders accumulate credits. Thus, leaders both assert their influence and have their influence accepted as a result of the credits they earn. If the leader does not innovate and does not conform in accordance with the group's expectations, the leader will lose credits. If enough credits are lost, then the leader can be replaced by another group member.

This theory provides a unique perspective on leadership emergence. According to this theory, leadership emergence is the degree to which a person fits with the identity of the group as a whole. As groups develop over time, a group prototype also develops. Individuals emerge as leaders in the group when they become most like the group prototype. Being similar to the prototype makes leaders attractive to the group and gives them influence with the group.

4. Neo-Emergent Theory:

The neo-emergent leadership theory (from the Oxford school of leadership) supports that leadership is created through the emergence of information by the leader or other stakeholders, not through the true actions of the leader himself. Leaders can only be recognized after a goal is met, and that follower’s perception of leaders is heavily influenced by the accounts of how those goals were accomplished.

1. This type of leadership emerges over a period through communication, they are outspoken and perceived by others as contributing great ideas

2. Emergent Leaders are verbally involved with their team members

3. Emergent Leaders seek others’ opinions, are innovative, and seek new ideas

4. Emergent Leaders are more dominant, more intelligent, and more confident about their own performance

Emergent leadership is a leadership style that is based on creating a collaborative culture that is proven to dramatically increase innovation and profit. Emergent Leaders are armed with persistence and effective communication skills which help them get involved with people, seek information firsthand, and be innovative taking inputs from the entire group. This form of leadership is more adaptable to change and emergent leaders are more effective and have a greater chance of succeeding in any setting.

Bad Leadership Style

A good leadership style is something that every effective leader must have in order to succeed, but identifying what that entails or does not entails might be difficult to understand. Most of the research on leadership focuses on the exemplary, best practices, and positive attributes of effective and successful leaders. This article talks about a new approach to learn leadership using lessons from bad leadership. That is the lessons to be learned by examining leaders who have not effectively exercised their power, authority, or influence.

Read more
Crisis Leadership Style

Crisis leadership is a very important part of leading in today's world. The skills a leader needs in order to guide people during a crisis are different from the skills needed to help a group grow. Are you a good crisis leader? What is your leadership style in case of a business crisis situation? A business crisis can test the strongest of leaders, read this article to explore how to ensure you’re ready to take action and weather the storm when one strikes you.

Read more
Directive Leadership Style

This style is characterized by leaders making decisions for others and expecting followers to follow instructions. The directive leader is adept at giving instructions, setting expectations, and establishing timelines and performance standards. However, it is possible for the same leaders to display both directive and supportive behavior as per the demands of the situation.

Read more
Laissez-Faire Leadership

Laissez-faire is a style of leadership that affords the group members a great deal of independence. Tasks are delegated to the group members and they are responsible to see the project through to fruition. Research has shown that this style of leadership leads to the lowest levels of productivity. This article explains this style and covers the implications of having a hands-off approach and the situations where this style could be effective.

Read more
Characteristics of Leadership

There are four characteristics of leadership that help us to understand the character of leadership as a concept. 1. Leadership is a process, 2. Leadership involves influence, 3. Leadership always occurs in a group context and 4. Leadership involves goal attainment. These are the four components that make up the character of the 'leadership' term and help us to define the leadership concept. All of these components of leadership have common characteristics.

Read more
Leadership Styles

Have you ever resonated that there seem to be as many different ways to lead people as there have been great leaders? When we recall the success of Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Abraham Lincoln, Napoleon Bonaparte to Steve Jobs and Jack Welch, we also notice that they all used different approaches that were suitable to their specific situations and circumstances. Over the last century, researchers and psychologists have developed simple ways to describe the “Styles of leadership” and in this section, we will explore these commonly known leadership styles.

Read more
Appreciative Leadership

Appreciative leaders encourage contributions from those around them and facilitate the discussion to mutually solve problems. Understand the concept of Appreciative Leadership and learn about tools to create and ask powerful questions - that lead to new discoveries and possibilities. Instead of focusing on what’s wrong in the workplace, learn about, and build upon what works. Learn in this article the art to apply appreciative inquiry to specific situations and challenges at your workplace.

Read more
Scientific Management Style

Frederick Winslow Taylor started the “Scientific Management Movement”, and attempted to study the work process scientifically. Scientific management, also called Taylorism, was a theory of management that analyzed and synthesized workflows. It is a system for increasing the efficiency of manpower to its maximum potential and streamlining production to improve efficiency. This article explores this theory in more detail.

Read more
Types of Power in Leadership

Power is the ability to exercise influence or control over others. Leadership involves authority and it is very important for leaders to understand what type of power they're using. The 5 Types of Power in Leadership are Coercive power, expert power, legitimate power, referent power, and reward power. Authority is the right to command and extract obedience from others. It comes from the organization and it allows the leader to use power.

Read more
Authoritarian Leadership Style

Although generally considered as a traditional, outdated, and non-preferred style of leadership, the autocratic style still can be used effectively in certain situations. It is a leadership style characterized by individual absolute control over a group. If you work for an autocratic leader, your job is usually to do what you're told. Learn more about this style and situations where this could be an effective style to use and when to avoid this type of approach. Analyze the characteristics of this style to evaluate if your followers consider you an authoritarian leader!

Read more
Charismatic Leadership

Charisma is a certain quality of an individual personality, by virtue of which he is set apart from ordinary men. Charismatic Leader gathers followers, through dint of personality and charm. Understand the meaning and concept of Charismatic Leadership and the qualities of a charismatic leader. Gain an understanding of the advantages and disadvantages of using charismatic leadership. Finally, explore the difference between charismatic and transformational leadership.

Read more
Collaborative Leadership

Collaborative leadership is all about collaborative problem-solving and decision-making or can also be defined as the leadership of a collaborative effort. . The term started to appear in the mid-1990s in response to the formation of long term public-private partnerships to rebuild public infrastructure. Learn how you can use principles of collaborative leadership to enhance your leadership skills for being an effective leader.

Read more
Emergent Leadership

Emergent leadership occurs when a group member is not appointed or elected as leader, but rather that person steps up as the leader over time within-group interactions. Have you ever faced challenges in getting accepted into your new role of position as a leader? Groups don't automatically accept a new "boss" as a leader. Emergent leadership is what you must do when taking over a new group. Learn more about emergent leadership.

Read more
Agile Leadership Style

Charles Darwin had once commented that “It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change.” Agility means the capability of rapidly and efficiently adapting to changes and recently, agility has been applied in the context of software development, agile enterprise, and agile leadership. Agile leaders play an important, even essential, role in scaling agility in an organization. Understand how being an agile leader helps in effectively catalyzing organizational change.

Read more
Tasks & Roles of Leadership

What are the functions which a leader does to establish as a leader? What are the activities undertaken by them to become great leaders, rather revolutionary leaders? The most important tasks done by a leader in all situations are defining the vision, mission, and goals, leading the team, administrative functions, motivating followers, decision making and conflict resolution, and continuous development.

Read more

Page 2

Facilitative Leadership is all about involving the employees in the decision-making process at all levels enhancing their sense of ownership, responsibility, and motivation. Facilitative leadership style uses a number of indirect communication patterns to help the group reach consensus and build commitment for the decision taken. To be effective in modern organizations, managers need to become facilitative leaders, learn what it means to be a one.

To facilitate means to “make it easier” and a leader is a person who can get others to achieve assigned tasks. Hence a facilitative leader is a “person with authority or influence who encourages others to get up and do things”.

In business today, there is an increasing emphasis on facilitative leadership as a way forward. Facilitative leadership is about using the group’s collective expertise to accept responsibility and solve business problems collectively. Traditionally, managers used their authority to make decisions, which employees followed. Rather than being directive, the facilitative leader involves employees in the decision-making process and ensures their commitment to the final course of action. This approach removes the "them versus us" mentality and ensures buy-in from every individual who has been involved in the decision-making process.

Characteristics of Facilitative Leadership:

1. Facilitative leaders value creativity, reflection, and brainstorming over planning, commanding, and directing. They assume that most people are self-motivated and appreciate challenges and the team members are more innovative collectively than what they are individual.

2. Facilitative leaders have a strong interest in individuals and encourage ideas from all the team members. Decisions are reached by consensus and are supported by all team members. They trust their peers and employees to be able to create new solutions and ideas in creative ways.

3. Facilitative leaders are inquisitive about their underlying values and the reasons for their opinions and behavior.

4. Facilitative leaders are reflective in nature, ask structured, probing questions, and encourage interaction and debate, helping individuals to see alternative points of view. They encourage the team to think outside the box and actively work to instill confidence within the group.

5. Facilitative leaders have a high degree of patience as facilitation takes time and they are very flexible and readily change plans, ideas, and strategies based on the group’s suggestions.

6. They encourage healthy conflict and opposing views. They see this as an opportunity to get issues out in the open and have them resolved. An environment is created whereby individuals respect the wisdom and contributions of others on the team. They believe that every team member has an equal right to express their opinion and disregard traditional chain-of-command discipline.

7. Facilitative leaders focus on what the group is learning from the process as well as the outcome of the task.

8. Facilitative leaders provide coaching, support, encouragement, and appreciation. Tasks are divided up depending on the skills of each individual member and each individual is accountable for their agreed actions.

9. Facilitative leaders share the credit and praise with the team and/or individuals and in case of failures are ready to own the responsibility.

Conclusions:

This is a special leadership style that can be used by anyone who runs meetings. Facilitative Leadership can also be practiced by creating self-managed teams, which make decisions without the need for an authoritative figure giving instructions. The Team Leader role can further be rotated amongst the team members for a set period of time.

Although this particular style has many advantages but this might not be the appropriate style for all situations or all organizations. While it might produce results for one set of people it might create apathy and inefficient work habits within another. This approach requires careful planning. The business culture and the timing need to be supportive and leaders must assess and appraise the situation and circumstances before deciding on the degree of employee involvement.