Analysis Of Robert Kelley's In Praise Of Followers

. Followership is “research that seriously takes the idea that leaders do not exist without followers and that a dialectical relationship between the two; that is, leaders and followers are mutually defining and constructing” (Mumby,2013.). Robert Kelley wrote an essay called “In Praise of Followers” and in this essay, he came up with a two-dimensional model that would entail five roles for followership. These five roles are sheep, yes people or conformist, alienated followers, pragmatic followers and star or exemplary followers (Mumby,2013.).
Robert explains that the roles are not supposed to be personality traits, therefore someone may inherit different roles. The first role is sheep, which is a person that takes no responsibility and always needs to be told what to do. An example of a sheep is an employee that has no desire or drive to grow
They are employees that work at an organization for a pay check and to say they have a job. The second role are Yes people or conformist and these are people that do not question a leader’s decisions, rather are told what to do and they go out and do it. A Yes people example would be an employee that is given a job with direction from a manager they may not be the most efficient or proactive way to complete an assignment. Instead of asking questions a yes person will just sit back and complete the assignment the way it was given to them. The third role is alienated followers, which are the negative employees of the organization. An example of an alienated follower is an employee that may be disruptive to the team by constantly acting in a negative manner, since they do not agree with the manager’s decision making. The fourth role is pragmatic followers, which are the adapting