The Followership Continuum - The Innovation Journal

3. Persists or has staying power,
4. Entrepreneurial in approach and spirit with a focus on taking risk to accomplish
results and doing what’s necessary to get things done,
5. More proactive as a problem fixer rather than reactive as a problem identifier,
6. Adaptable, flexible and capable to manage change,
7. Optimistic or is positive in approach, and
8. Pursues continuous improvement and engages in personal development to achieve
competence.
The preliminary research on the characteristics of exemplary followers also reaffirmed that the
stages of followership are developmental, in that a follower is first committed before being
actively engaged. This question was reaffirmed by more than 88% of the respondents.
The survey participants confirmed that commitment is necessary to have effective action or to be
an engaged follower. Loyalty is created through commitment, which is reflected in an intrinsic
belief in an effort. The committed follower moves to the next stage on the Followership
Continuum, by demonstrating active engagement. Effective followers build on these preceding
stages by adding competency to the work effort.
These early stages of the Followership Continuum provide the building blocks for becoming an
exemplary follower. The results from the survey respondents confirm this hypothesis, by
confirming the sequencing of these followership stages. An exemplary follower requires
commitment, active engagement, and competence. But these behaviors are not enough. An
exemplary follower must be willing to set ego aside, demonstrate initiative or self-empowerment,
and operate with an internal locus of control, among other traits. Exemplary work effort by a
critical mass of followers is needed to help sustain organizational productivity and to help
organizations become world-class. Otherwise the workforce offers unfulfilled potential.
Research Concept #2- Movement Along the Followership Continuum –Confirmation of this
concept is attributable to data obtained from participants of a county government workforce.
It is this fluidity of an individual’s movement on the Followership Continuum that provides the
basis for its importance as a model for taking the pulse of the workforce. As noted, the
Followership Continuum is intended as a model for both diagnostics and development. It allows
organizations to take a pulse by answering such questions as the following:
• Where do most of the employees fall on the Followership Continuum?
• Do the followership patterns vary across organizational functions, operating units, tenure,
or other elements of differentiation?
• Do the primary followership patterns for the organization show a normal or conventional
distribution, or is the distribution skewed in some way?
• Over time, are followership patterns changing in the desired direction?
• Is there directional congruency or incongruence between the followership patterns and
organizational outcome measures?
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