Leadership and Followership as a Relational Process

Bourdieu’s distinction between rules and strategies and secondary principal practice

“…While the terms rules (or regulations) and strategies occur in many articles, they are often used in plain language (London, 1991; Lumby, 2012; MacBeath, 2008; Marsh and LeFever, 2004; Moreland, 2009; Pansiri, 2011; Ranson, 2008), that is, not defined, explained or applied according to Bourdieu’s arguments in his theory of practice. Despite some researchers’ commitments to gaining access to the lived experiences of school leaders (Cliffe, 2011; Fuller, 2012; Ribbins, 1991; Russell, 2003; Smith, 2011; Starr, 2012), Bourdieu’s challenge to researchers to focus on strategies as a way of getting to the heart of practice has not been taken up by those researchers, nor in other research into secondary school leadership research reported in the Educational Management Administration and Leadership journal. In the next section, I explain Bourdieu’s arguments and his theory of practice.…”

Conceptualising followership – a review of the literature

“…In addition, with the current climate of shared, distributed or dispersed leadership where ‘[i]ndividuals can be followers in one team at the same time as they are leaders in another' (Horsfall, 2001) has almost certainly meant that the concept of followership has become increasingly relevant to both practitioners and academics. The view that followership is a complement to leadership and ‘encompasses important character traits for any person who aspires to lead others’ (Agho, 2009: 160) also highlights the value of learning more about how to develop followership and has the added benefit of enhancing leadership competence and indeed organizational effectiveness from the perspective of a number of authors writing on the subject (Bjugstad et al, 2006; Dixon and Westbrook, 2003; Rosenbach and Taylor, 2006; Russell, 2003; Wortman, 1982). This paper therefore aims to highlight and clarify some key concepts through a review of the literature on followership with the needs of professional developers and organizations in mind.…”

“…Writers use the term ‘followership’ in a number of ways: as the opposite of leadership in a leadership/followership continuum, a direct or indirect influential activity, or as a role or a group noun for those influenced by a leader (Atchison, 2004; Briggs, 2004; Gronn, 1996; Hodgkinson,1983; Russell, 2003; Seteroff, 2003). In other words, definitions of followership are also often constructed in terms of how the concept relates to leadership.…”

An Ethnographic Narrative of Relational Leadership

“…Nomsa conducts her work with a moral code of conduct, she empowers others to achieve and leads by example in and out of school. Her leadership style is evidence that leadership is a social process with a strong relational element (Russell 2003). Responsibilities reach far beyond of what is traditionally known as school.…”