Leader-Follower Research Results
By Sherri Malouf, CEO of Strategic Soft Skills Institute
When I set out to do my PhD, I originally wanted to conduct research into influence. With all of the required courses that I could customize to influence, I started looking at the available academic literature. To my surprise, I realized that the behavioral work we do all over the world goes way beyond anything I found in the literature.
I shifted my focus to a variety of disciplines, such as psychology, neuroscience, sociology, systems (cybersemiotics – WOW!), to name a few. Dr. Fred Steier, who was on my dissertation committee, said: “Sherri never met a theory she didn’t like!”
From my review of the literature, it seemed like research was lacking in regard to the quality of the relationship between leaders and followers, so that’s the path I decided to take.
Based on my theoretical argument, I proposed that the Implicit Social Elements® (Status, Fairness, Trust, Self-Control, Reciprocity, Mutual Recognition Respect, and Empathy), which I established during my studies, are the foundational pieces of high-quality relationships between leaders and followers. Imagine, it took all of that time to find what many would call common sense!
As studying the leader-follower relationship was new territory, I was fortunate to find a company that would allow their employees to fill out a validated tool for my research. It took me some time, but I also found a statistician who could look at what I was doing and figure out what statistical tests would work.
The validated tool takes about 15 minutes to complete and has two sections. The first part describes common workplace scenarios, and the participant chooses an outcome which is closest to what happens in their organization. The second part contains seven questions focusing on a relationship. After completing the questionnaires, the data will be statistically analyzed, and the company will receive the final score and which of the Implicit Social Elements correlate with that score.
The relationship questionnaire has only been used on personal relationships and the highest score anyone received was a B-! FYI, the company who participated in the research was in the midst of a layoff, and although that hadn’t been made public at the time, everyone knew it was coming.
They ended up with an average score of 3.365 out of 5, or a C-. Trust had the strongest correlation with the relationship score, which wasn’t surprising given the environment. Interestingly, Status came in second, and that can be seen in terms of how valued an individual feels within the organization (do I still have a job?). Finally, both Reciprocity (there is a transactional side to the relationship) and Self-Control ranked third. Remarkably, Self-Control was more important to followers than leaders.
This tool provides an organization with a look at their culture from an angle not common to typical organization surveys having to do with employee satisfaction. Individual leaders are not singled out by the tool. It needs a minimum of 200 participants to be statistically analyzed.
Be adventurous – find out what your company’s grade would be! You can also find out more about the Implicit Social Elements® and conducting this type of study by ordering my book “Science and the Leader-Follower Relationship” from Amazon.
