The leadership concept in organizational behavior theories implies the presence of subordinates, also referred to as the leader’s followers. Furthermore, in addition to the idea of leadership and qualities commonly associated with leadership, there also is a concept of followership behavior. Followership can be perceived as the ability to take directions, participate in a team activity, and the need to meet the leadership’s requirements or expectations. Both leadership and followership have different styles, corresponding to different ways in which leaders and followers interact with each other. While leaders generally define followers’ motivation and performance, followers can also influence the leader’s behavior. According to Velez and Neves (2022), the leader’s role was overemphasized as the sole source of influence in the organization. Moreover, followership plays a more critical role in empowering leaders and addressing organizational failures (Ndonye, 2022). Thus, in modern conditions prioritizing smart working, the concept of followership must be considered equal in importance to leadership.
Exploring the interactions between leadership and followership using an example of a specific company can provide valuable information about followership and potential problems employees can encounter if they do not adhere to the leadership’s demands. Netflix Inc. is a company that offers subscription streaming services and distributes films and television series. The company also has a separate production company known as Netflix Originals, which creates content for the streaming platform. Considering the initial role of employees in the organization and leadership’s actions, Netflix employees have a bigger role in the company’s success because of their creative freedom and influence on the platform’s original content. Furthermore, as the company capitalizes on discussing important and relevant social topics in their projects, employees in Netflix can be perceived as effective followers from the viewpoint of leadership and followership theories.
However, the company’s current issue is the inability to respond to effective followers’ requests appropriately. Effective followers who prioritize individualism and continuously challenge organizational leaders by questioning the organization’s strategy contribute to the organization’s growth and development. Effective followers also present the most productive type of employees in the leadership theory who are highly committed to the organization and its purpose. On the contrary, weak leaders who lack leadership capabilities avoid effective workers because they are more likely to cause internal conflicts.
Netflix’s current leader Reed Hastings uses an innovative participative leadership style that improves the employees’ motivation and behavior. However, Hastings practiced an autocratic leadership style before he arrived at Netflix. In 2021 Netflix employees organized a walkout flagging anti-trans content on the platform (Paul, 2021). The leadership showed support for the controversial content and eventually fired the worker responsible for the organization of the walkout. Thus, the leadership does not pay attention to internal conflicts and cannot provide an adequate response to effective followers’ requests. Moreover, it could be that Hasting’s previous use of an autocratic leadership style influenced the decision, reducing employees’ motivation and causing dissatisfaction among employees.
In this case, the followers can influence the behavior of leaders by asking them to be more involved in the decision-making process of future projects. Furthermore, the company’s success was predominantly sourced in employees’ creativity and talent, and the company’s mission encourages diversity and inclusion. Thus, by informing the leaders that the company’s success relies on workers’ productivity, the followers can influence the behavior of leaders and gain more influence on the company’s activity.
In conclusion, this paper analyzed the impact of leadership and followership on an organization’s success using the example of Netflix company. The paper identified that using an autocratic leadership style could affect employees’ motivation and behavior in diverse organizations with a high proportion of effective workers. Thus, to improve leadership and employee performance, Netflix leaders should prioritize using a participatory leadership style and develop adequate measures for responding to effective employees requests.
References
Ndonye, D. M. (2022). Followership in the leadership process and organizational performance: A review of the literature. International Journal of Organizational Leadership, 11, 26-43. Web.
Paul, K. (2021). Netflix employees join wave of tech activism with walkout over Chappelle controversy. The Guardian. Web.
Velez, M. J. & Neves, P. (2022). A followership approach to leadership: The interplay between leadership, context, and follower behaviors. Journal of Personnel Psychology, 1-14. Web.