Norms of Consent

Features

Function: The Hexads enable leading and following to support each other in a normative way as part of the expectation of motivation in the employment compact.

Quality: The leading and following needed within organizations should occur naturally as an expression of motivation.

Integrationwithin each Group: Going upwards, there are progressively more abstract and dominating forms of leading and following, with all forms supporting each other.

Integration across both Groups: Provided by the mass of managers who simultaneously lead and follow.

Psychological Correlate:  Creative fulfilment in work requires both assertion and determination on the one hand, and compliance and subordination on the other.

Personal Tension: Dominance v subservience. Pressures for dominance can interfere with effective leading (as well as with following), and tendencies to subservience can interfere with effective following (as well as impairing leading).

Social Correlate: An irreducible minimum of differentiated power and status is intrinsic in all organizations, and public acknowledgement is desirable. Norms for recognition, deference, loyalty and dignity are required to prevent excesses.

Organizational Tension: Expecting both leader-type and follower-type behaviour and attitudes from managerial staff at WL2 to WL6.

Practical Implications: Recognize that leadership is Janus-faced and not absolute. Even the CEO should lead by following the governing board. Managers install their priorities while observing given priorities, develop their plans to achieve given plans, set tasks to pursue given tasks &c.

Internal Structure

It is evident that leadership from the perspective of this framework is primarily about:

  • giving direction—because that links the Levels;
  • ensuring staff are well-matched to roles—because that obviates failure;
  • maximizing subordinates' autonomy and offering creative challenges—because that releases motivation.
  • a personal style cascading from the top of the organization—because the process is natural.

ClosedSee details and graphics:

Appropriate leadership and followership attitudes and behaviours vary markedly according to level of work. Something different is demanded according to the higher vantage point within the organization.

The internal structure of the Hexads reveals:

  • g6: leading/following must be provided naturally within the organization.
  • g5: leading/following must be provided realistically within a particular field or subsidiary.
  • g4: leading/following must be provided comprehensively to develop the given range of areas.
  • g3: leading/following must be provided systematically so as to develop a specific area within the range.
  • g2: leading/following must occur appropriately to a particular case or situation in the specific area.
  • g1: leading/following must be occur as prescribed in the case or situation.

Reminder: Because the work concerns values and the need for natural and realistic behaviours, conventional line-management is not possible at WL7 ↔ WL6 or WL6 ↔ WL5. Rather, there is a need for norms and a collegiality to develop, to share a deep understanding of issues, social forces and risks.

Next & Final Step

This framework makes it clear and unequivocal that «democratic control» of an organization cannot provide for the necessary detailing of directions and handling of diverse staff, except perhaps in the simplest of outfits e.g. cells in social movements. Nevertheless, an organization is a community of sorts and a sense of membership and equality based on a common commitment is socially desirable.

Originally posted: 26-Mar-2014