Importance of trust and loyalty in a leader-follower relationship

Discuss about the Trust and Loyalty for Binding Elements in the Leader.
 

Trust and loyalty: Binding elements in a leader-follower relationship. An organization is a combination of people.  An organization cannot run on its own, it requires people to run its operation. In any organization there are mainly two groups of people, one is leaders and others are followers. Leaders run the main operation of the business while followers act as supportive members of this operation so, both these groups are very important for the growth of an organization. The absence of any of this group can lead the organization toward decline. 

On individual level every person has its own motive for his /her life, so most probably a person will like to do those things which will be helpful to their growth. But as this individual works in an organization so the individual has to give importance to its organizational goal instead of its personal goal (Williams, 2018). Here comes the role of leader-follower relationship. Any relationship is always base on the two pillars of life that is trust and loyalty (Hollander, 2012). 

Due to International business, the employees have to work in multicultural environment. So, companies always consider those employees which are high in emotional intelligence because they have to face many situations in their working where they have to interact with the individual with diverse culture to form social bonds along with self-control in emotions. It is not that only follower should possess emotional intelligence, also leader should possess this emotional intelligence as his/her quality because a leader is continuously in interactive mode with the people, where a leader has to form emotional bonds, understand feeling of followers and has to face such complex problems which cannot be solved until the person is emotionally strong (Pastor, 2014). For any organization, the most important is its development because due to advance in technology, running a company with many competitors is very difficult, so the organization always has to be in dynamic mode. It is the responsibility of the leader for the development of the company and also it is the duty of follower to executive such development in between them through strategic planning which may include planning, organizing, acting and doing (Harrison, 2011).

Many times business process occurs without consideration of trust between leader-follower and need for trust only arises when there is a situation where there is an exchange of power, project or some confidential material. In 1970, a research was conducted in which two foundation pillars for trust was found out, one was the ability and other was character (Cranston & Ehrich, 2017). An empirical study was done on the role of trust in improving intellectual capital. A qualitative methodology was used for this study which was based on sharing of unspoken knowledge in a mission-based organization. The finding of this study was that sharing usually happens on the basis of interactive verbal counseling, combined problem-solving and supervisory to learn. It showed that trust facilitates the activity of sharing tacit knowledge in the group and the leaders are the main role player. Trust base leadership allows contact; communication and collaboration along with the group dynamics and workplace climate seem the most critical factor in exchanging the trust. This study also focused that open communication; functioning relationships between group members are the key points to achieve the organizational goal (Savolainen & Lopez-Fresno, 2013).

Role of emotional intelligence in a leader-follower relationship

Another empirical study was conducted in a telecommunication company in analyzing the effect of ethical leadership on the association between leaders and followers, as well as significances for the individual performance. From this study, it was found that subordinates who feel that their leaders are following ethical tended to estimate their association with their higher authorities in the most sympathetic way. It was also found that the people managed by ethical leaders seem to have greater tendency to willingly collaborate with other people and the last finding was that employees who saw themselves very close with their higher authority show greater commitment to complete organization goal ( Niemeyer & Cavazotte, 2016).   

One of the initial steps to gain trust is by showing warm nature. A knowledgeable person is well respected in an organization but now people do not really care about how much knowledge a particular person is carrying, instead of that, they are focusing on how the leader is behaving with them (Morreall, 2008). Do, the leader shows empathy with them, do the leader is treating them as a team member and shares all the information with them which is needed as a part of work. If the employees feel that their leader is able to understand what they feel and what is better for their future. Then there will be a strong bond of trust between the employee and leader which will help the leader to convert these employees into his/her follower. So, the leader should try to understand his follower as close as he/she can so that a leader can immediately perceive what his followers are expecting from him/her.   

The second option for the leader to gain trust and loyalty is by remaining fair with all the employee. As LMX theory says about in group and out the group, if a leader really wants to gain the trust and loyalty of his all employees and become his follower the leader has to create such an environment of fairness in which there is no in -group and out -group. A study was conducted on quality and development of relationships in Leader-follower in a higher education context. This study offered new experimental insight into the progress of a leader-follower relationship from the viewpoint of employees. The outcome of this study was that the employees who are in the mature stage of their leader-follower relationship, LMX will hardly vary over time by themselves. As an alternative, their growth needs to be reinforced with the help of an intentionally OD process and involvement proved to be the active approach (Norvapalo, 2014). A leader must set up fix criteria which should be explained by him to each member and on the basis of this criterion the members will be judged for their performance (Barbuto jr & Gifford, 2012).

The responsibility of leaders and followers for the development of the organization

The third option for the leader to gain trust and loyalty is trusting followers. Many research shows that leader authorizes behavior, the level to which leaders are eager to share power and choice with followers, depends on the trust leaders have in followers presentation and integrity. The real leader has not only to gain trust from followers but also should learn how to trust followers. It is said that trust on a person will make that person trustful to you. So, trusting leaders generate employees who are more creative, counsel and provide more help outside the requirement of their job and stay with the organization for a long time. As per the organization graded structure many time the interaction of manager with the subordinate is very low, so the opportunity to show their trustworthiness becomes low. It has seen that manager with high trust on their employees is able to create a trust full environment which gives birth to highly effective and efficient work process. Many times it is the situation which plays a major role in the development of trust in between leader and follower because as leaders have enough experience with the followers and also is aware of their capability helps to form a trusted environment which is useful for the growth of followers as well as the organization. 

As per Michelle Bligh, the role of leaders is not limited to just make followers. Leaders also serve many important roles like motivating employees, guide them directly to achieve the goal. All leaders possess some style which varies from person to person. Some leaders have autocratic style, some have democratic style, some have transformational style and some have bureaucratic style (Ali, Jangga, Ismail, Kamal & Ali, 2015). But among all these most important is transformational style. Transformational leaders implement new ideas, continuous improvement, introduce flexibility in the work process and maintain a good relationship with not only members of the organization but also from the outside world. They usually build their relationship with the employees by using some of the factors like charisma, inspiration and individual consideration (Halpern, 2015). Bringing change in an organization is not an easy thing. Change always brings opposition. Opposition leads to resistance. It has been seen that employees always dislike change because they have to learn new process again by giving up the previous process; they have to give up their previous work pattern and have to adopt the new pattern of work. In short, they have to adjust their whole life into a new one which will have an impact on the balance of life of the employee (Ogola, Sikalieh & Linge, 2017). So, here comes the role of where a leader can gain the trust of his employee and can show them that they really care about their employees. In this role, the leader act as a mentor or coach. The leader tries to find out the first priority of his/her employees and then start mentoring them accordingly which is also known as individualized consideration.

The role of fairness and empowering employees in gaining trust and loyalty

Here leader starts guiding his employees in such a way that their priority may not get disturbed and also educate the employee about the benefits of bringing this change in the organization along with how this change will reshape their future (Holt, Armenakis, Field & Harris, 2007). If the leader really wants to gain the trust of his employees the most important thing which the leader should keep in mind is that in any situation the work life of employee should remain balanced with the personal life of the employee (Myers & Sadaghiani, 2010). The leader can attain this by empowering the employees to manage things on their own. Leaders can provide training session in which the leader can provide them the necessary knowledge to about balancing life. The leaders can also conduct workshops in which the employee will face the real situation and from the situation, they will learn the necessary skill that they may need in balancing their personal and professional life.   If this aspect is missed it can lead the organization to sit on the burning stove (Friedman & Westring, 2015).           

A study was conducted in Jordan to find out the role of organizational support in the development of members. This research says that organization support plays a backbone for the growth and development of the employees. Organization support act as a positive motivator for converting the workplace environment into the environment of the home and in this leader act as a catalyst (Moghli, 2015).   If the leader is not able to provide the needed support which the employees are expecting along with the security of their job, then the employee will not leave even a single reason to dislike their leader, criticize leader for every possible step which the leader is going to take leaving the trust and loyalty apart and if the leader is able to provide the full support to the employee in case of security for job as well as the work which they are doing for the organisation leaders (Arshadi & Hayavi, 2013). Then a relationship will be developed which will be of blind trust with full of loyalty. In this case, a leader can act as a head of family binding followers as a family member on the basis of support (Karanges, 2014). 

Conclusion  

Building trust and loyalty are not easy for both leaders as well as followers. It requires a lot of efforts to create such an environment. Trust and loyalty is a very powerful asset in the hands of both leaders as well as followers. It now depends on them on which way they want to make use of such powerful tool. If the leader wants to create the environment of trust and loyalty then they must follow some leadership style like showing warm nature, fairness, trustworthy and supportive. If the leader will apply all this in the workplace, then the only leader will be able to gain the trust and loyalty of his employees. Through trust and loyalty, a leader can create such a working place in which members of the organization which put their full effort to achieve the best outcome from that effort which will be not only helpful for the present situation of the organization but also for the future growth of the organization. This will not only create the organization with full efficiency but also an organization which will make the best effort for the maximum utilization of available resources. 

The importance of individualized consideration and mentoring in leadership

References:- 

Abou-Moghli, A. (2015). The role of organizational support in improving employees performance. International Business Research, 8(2), 198.

Ali, N. M., Jangga, R., Ismail, M., Kamal, S. N. I. M., & Ali, M. N. (2015). Influence of leadership styles in creating quality work culture. Procedia Economics and Finance, 31, 161-169.

Arshadi, N., & Hayavi, G. (2013). The effect of perceived organizational support on affective commitment and job performance: the mediating role of OBSE. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 84, 739-743.

Barbuto Jr, J. E., & Gifford, G. T. (2012). Motivation and leader-member exchange: Evidence counter to similarity-attraction theory. International Journal of Leadership Studies, 7(1), 18-28.

Cranston, N. C., & Ehrich, L. C. (2009). Leadership today. Retrieved from: https://search.informit.com.au/documentSummary;dn=095511054895130;res=IELHSS

Friedman, S. D., & Westring, A. (2015). Empowering individuals to integrate work and life: insights for management development. Journal of Management Development, 34(3), 299-315.

Halpern,Geg .(2015).Transformational Leaders Build Relationships. Retrieved from: https://aboutleaders.com/transformational-leaders-build-relationships/#gs.OzORTbg

Harrison, R. (2011). Learning and development. Development and Learning in Organizations: An International Journal, 26(1).

Hollander, E. (2012). Inclusive leadership: The essential leader-follower relationship. New Yoke, U.S: Routledge.

Holt, D. T., Armenakis, A. A., Feild, H. S., & Harris, S. G. (2007). Readiness for organizational change: The systematic development of a scale. The Journal of applied behavioral science, 43(2), 232-255.

Hurley, R. (2012). The trustworthy leader: The first step toward creating high?trust organizations. Leader to Leader, 2012(66), 33-39.

Karanges, E. R. (2014). Optimising employee engagement with internal communication: a social exchange perspective. Journal of JBM, 7(2),329-353.

Morreall, J. (2008). Applications of humor: Health, the workplace, and education. The Primer of Humour Research, Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter,72, 449-478.

Myers, K. K., & Sadaghiani, K. (2010). Millennials in the workplace: A communication perspective on millennials’ organizational relationships and performance. Journal of Business and Psychology, 25(2), 225-238.

Niemeyer, J. R. L., & Cavazotte, F. D. S. C. N. (2016). Ethical leadership, leader-follower relationship, and performance: a study in a telecommunications company. RAM. Revista de Administração Mackenzie, 17(2), 67-92.

Norvapalo, K. (2014). The quality and development of the leader-follower relationship and psychological capital: a longitudinal case study in a higher education context. Jyvaskyla studies in business and economics, 144, 1457-1986.

Ogola, M. G. O., Sikalieh, D., & Linge, T. K. (2017). The Influence of Individualized Consideration Leadership Behaviour on Employee Performance in Small and Medium Enterprises in Kenya. International journal of business and social science, 8(2).

Pastor, I. (2014). Leadership and emotional intelligence: the effect on performance and attitude. Procedia Economics and Finance, 15, 985-992.

Savolainen, T., & Fresno, P. L. (2013). Trust as intangible asset-enabling intellectual capital development by leadership for vitality and innovativeness. Electronic Journal of Knowledge Management, 11(3), 244.

Williams-Ali, R. (2018). Effective Leadership Strategies, Employee Performance, and Organizational Sustainability in the Boxing Industry. Washington, US: Walden University.