Leadership as Reciprocity of Leader and Followers

摘要

Most of the leadership theories emphasize characteristicsof leaders (Kirkpatrick, 1991, Katz, 1995, Stogdill, 1963),followers, context (Blanchard, 1985, Fiedler, 1974) or theircombination (House, 1974) and leadership is consideredfrom the point of view what leaders give to their follower bytreating them as a group. Theory of leadership evaluatingleadership from the point of view of relationship is thetheory of leader-member exchange (LMX) (Dansereau, F.,Graen, G. B. and Haga, W., 1975). This theory considers theinfluence of subordinates on the leader to be of the sameimportance as the influence of leaders on subordinates.LMX theory presents the model of the creation of leadershipwhich proposes leaders to search for the methods of creationof mutual trust and respect with all subordinates, thuschanging the whole wok unit into an inside group. LMXtheory prompts leaders to create relationship of maturepartnership with every subordinate and to avoid anyinequity. We raise the hypothesis: the quality of interactionbetween a leader and a follower and the process of thecreation of leadership at the same time are influenced by theage and sex of subordinates, therefore while creatingleadership these aspects should be taken into account.The research of the interaction between the leader andfollowers performed among the higher medical staff ofstationary departments of Kaunas county hospital and itsbranch Kaunas psychiatry hospital showed some differencesamong sexes in the process of the creation of leadership andsome influence of the age of a follower to the quality ofinterchange with the leader. The analysis of the interactionbetween a leader and followers allowed us to make the finalgeneralization as follows: 1) the more aged, the more oftenhigh quality interchange is formed with a leader and mostlythis tendency is exposed among respondents aged 41-60 whoalready have some work and life experience; 2) despite thefact that the major part of the investigated group consistedof women, even twice more men in comparison to womengroup create high quality interchange with the leader; 3)men trust their leader more than women and are ready toprotect and to explain his/her decision. 4) women feel lessunderstood by their leaders, considerably less than mentrust them and more seldom are ready to protectthemselves and to explain their decisions; 5) however,despite the quality of interchange with the leader, womenwho form the major part of the members of the dyad arenot less pleased in their relationship with the leader thanmen. Therefore it could be stated that despite a promptattempt of leaders (by LMX theory) to create relationshipof mature partnership with every subordinate avoiding anyinequity, it is necessary that such aspects as age and sex offollowers should be taken into account.