Authority and Followership

In the preface of Followership, the author Tom Atchison, states the reason there has to be a dynamic followership and Leadership role it 's not that there 's a lack of effective leadership in healthcare, it’s that the current, worsening, issues are the moral and the staffing shortages of followers which result in a toxic work environment and the challenges on how followers overcome that while being a productive team.

The essays that comprise Traditional Classics on Leadership present varying notions of authority and of challenging authority. This is largely due to the fact that this manuscript is comprised of essays from 31 contributors, ranging from well-known political theorists to some of the more salient voices for individuality that the world has known. Still, there are some points of commonalities in these essays that present a synthesized viewpoint of the concept of challenging authority.

In the classical empires, the rulers were expected to be trustworthy, improved the quality of life of their citizens, and rule by a philosophy or religion. As the administration system became more advanced, people expected their

The governing legal, moral and religious codes of ancient civilizations were written and enforced by a minority that exercised power and authority over the majority. This minority consisted of priests, rulers and elites with established power and influence in society. In these codes of early civilizations, there was an overarching emphasis on maintenance of structure and order in society. Simply put, while these codes reflect the conditions, needs and values of the times in which they were formulated, they also unveil the authors’ agendas to preserve their power by maintaining the status quo. Therefore, these codes acknowledge and uphold the prevailing social, gender and racial inequalities as natural conditions of human existence and reveal the manifold biases present in early civilizations.

Authority cannot exist without obedience. Society is built on this small, but important concept. Without authority and its required obedience, there would only be anarchy and chaos. But how much is too much, or too little? There is a fine line between following blindly and irrational refusal to obey those in a meaningful position of authority. Obedience to authority is a real and powerful force that should be understood and respected in order to handle each situation in the best possible manner.

Authority is seen as an essential part of society that is set into place to keep groups, nations, and other organizations from a chaotic downfall. Although authority may seem to be a good asset to society, some may argue that it can corrupt one’s ethics. Several experiments on authority have shown how it can play a role on an individual’s character. The presence of an authority figure forces power among individuals which can lead to unusual change in behavior to an extent that it changes one’s own moral values.

Today our society raises us to believe that obedience is good and disobedience is bad. We are taught that we should all do what we’re told and that the people that are disobedient are almost always bad people. Society tells us this, but it is not true. Most people will even be obedient to the point of causing harm to others, because to be disobedient requires the courage to be alone against authority. In Stanley Milgram’s "Perils of Obedience" experiment, his studies showed that sixty percent of ordinary people would agree to obey an authority figure even to the point of severely hurting another human being. (Milgram 347).

When I was in grade school playing softball with a neighborhood girlfriend when her brother, who under the guise of showing me how to bat, reached under my shirt and fondled my nonexistent breasts. I was ashamed and told no one at the time. I was taught shame at an early age. My parents were under a lot of stress and I knew that if I spoke to them about it, they would see me as bringing more trouble into their already chaotic lives. My father would ask, “What did I do to cause the situation?” I didn’t want to be the bearer of shame and so I stayed quiet. Later, while still in grade school, a high school aged brother in a family of 3 neighborhood boys, coaxed my best friend and I into a “game” that would lead to my friend undressing in front on him. I had two boyfriends in high school, both of whom were physically abusive. At 16, my boss at a local steakhouse propositioned me in the freezer of the establishment. I was afraid of this type of male

1. When discussing leadership and followership, there is often a split in personal opinion when it comes to which one is more important. Leadership and followership both offer unique benefits in their own right and have supporting factors, which give them the perceived appearance of being more important. The focus for this paper will be to advocate the importance of followership over that of leadership. This will be accomplished by addressing the pros of followership to include some core skills of followership and the effects followership has on the development of a leader. The expectation of an officer however, places a high amount of emphasis on leadership more so than that of followership. Given this perceived importance of leadership as an officer, an effective leadership style will be explained and how officers develop this particular leadership style. While leadership has a distinct presence within the professional work environment, followership is considered the underlying backbone in developing an effective high performing team.

Human are generally weak creatures who give in to their desire and frequently obey to higher authority and peer pressure with any doubts. From history’s standpoint, they are the most common man, living in every corner of the Earth. They exist in every time period, before Jesus, Medieval, even today. What makes them common, is the fact that most people are extremely vulnerable to mob mentality and peer pressure, which easily influence them to become the majority in many cases. Throughout history there have been number of cases which human beings follows the majority and does not speak their own opinion on matters. The Salem Witch Trial, well known event that happened in Colonial America is a perfect example where a person’s decision is decided

Question #1) How does authority influence human behavior? What kinds of authority are the most influential?

Authority is defined as the power or right to give orders, make decisions, and enforce obedience. Coincidentally, authority is found virtually everywhere, including in religious establishments. An issue has arose in many different circumstances, and continues to create religious debates all over the world. The issue is the amount of authority a community of faith should have over its members. Although many argue that this authority is needed in religious establishments, I disagree completely. I believe that a community of faith should possess no authority over its members. There are many of reasons why I think this, and I will soon discuss them. There are several advantages of a community of faith attaining great authority, while there is also an array of disadvantages. Likewise, there are plenty of advantages of a community of faith attaining no authority, while there are multiple disadvantages, as well. However, I believe that numerous benefits can occur when a community of faith attains a lack of authority over its members.

Riggio, R., Chaleff, I., & Lipman-Blumen, J. (Eds) (2008). The Art of Followership How Great Followers Create Great Leaders and Organizations. San Francisco, California: Jossey-Bass.

In ancient times, it was said that a ruler should behave according to the standards and regulations set forth by the word of God. There was an absolute standard of justice that people had to follow. The ruler or sovereign was taught to act morally in order to be successful and gain spiritual happiness; morality and politics were unified, religion played an important role in the decision making. A ruler had to act accordingly based on the standards and moral ideas of ancient civilizations and the government, this meant, recognizing that there was an absolute right and an absolute wrong. The ruler and society as a whole, in ancient times, were preoccupied with their afterlife and wanting to achieve a better spiritual life by acting

It is believed that over 500 years ago the way human beings viewed themselves in relation to the world was through the eyes of the church and religion. During that time, individuals’ actions were governed by feudal laws where kings and queens made decisions on behalf of the entire society. In other words people’s destiny did not lie in their own hands, instead in the hands of higher authorities. The church assured many that kings and queens stood as representatives of God on earth as validation of their authority. The traditional way of doing things was considered the will of God and never dared to be questioned. And so in this way when we speak about