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HARVARD KENNEDY SCHOOL
MLD -353M – FOLLOWERSHIP
Fall 2013
Faculty: Professor Barbara Kellerman
Office Location: Center for Public Leadership, Taubman, #158
Phone: (617) 495-7570
E-mail: Barbara_kellerman@harvard.edu
Office Hours: By appointment; e mail Professor Kellerman directly in order to set up.
Faculty Assistant: Klara Kabadian
Office Location: Belfer Bldg, B-117D
E-mail: klara_kabadian@harvard.edu
Course assistant: TBD
Schedule of Classes: Tuesdays and Thursdays – 11:40 AM to 1:00 PM
Classroom: L 382
Class Dates: September 5 to October 17
Barbara Kellerman
MLD-353M Fall 2013
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Course Description
Young Alexander conquered India
He alone?
Caesar beat the Gauls
Was there not even a cook in his army?
Philip of Spain wept as his fleet
Was sunk and destroyed. Were there no other tears?
From, Bertolt Brecht, “A Worker Reads History”
It never was accurate to say that leaders are of major importance and followers of nearly none.
And now, in this second decade of the 21st century, to obsess about leaders at the expense of
followers is to misunderstand how change is created.
Evolutionary and sometimes revolutionary changes in cultures and technologies are two
explanations for why at this moment in time leaders generally are weaker than before, and
followers generally are stronger. This shift in the balance of power, authority, and influence is,
moreover, transcendent – it crosses whatever the traditional boundaries between nations,
regions and cultures, and between the different sectors as well.
This course is then intended as a corrective to the conventional - leader-centric - wisdom. It
focuses on followership rather than on leadership – which is not to say that leaders are excluded
from the discussion. Rather it is to take a more integrative, synergistic, holistic view of how the
world now works. The underlying assumption is that things change, among them leadership
and followership.
The primary purpose of the course is to enlighten, to provide an intellectual perspective that is
different from, more complex than, the usual one. Additionally there is a practical application.
The contents of the course necessarily have implications for how to exercise good leadership
and good followership, and for the converse, for how to check bad leadership and bad
followership. It simply stands to reason that if followers are increasingly emboldened and
empowered, in order to lead wisely and well leaders will have to take them into account as
never before. Similarly, it simply stands to reason that if followers are increasingly emboldened
and empowered, in order to follow wisely and
well followers will have to take into account their newfound capacity to make themselves
heard.
Barbara Kellerman
MLD-353M Fall 2013
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This course is a module – so we cannot do followership full justice. But what we can do is to
embark on a journey of understanding that should change how you think and could change
what you do. Remember: most of the time most of our lives most of us are followers, not
leaders. And even on those relatively rare occasions we are leaders, followers necessarily are
alongside.
Course Format
I like a lively classroom. Most (though not all) of our classes will, then, be a mix – first content
delivered informally by me, second group discussion characterized by inclusive participation.
The expectation is that each of the students will learn from me, and from the course materials,
and from each other.
Course Requirements
First, as above implied, it is expected that each student participate actively in the class
discussion, at least in so far as class size will allow. In general, to “participate” is to contribute,
in class, to the collective conversation. This mandates that each of the readings be completed in
time for each of the classes. As well, each student will, toward the end of the module, be asked
to give a very brief oral presentation.
Second, students are expected to submit (in hard copy) on Thursday, September 26 a 4 to 6
page paper (typed, double-spaced) that addresses a single question raised by the class readings
and/or class discussions. An instruction sheet on short papers will be provided. It will clarify
the parameters of the assignment, and indicate what a good short paper for this class should
look like.
Third, students will be asked to submit (in hard copy) on the last day of class, Thursday,
October 17, a second paper that is between 8 and 10 pages long. This paper should be a case
study of followership – one based on your own experience, either as a leader/superior or as
follower/subordinate. I will say more about this second paper in class; guidelines will also be
provided. I recommend that you include in both of your papers a brief list of endnotes and a
brief biography.
Finally, please note that the syllabus indicates that there is one evening session, on Wednesday,
October 9; it will enable us together to see a film. In the event you are unable to attend the
evening session, please see the film on your own time by the date indicated.
Course Grading
Students will be evaluated on the basis of:
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The vigor and competence of their oral participation
The ambition and competence of their written submission
Barbara Kellerman
MLD-353M Fall 2013
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Grades will be determined in approximate accord with the following percentages:
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Participation – 40%
Papers – 60% (first paper 25%; second paper 35%)
Final Notes
First, the use of computers and all other devices is prohibited during class. Second, in the event
you must arrive late to class or leave early, please inform me in advance of the class session.
Third, on the remote chance that you must miss more than one class, please explain your
situation to me. Fourth, the syllabus that follows should be considered final. However, small
adjustments might still be made during the term - either at my initiative or at yours. Finally,
feel free to contact me at any point with any questions or concerns. I am always available by e
mail promptly to reply and/or to set up an appointment to meet.
Course Readings
There are books recommended for purchase. They will constitute some measure of the module.
They are available in the bookstores including The Coop.
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Ira Chaleff, The Courageous Follower: Standing Up To and For Our Leaders (BerrrettKoehler, 2009).
Albert O. Hirschman, Exit, Voice, and Loyalty: Reponses to Decline in Firms,
Organizations, and States (Harvard University Press, 1970).
Barbara Kellerman, Followership: How Followers are Creating Change and Changing
Leaders (Harvard Business Press, 2008).
Barbara Kellerman, The End of Leadership (HarperCollins, 2012).
Barbara Kellerman, Leadership: Essential Selections on Power, Authority, and
Influence (McGraw-Hill, 2010).
Added note # 1: Readings below are marked with a “CWP” if they are posted on course web
page.
Added note # 2: All books are also on reserve at the HKS Library.
Added note # 3: For my own running commentaries on “Lame Leaders and Fed-Up
Followers,” see my blog (since April 2012), barbarakellerman.com
Barbara Kellerman
MLD-353M Fall 2013
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SYLLABUS
Thursday, September 5:
Why Followership?
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Barbara Kellerman, Followership: How Followers Create Change and Change Leaders
(Harvard Business School Press, 2008), pp. xv-xxi, 3-47.
Robert Kelley, “Rethinking Followership” in Ronald Riggio et al, The Art of
Followership: How Great Followers Create Great Leaders and Great Organizations
(Jossey-Bass, 2008), pp. 5-15. CWP
Albert O. Hirschman, Exit, Voice, and Loyalty: Responses to Declines in Firms,
Organizations, and States (Harvard University Press, 1970), pp. 1-20.
Ira Chaleff, The Courageous Follower: Standing Up To and For Our Leaders (BerrettKoehler, 2009), pp. 1-33.
Tuesday, September 10:
Followership – A Short (Western) History
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Frans de Waal, Our Inner Ape (Penguin, 2005), pp. 41-55; 73-84. CWP
Sigmund Freud, “Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego” and “Civilization and
Its Discontents” and “Moses and Monotheism” in Barbara Kellerman, Leadership:
Essential Selections on Power, Authority, and Influence (McGraw-Hill, 2010), pp. 8090.
Thomas Hobbes, “Leviathan” in Kellerman, Leadership: Essential Selections, 48-56.
John Locke, “Second Treatise of Government” in Kellerman, Leadership: Essential
Selections, pp. 48-56.
John Stuart Mill, “On Liberty” in Kellerman, Leadership: Essential Selections, pp. 6673.
Barbara Kellerman, The End of Leadership (HarperCollins, 2012), pp. 3-23; 69-95.
Thursday, September 12:
Followership – A Short (Recent) History
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John Lewis, Walking in the Wind (Harcourt, Brace, 1998), pp. 29-70. CWP
Larry Kramer, “1,112 and Counting,” in Kellerman, Leadership: Essential Selections,
pp. 192-203.
James Surowiecki, The Wisdom of Crowds (Anchor, 2005), pp. 192-223. CWP
Barbara Kellerman, The End of Leadership, pp. 25-65.
Barbara Kellerman
MLD-353M Fall 2013
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Tuesday, September 17:
Followership - Second Decade of the 21st Century
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Barbara Kellerman, The End of Leadership, pp. 97-149.
Moises Naim, The End of Power: From Boardrooms to Battlefields and Churches to
States, Why Being in Charge Isn’t What It Used to Be (Basic, 2013, pp. 1-19; 51-75.
CWP
Carne Ross, The Leaderless Revolution: How Ordinary People Will Take Power and
Change Politics in the Twenty-First Century (Penguin, 2011), pp. xiii-xxvii. CWP
Joseph Nye, The Future of Power (Public Affairs, 2011), pp. 113-139. CWP
Thursday, September 19:
Types of Followers – Isolates, Bystanders and Participants
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Chaleff, 35-36.
Kellerman, Followership, 97-149.
Philip Zimbardo, The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil
(Random House, 2007, 313-319. CWP
Barbara Kellerman, Bad Leadership: What It Is, How It Happens, Why It Matters
(Harvard Business School Press, 2004), pp. 169-190. CWP
Hirschman, pp. 21-43; 76-86.
Tuesday, September 24:
Types of followers – Activists and Diehards
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Kellerman, Followership, 151-209.
Nelson Mandela, “I Am Prepared to Die” in Kellerman, Leadership: Essential
Selections, 264-275.
And…. for more on Activists and Diehards, please familiarize yourself with a case that
pertains. Examples range from Al Quaeda to People for the Ethical Treatment of
Animals to Julian Assange, Bradley Manning, and Edward Snowden.
Thursday, September 26:
Note: First Paper Due
Spectrum of Relations between Leaders and Followers
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Totalitarian Political Leadership – Ian Kershaw, The End: The Defiance and
Destruction of Hitler’s Germany (Penguin, 2011), pp. 3-15; 386-400. CWP
Authoritarian Corporate Leadership – Barbara Kellerman, Bad Leadership, 119-146.
Democratic Political Leadership – Alexander Hamilton, Federalist Paper # 69. CWP
Barbara Kellerman
MLD-353M Fall 2013
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Laissez Faire Corporate Leadership - Ori Brafman and Rod Beckstrom, The Starfish
and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations (Portfolio, 2006),
pp. 3-7; 31-55. CWP
Tuesday, October 1:
Followers as Targets of Influence
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Robert Cialdini, Influence: Science and Practice (Pearson, 2009), 1-17; 141-173. CWP
Howard Gardner, Changing Minds: The Art and Science of Changing Our Own and
Other People’s Minds (Harvard Business School Press, 2004), 14-19; 69-89. CWP
Robert Gellately, Backing Hitler: Consent and Coercion in Nazi Germany (Oxford,
2002), pp. 1-33. CWP
Thursday, October 3:
Followers as Influencers
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The class will be divided into three groups, each of which will be prepared to
discuss what happened and/or what is happening in one of these three
contemporaneous cases of follower power:
Egypt – with comments on the Middle East more broadly
China – with comments on tensions between the citizenry and the authorities more
broadly
Greece – with comments on Europe more broadly
Tuesday, October 8:
Followers in Context: The Case of Nazi Germany, and Poland
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Daniel Jonah Goldhagen, Hitler’s Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the
Holocaust (Vintage, 1996), 375-415. CWP
Christopher Browning, Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final
Solution in Poland (Harper/Perennial Edition, 1998), pp. 159-189. CWP
Mary Fulbrook, A Small Town Near Auschwitz: Ordinary Nazis and the Holocaust
(Oxford University Press, 2013), pp. 1-23. CWP
Wednesday, October 9:
Note: Evening Session – Film: Leni Riefenstahl, “Triumph of the Will”
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Time: 6-8 pm
Place: TBD
Pizza and drink available
Barbara Kellerman
MLD-353M Fall 2013
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Thursday, October 10
Obedience to Authority
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Kellerman, Followership, pp. 49-67
Stanley Milgram, “Obedience to Authority” in Kellerman, Leadership: Essential
Selections, pp. 104-110.
Hannah Arendt, “Eichmann in Jerusalem” in Kellerman, Leadership: Essential
Selections, pp. 110-116.
Zimbardo, The Lucifer Effect, p. 3-22; 258-266; 277-296. CWP
Tuesday, October 15:
Resistance to Authority
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James C. Scott, Domination and the Arts of Resistance: Hidden Transcripts (Yale
University Press, 1990), pp. 1-16; 202-212. CWP
Tom Devine, The Corporate Whistleblower’s Survival Guide (Berrett-Koehler, 2011),
pp. 9-40. CWP
Chaleff, 85-112; 147-204.
Naim, pp. 76-91. CWP
Thursday, October 17:
Note: Second Paper Due
Good Followership – and a note on the Leadership Industry
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Kellerman, Followership, 213-261.
Chaleff, 117-153
Kellerman, The End of Leadership, 177-200.
Barbara Kellerman
MLD-353M Fall 2013