Idiosyncrasy Credit

Credit and Legitimacy

The idea of credit is embedded in everyday language in such general phrases as “receiving credit,” “taking credit,” and “being discredited.” One early precursor of the idea that a leader must have a degree of credit to be able to lead was the acceptance theory of authority (1938), articulated by Chester Barnard, a phone company executive and writer on executive leadership. That theory stated that the follower has a pivotal role in judging whether an order is authoritative. Followers will accept an order insofar as they understand it, believe that it is not inconsistent with organizational or personal goals, have the ability to comply with it, and see the benefits of complying as outweighing the costs.

Based on Barnard's acceptance theory, a following can come about in various ways. For the moment, the focus here will be on legitimacy and credit as two significant factors. Legitimacy is the more usual, external way of acknowledging someone as leader and validating the basis for his or her attainment of authority. Legitimacy plays a pivotal part in the leader-follower relationship because it is the base on which followers perceive and respond to the leader. In 1970, and again in 1978, Hollander and James W. Julian presented research findings demonstrating that followers' expectations and evaluations of leaders differ depending on whether the leaders are elected or appointed, a finding confirmed by subsequent research by other researchers. Legitimacy is a fundamental factor determining whether or not followers accept a leader's authority.

Credit is another, more psychological way of considering the leader-follower bond. It manifests itself in such binding elements as trust and loyalty, based on attributions that make a behavior acceptable from one group member that would be seen as unacceptable from another. Whether through the extension of credit or the recognition of legitimacy, followers affect the strength of a leader's influence, the style of a leader's behavior, and the performance of the group or larger entity. In short, influence and power flow [Page 696]from followers' attributions of characteristics to the leader and from their perceptions and judgments of the leader's behaviors and intentions.

How the Ic Model Works

The IC model deals with innovative leadership and the latitude for action that followers give a leader beyond that accorded by legitimacy of authority. The model describes a dynamic process of interpersonal evaluation in which the effects of a leader's authority are not fixed but determined significantly by the support of followers. It does not tell how things ought to be; rather, it explains how they seem to operate in relatively non-coercive situations in which power is dependent on the context and persons there.

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