Caalim, Anessa - HR 5060 Term Paper
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Running head: SOCIAL MEDIA ON LEADERSHIP QUALITIES AND BEHAVIORS 1
What is the effect of social media on determining a person’s leadership qualities and behaviors?
Anessa Caalim
University of Virginia
Author Note
Anessa Caalim, Graduate Certificate in Leadership in Human Resources Management,
University of Virginia.
Correspondence concerning this research should be addressed to Anessa Caalim. Contact:
SOCIAL MEDIA ON LEADERSHIP QUALITIES AND BEHAVIORS 2
Abstract
This paper explores four social media platforms to determine real-life leaders’ abilities to
effectively lead their followers. In doing so, this paper demonstrates variances in how Facebook,
Twitter, Instagram, and company-initiated platforms affect leadership. Furthermore, this paper
argues that transformational leadership is inherent to social media’s influence on leadership
qualities and behaviors. Specific leadership examples through these four platforms are generated
to demonstrate the relationship between the transformational leadership approach and social
media to fully understand the social media implications on leadership in large organizations,
including attempts to reach audiences on a global scale.
Keywords: social media, transformational, leadership, qualities, and behaviors
SOCIAL MEDIA ON LEADERSHIP QUALITIES AND BEHAVIORS 3
What is the effect of social media on determining a person’s leadership qualities and behaviors?
The majority of “domains in business and society have been untouched by the emerging
social-media revolution – one that is not even a decade old” (Deiser & Newton, 2013). Social
media empowers individuals to share and receive information at the push of a button, offering
easy access to information and speedier communications between individuals linked socially and
professionally. It is important to learn how social media plays a role in developing the leaders of
today and the future, especially since the “full implications and scope of social media and
community learning are still unfolding” (Biro, 2013). This term paper will study the effect of
social media on determining a person’s leadership qualities, as well as how that individual will
use social media to improve their leadership behaviors and respond to their organization’s needs.
Literature Review
As demonstrated by Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce, and Tommy Landry, president of
internet marketing consulting firm Return On Now, Twitter grants professionals with a medium
to discover and discuss personal and professional topics while building professional connections
via social media. Richard Branson, founder of Virgin America, exhibits how Facebook is no
longer just a social network: not only can it be used for business-to-consumer marketing, but it
allows professionals to connect with colleagues and brand themselves in such a way that they
can manipulate how their colleagues see their personalities. Krista Neher, CEO of Boot Camp
Digital, shows how Instagram is effective in using visual storytelling to send a message. Twitter
consists of 320 million monthly active users and even more unregistered individuals viewing
users’ public Tweets (Twitter, 2015). Meanwhile, Facebook boasts an average of 1.04 billion
daily active users (Facebook, 2015). Instagram has 400 million monthly active users, along with
additional viewers not registered with the social media platform (Instagram, 2016). As a result,
SOCIAL MEDIA ON LEADERSHIP QUALITIES AND BEHAVIORS 4
Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram are the best social platforms for studying social media
relationships between leaders and their followers.
Unfortunately, social media as a source offers one-sided reporting prone to the biases of
the individuals posting information through their selected social media platforms. Not only is this
inherently clear in leaders’ usage of Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, but it is especially so with
companies like GE and Marriott using their own company-initiated social media platforms to
control and mediate the social platforms utilized by their members. Despite these disadvantages,
social media is this paper’s focus of study, and using direct examples is reliable for creating
understanding, in real-time, of social media’s relevancy in leadership qualities and behaviors.
Discussion
The transformational leadership approach
Leadership is a process whereby the interactions between leaders and followers makes
leadership available to everyone. Leadership is meant to produce change and movement.
Transformational leadership is a “process whereby a person engages with others and creates a
connection that raises the level of motivation and morality in both the leader and the follower”,
so leaders can aid their followers in reaching their full potential (Northouse, 2013, p. 186).
Social media defines leadership on an individual level as having the qualities of a
producer, distributor, and recipient to develop, sustain, and make sense of the needs of their
followers. On a strategic organization level, social media defines a leader as an adviser, architect,
and analyst to enable, leverage, and monitor cultural and behavioral impacts within the
organization, as well as initiate change within the organization if necessary (Appendix A). As a
result, a relationship exists between transformational leadership and social media. Social media
SOCIAL MEDIA ON LEADERSHIP QUALITIES AND BEHAVIORS 5
enables leaders to engage and connect with their followers on a massive scale to transform
success within their organizations as rapidly and effectively as possible.
Through Bass’ transformational leadership model and Kouzes and Posner’s model of
transformational leadership, this paper will argue that social media is advantageous to
developing leadership qualities on the individual level and improving leadership behaviors on the
organization level. Leaders’ usage of social media will show this effect on a global scale.
Social media’s influence on an individual’s transformational leadership qualities
Bass’ model of transformational leadership describes four leadership factors – or
individual leadership qualities – developed through transformational leadership. Through these
individual leadership qualities, leaders maintain a strong set of internal values and ideals to
effectively motivate their followers to act in ways that support their organization rather than their
own self-interest (Northouse, 2013). It is through these individual leadership qualities that social
media can be implemented to strengthen leadership influence within one’s organization.
Bass leadership quality: idealized influence. Social media improves an individual’s
quality of charisma – or idealized influence – by enhancing the leader’s ability to communicate
themselves as a strong role model to their followers. The public aspect of social media allows
leaders to transparently communicate their passions to anyone across the globe. Marc Benioff
uses Twitter to portray himself as a passionate activist. Benioff’s tweets range from calling for
the removal of the confederate flag from government buildings, polling users on Salesforce’s
consideration to divest from Georgia for passing an anti-LGBTQ bill, re-tweeting a Disney tweet
emphasizing the importance of intelligence in females, and donating to Haitian schools to build
better futures for those in need (Benioff, 2016). Benioff’s ability to communicate his charisma
for high moral and ethical obligations creates respect and trust from his followers. The greater
SOCIAL MEDIA ON LEADERSHIP QUALITIES AND BEHAVIORS 6
respect and trust his followers place in him, the greater his leadership strength and influence
within Salesforce as he inspires his followers to be charismatic in their work for Salesforce.
Bass leadership quality: inspirational motivation. Social media improves an
individual’s ability to provide inspirational motivation by enhancing their communication skills
to influence their followers in sharing their organization’s vision. Through social media, Richard
Branson learned that a storytelling style was the most effective way to gain the attention of his
followers and inspire motivation (Gallo, 2013). Indeed, Branson has adapted to leadership in
social media by communicating in a style that catches his followers’ attention. On Facebook,
Branson posts eye-catching photos containing simple quotes to aesthetically engage readers’
attentions. Once engaged, readers can then look to the description of the photo for the rest of
Branson’s message that he wishes to communicate (Appendix B). Branson’s ability to inspire
motivation through a shared vision, that “the luckiest people and businesses are those that are
prepared to take the greatest risks,” stems from his use of symbols and emotional appeal via
social media (Branson, 2016). In this way, his use of social media manipulation strengthens his
leadership influence while inspiring others to follow his vision for Virgin America.
Bass leadership quality: intellectual stimulation. Social media improves an
individual’s ability to promote intellectual stimulation by developing the mindset to support
innovation. Ron Utterbeck, CIO of General Electric (GE) Corporate, introduced GE’s social
network, Colab. Previously, GE used a variety of collaborative tools, including email, telephone,
video, and chat capabilities, which were not connected. Utterbeck, aware of the need for
communication consistency to continue GE’s collaborative and global culture, and recognizing
the power of technological changes enhancing the prominence of social media, learned to adapt
to innovation and change for the good of his organization (Berkman, 2012). GE’s Colab includes
SOCIAL MEDIA ON LEADERSHIP QUALITIES AND BEHAVIORS 7
a section called Stream, which mimics Facebook’s activity feed with updates from friends,
inclusive of a file-sharing capability. In this scenario, social media developed the communication
and transparency skills necessary to show followers that leaders do indeed support new
approaches to organizational status quo. Utterbeck’s communication of support for innovation
enhanced followers’ trust in him as a leader invested in his followers, improving his influence.
Bass leadership quality: individualized consideration. Social media improves a
leader’s ability to convey individualized consideration by developing the leader’s tolerance and
mentoring skills. Twitter is the most efficient social media tool for linking quick, public
communications between people across the globe. Tommy Landry realized Twitter’s usefulness
in developing leadership tolerance and mentoring skills through direct communications with
other Twitter users. Whether Twitter followers are seeking social media advice, Landry himself
notices someone committing a social media error, or anyone wishes to carry a conversation about
their industry with Landry, the Return on Now president does not hesitate to reach out to
individuals and mentor them (Landry, 2016). He increases his leadership influence as someone
to be trusted and admired through his approachableness while improving his followers’ skillsets.
Social media’s influence on transformational leadership behavior and the organization
Social media, in allowing communication exchanges between two or more individuals to
appear publicly, opens up transparency. In recent years, social media has made individuals’
behaviors in the context of their organizations more visible, resulting in performance
improvements (Appendix C). The Kouzes and Posner model of transformational leadership
emphasized that leadership behaviors take practice. Four of these behaviors include Model the
Way, Inspire a Shared Vision, Challenge the Process, and Enable Others to Act (Northouse,
2013). Social media, being expansive and available to all users, offers individuals with the
SOCIAL MEDIA ON LEADERSHIP QUALITIES AND BEHAVIORS 8
practice, which Kouzes and Posner identify as being available to everyone to adapt, necessary for
transformational behaviors to result in improved organization performance.
Kouzes and Posner leadership behavior: Model the Way. Transformational leaders
must be able to set a personal example while confirming shared values with their followers.
Leaders utilizing social media for improving transparency and communication is a testament to
modeling the way for sharing corporate values with all followers. Salesforce CEO Marc
Benioff’s behavior on Twitter exemplifies the effectiveness of such model behavior. In
communicating his passion for activism, Benioff makes clear his personal values drive
Salesforce’s business philosophy, that “the business of business is improving the state of the
world” (“The business of business,” 2015). His followers seem to share in his values and follow
his business model: 97% of Salesforce employees approve of Benioff as CEO (Glassdoor, 2016).
In turn, Salesforce ranked second on Forbes’ list of Most Innovative Companies (Forbes, 2015).
Kouzes and Posner leadership behavior: Inspire a Shared Vision. Kouzes and
Posner’s model defined leadership behavior as guiding followers’ behaviors through the
visualization of positive outcomes and communicating these outcomes to their organization.
Krista Neher understands the concept of inspiring a shared vision via Instagram. Her use of
motivational quotes as aesthetic visuals, rather than plain text, is both attractive and inspiring to
followers. From posts like “good content always has an objective; it's created with intent” and
“be so good they can't ignore you,” Neher effectively models positivity to her followers and
shares her vision of training others to be successful (Neher, 2016).
Kouzes and Posner leadership behavior: Challenge the Process. Transformational
leadership behavior must seek to challenge the status quo in order to improve one’s organization.
Leadership at Marriott International, recognizing it needed to adapt to a growing customer base
SOCIAL MEDIA ON LEADERSHIP QUALITIES AND BEHAVIORS 9
reliant on social media, challenged the status quo by implementing the “Travel Brilliantly”
campaign. This program allows Marriott customers, or travelers in general, to submit their ideas
online for modernizing and improving customers’ travel experiences (Marriott, 2015).
Leadership upholds this campaign by allowing all submissions to be publicly listed online, as
well as implementing several of these suggestions, such as the suggestion of adding Netflix to
hotel rooms (Anonymous survey, personal communication, February 18, 2016). Through
leadership’s behavior being accepting of innovation and change, Marriott International ranks
twenty-ninth on Forbes’ list of Most Innovative Companies (Forbes, 2015).
Kouzes and Posner leadership behavior: Enable Others to Act. Transformational
leaders must emphasize teamwork and cooperation, as well as diversity and respect, to enable
followers. Utterbeck’s decision to launch GE’s Colab when it was not 100% complete promoted
follower feedback, which GE quickly incorporated into the application. In addition, GE’s Colab
promoted greater teamwork and collaboration via open communication. An individual seeking
help only needed to post their problem in Colab and wait a few minutes before other employees
contributed suggestions on how to solve said problem (Berkman, 2012). GE employees seem to
benefit from Utterbeck’s creation: 398 employee reviews have accumulated an average company
rating of 3.8 stars. A personalized review of GE Colab praises the program for making it easier
for employees to get in touch with one another despite the immense size of the company
(Glassdoor, 2016). Utterbeck’s leadership behavior promoted an organizational climate where
followers feel comfortable enough to contribute ideas and ask for help on a daily basis.
Conclusions and Recommendations
It appears the most effective use of social media is with leaders of large organizations.
Indeed, LinkedIn registers Virgin America as a company employing 1,000-5000 employees,
SOCIAL MEDIA ON LEADERSHIP QUALITIES AND BEHAVIORS 10
while Salesforce, GE, and Marriott are recognized as companies employing 10,001+ individuals.
Since these organizations employ large numbers of employees and tend to do so on a global
scale, social media is effective in reaching out to all followers. In smaller-sized organizations,
due to the close proximity and easier access to in-person communications between leaders and
followers, social media may not be used as often or as effectively, unless leaders hope to extend
their leadership qualities and behaviors to individuals outside their organization like Tommy
Landry of Return on Now and Krista Neher of Boot Camp Digital.
This paper recommends that leaders embrace the use of social media to transform their
organizations and strengthen their own leadership influence, particularly if leaders are members
of large organizations or wish to transcend their leadership qualities and behaviors on a global
scale. Social media adapts to technological developments in real-time. Individuals must learn to
also adapt to changes in real-time in order to remain relevant and strengthen their value as
leaders. Social media offers this ability to be innovative. Therefore, leaders must remember to
enhance their communication skills to carry charisma and inspiration in their social media
language. Leaders should learn what is visually appealing to one’s followers. They should also
learn to be responsive and utilize one’s platform as frequently as possible to prove they value
transparency and care about their followers. Following these steps will lead to the behaviors of
Modeling the Way, Inspiring a Shared Vision, Challenging the Process, and Enabling Others to
Act. The way one communicates oneself via social media is key to one’s success as a leader in
social media and as a leader capable of affecting positive change and performance improvements
within one’s company.
SOCIAL MEDIA ON LEADERSHIP QUALITIES AND BEHAVIORS 11
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