The new psychology of leadership offers a comprehensive approach to management, including all the units of comparison indicated in the matrix: individual, group, and organization or personal, private, public. This psychology considers the role of followers in the relationship with the leader in terms of social identity to a greater extent to improve the connection between the leader and the follower and unlock the potential of both (Haslam et al., 2020). An integrated approach is manifested at various levels of relationships: various psychological dependencies are offered between a leader and one person, development within a group and in the context of an organization. As a rule, at all three levels, leadership theories do not work at once.
Leader-Member Exchange involves an exchange at various levels between a leader and one person, following the example of mentoring. The approach has worked well in the long run with one person, although attempts have been made to extrapolate it to groups and organizations (Weise, 2020). However, with more ambivalence of the approach, its negative impact increased (Lee et al., 2019). As a result, this exchange model is most effectively applied locally and pointwise to positively and positively impact one person. This approach may seem ineffective in large organizations, but within the framework of solving a single problem or helping employees, it may well turn out to be effective.
Leader-Follower Theory, on the contrary, has a more generalized structure that allows using this theory in managing groups and entire organizations. This approach considers the theory of relationships in the team aspect the nature of the interaction between the follower and the leader as a whole in order to increase satisfaction and effectiveness on both sides (Dunaetz, 2018). However, this approach requires constant scaling of the situation, as a seemingly effective team can be filled with conflict and negatively influence each other (Einola & Alvesson, 2021). Such dynamics require additional empirical research and are subjective in each case.
References
Dunaetz, D. (2018). Followership (Chap 12) Leadership by Northouse, 8th ed. [Video]. YouTube.
Einola, K., & Alvesson, M. (2021). When ‘good’leadership backfires: Dynamics of the leader/follower relation. Organization Studies, 42(6), 845-865.
Haslam, S. A., Reicher, S. D., & Platow, M. J. (2020). The new psychology of leadership: Identity, influence and power. London, England: Routledge.
Lee, A., Thomas, G., Martin, R., & Guillaume, Y. (2019). Leader-member exchange (LMX) ambivalence and task performance: The cross-domain buffering role of social support.Journal of Management, 45(5), 1927-1957.
Weise, M. (2020). Leader member exchange theory [Video]. YouTube.