The Role of Leaders in Contemporary Organizations: Followers’ Expectations

Most current leaders have been exposed to environments where the assumptions of control, structure, linearity etc. were taught and reinforced. Although many have an intuitive sense that this is not an effective paradigm for the broader contemporary challenges of organizational environment, there are often very ingrained beliefs, preferences, habits, and responses that result in a default style of persuasion and direction. To be effective in giving the organization a competitive advantage, a leader has to understand the new rules with different boundaries requiring new ways of behaving. This study attempts to identify followers' expectations from leaders and leaders' perceived role in contemporary organizations. The study was carried out in organizations from both public and private sector in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP). Respondents were selected on the basis of stratified random sampling procedure.