Hogg's Social Identity Theory

At first glance, both Francois and the sales staff are not working in harmony or synchronized together. Indeed, leadership is a relationship based on mutual exchange between leaders and followers (Iszatt-White & Saunders, 2014:107). Knowing that the new manager lacks in product knowledge of IT industry and managerial experience, the team are sceptical about his arrival and they don’t necessarily look up to him at first. He still manages to learn quickly the product range and manufacturing processes but his acceptance among is still unproven. Thus, by applying Hogg’s social identity theory, we see from the follower’s perspective why they have a hard time with Francois. This social identity builds on the idea of that “like attracts like” but

They reject him after not obtaining any kind of information regarding the new changes he implements. For the staff, the selection or acceptance of a leader is based on their prototypically of representativeness within the group (Iszatt-White & Saunders, 2014:106). Francois is not perceived as someone to best embody the behaviours to which other, less prototypical members are conforming (Hogg, 2001). Only his status, as a sales manager, allows him to exercise power over the staff. Members assume that someone who is prototypical is motivated by the same desire they have. Trust is then gained by the members of the team. Francois does not manage to achieve this trust with his team. He never communicates with them, and when he does address a big issue, he does it via email. Not being able to gain trust with a team is problematic. The team needs to be persuaded and not just enforced by formal authority of management (Blom and Alvesson, 2013). Circulating new ideas to the followers becomes more challenging than it should usually

In groups, the behaviour of highly prototypical members is likely to be attributed to the person’s personality rather than the prototypically of the position occupied (Hogg, 2001). Approving the come up of their new manager requires the team to get to know him. When he finally comes back from travelling and walks into the office, they describe him as being “quiet and conscientious”. Additionally, he never participates in events established after work (golfing, dinner, etc.). Leadership is understood as a process of interpersonal influence towards organizational goals and occurs in mundane work activities (Larsson & Lundholm, 2010). The problem here could be that Francois lack the understanding on how leadership is used practically in his daily work with mundane activities (Alvesson & Svenningsson,