Caalim, Anessa - HR 5060 Term Paper

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:

[email protected]

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


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,


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


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


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


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


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


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,


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.


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Appendices

Appendix A


Appendix B

Appendix C

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Caalim, Anessa - HR 5060 Term Paper