They examined four environmental sources from which employees get structure and direction in how to perform their work: the job itself, technology, the work unit, and the leader. The authors found that only when the first three sources of structure were weak did the influence of the leader strongly affect employees. It seem that employees can derive typical leaders qualities (that is, structure and direction) from inanimate sources in their environments and that leadership functions need not be associated with someone in authority. It is thus possible to envision a successfully operating leaderless group in which the job itself provides direction in what to do (initiating structure) and the work group members support and tend to one another (consideration).
There is also evidence that some individuals are capable of directing themselves, a concept called self-leadership. Manz(1986) found that some employees could lead themselves if their values and beliefs were congruent with those of the organization. Is summary, the research on substitutes for leadership suggests that leadership can be thought of as series of processes or functions that facilitate organizational and personal effectiveness. These processes or functions need not necessarily emanate from a person in a formal leadership role but may be derived from characteristics of the work being performed by the group members.