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Followership

Chapter 12

Northouse, Leadership 8e. © SAGE Publications, 2019. 2

Overview

 Followership Description

 Followership Defined

 Role-Based and Relational-Based Perspectives

 Typologies of Followership

 Theoretical Approaches

 Followership and Destructive Leaders

 How Does Followership Work?

Northouse, Leadership 8e. © SAGE Publications, 2019. 3

Followership Description

 Followers play a central role in the leadership process.

 Historically, leaders have captured most of our attention.

 Leaders have been viewed as the causal agents for organizational change.

 Today, researchers view leadership as a shared process. Leaders and followers are interdependent.

 The world needs more followers, and less glorified leaders.

Northouse, Leadership 8e. © SAGE Publications, 2019. 4

Followership Defined

 Followership--is a process whereby an individual

or individuals accept the influence of others to

accomplish a common goal.

 Followership has an ethical dimension; it is not

morally neutral.

 There are ethical consequences to followership;

the character and behavior of followers have an

impact on organizational outcomes.

Northouse, Leadership 8e. © SAGE Publications, 2019. 5

Role-Based Perspective

Focus is on the typical roles followers

enact while occupying a formal or informal

position within a hierarchical system.

Followers’ behaviors affect the leader and

organizational outcomes.

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Relational-Based Perspective

Based on social constructivism: People

create meaning about their reality as they

interact with each other.

Followership is co-created by the leader

and follower in a given situation through

communication.

Leadership occurs as people exert

influence on each other and respond to

those influence attempts.

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Four Typologies of Followership

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Zaleznik Typology (1965)

Psychological view of follower behaviors

Two axes of follower behaviors:

-dominance/submission

-passivity/activity

Four types of followers

- withdrawn (submissive/passive)

- masochistic (submissive/active)

- compulsive (dominance/passive)

- impulsive (dominance/active)

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 Types represent followers’ responses to inner tensions regarding authority. Tensions may be unconscious but often come to the surface when interacting with the leader.

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Kelly Typology (1992)

 Most recognized followership typology

 Followers are enormously valuable to

organizations

 Emphasizes the motivations of followers

 What accounts for exemplary followership?

 Two axes of follower behavior:

- independent critical thinking/dependent

uncritical thinking

- active/passive

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Northouse, Leadership 8e. © SAGE Publications, 2019. 12

Passive followers: Look to leader for

direction and motivation

Conformist followers: On the leader’s side

but still look for direction and guidance

Alienated followers: Think for themselves

and exhibit negative energy

Exemplary followers: Active, positive, and

offer independent constructive criticism

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 Effective followers share same qualities:

1. They self-manage and think for themselves;

exercise control, work without supervision.

2. They show strong commitment to

organizational goals and well as personal

goals.

3. They build their competence and master job

skills.

4. They are credible, ethical, and courageous.

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Chaleff Typology (1995, 2003, 2008)

 Developed from WWI experience. Why do

people follow toxic leaders like Hitler? What

can be done to prevent this from recurring?

 Followers serve a common purpose along

with leaders.

 Followers need to take a more proactive role.

 Followers need to take more responsibility,

feel more agency, and confidence in ability to

influence others.

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Northouse, Leadership 8e. © SAGE Publications, 2019. 16

Prescriptive approach to making courageous followers:

- Assume responsibility for the common purpose

- Support the leader and organization

- Constructively challenge the leader if the common purpose or integrity of the group is being threatened

- Champion the need for change when necessary

- Take a moral stand that is different from the leader’s to prevent ethical abuses

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Northouse, Leadership 8e. © SAGE Publications, 2019. 18

Two axes of courageous followership:

- courage to support (low–high)

- courage to challenge (low–high)

Four styles of followership

- Resource (low support, low challenge)

- Individualist (low support, high challenge)

- Implementer (high support, low challenge)

- Partner (high support, high challenge)

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Kellerman Typology (2008)

Developed from perspective of political

science

Leaders’ importance overestimated

because they have more power, authority

and influence; importance of followers is

underestimated.

Followers are “unleaders” with less rank

and who defer to leaders.

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Followers differentiated on one attribute:

Level of engagement (low–high)

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 Five levels of followers:

1. Isolates are completely unengaged.

2. Bystanders are observers who do not participate.

3. Participants are partially engaged and willing to take a stand on issues.

4. Activists feel strongly about the leader and the leader’s policies and act on their own beliefs.

5. Diehards are totally dedicated to their cause; deeply committed to supporting the leader or opposing the leader.

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The Value of Typologies

Provide a starting point for research

Highlight many ways followers have been

conceptualized

Share some commonalities among them

Provide labels for follower types which

can assist leaders in effectively

communicating with them

Northouse, Leadership 8e. © SAGE Publications, 2019. 23

Theoretical Approaches to Followership

Uhl-Bien (2014)--Followership is

comprised of “characteristics, behaviors

and processes of individuals acting in

relation to leaders.”

Followership is a relationally-based

process that includes how followers and

leaders interact to construct leadership

and its outcomes.

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Northouse, Leadership 8e. © SAGE Publications, 2019. 25

 Follower characteristics

- attributes, traits, motivations, and perceptions

 Leader characteristics

- attributes, power, perceptions, and affect

 Followership and leadership behaviors

- Extent to which followers obey, defer to, or resist the leader

- How leader influences followers to respond

 Followership outcomes

-Results that influence the follower, leader, their relationship, and the leadership process.

Two Theoretical Frameworks

Reversing the Lens

Focus on how followers affect leaders and organizational outcomes

Followers can be change agents

-Impact of follower characteristics on follower behavior

- Impact of follower behavior on leader perceptions and behaviors and vice versa

- Impact of both followers and leaders on followership outcomes

The Leadership Co-Created Process

One person’s leadership behaviors

interact with another person’s followership

behaviors to create leadership and its

outcomes.

Leader behaviors are influence attempts.

Follower behaviors grant power to another,

comply, or challenge.

New Perspectives on Followership Carsten, Harms, and Uhl-Bien, 2014

1. Followers get the job done

2. Followers work in the best interest of the

organization’s mission

3. Followers challenge leaders

4. Followers support the leader

5. Followers learn from leaders

Followership and Destructive Leaders Lipman-Blumen: The Allure of Toxic Leaders (2005)

How Followership Works

Discussing followership elevates its

importance and the value of followers

Followership is about how individuals

accept influence of others to reach a

common goal

Research helps us understand why

harmful leadership occurs and sometimes

goes unrestrained

Strengths

Recognizes followership as an integral

part of the leadership equation

Forces a whole new way for people to

think about leadership, and to focus on

followers

Views leadership as co-constructed

Provides a set of basic prescriptions for

what a follower should or shouldn’t’ do to

be effective

Criticisms

Little methodical research ahs been done

so far

Current followership literature primarily

based on observation and anecdote

Leader-centric view of leadership may be

too ingrained for followership to gain

importance

Application

Followership is as important as leadership.

Learning about leadership can be useful

for organizational training and

development.

Leaders can learn how to understand

followers and how to most effectively work

with them.