Followership: a review of current and emerging research

Abstract

PurposeOver time, the role of followers within leadership discourse has gained greater status, leading to followers being acknowledged as significant actors in the leadership process. This has led to the development of follower-centric leadership studies, as well as the more emergent research area of followership, with followership research having the specific intention to find out about followers from the perspective of followers. In this paper, the authors provide a review of role-based followership approaches, and implicit leadership and followership theories as a basis to build a case for follower implicit followership theories (FIFTs) as a focus area for future research.Design/methodology/approachThe authors conducted a review of seminal and current role-based followership literature, with a specific focus on FIFTs and followership studies conducted within the African context.FindingsImplicit theories have been an area of leadership research that has added much value, and as such could do the same for development of followership research. FIFTs as a research area are nascent and, as such, should continue to be explored in order to expand our understanding of followership.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors' knowledge, this is one of the first literature reviews to have a specific focus on FIFTs, as well as on followership research conducted within the African context.

Impact of e-leadership on organizational innovation performance: Role of employee followership

“…Meanwhile, the results of the present study showed that excessively high followership could also reduce the impact of E-Leadership on employee innovation, in line with the finding that ambidextrous leadership suppressed innovation behavior among followers (S. Wang et al, 2021). Therefore, the present study also supplemented and enriched the theoretical knowledge of followership (Bastardoz & Van Vugt, 2019;Matshoba-Ramuedzisi et al, 2022;Plachy & Smunt, 2022).…”

Habermas, Relational Leadership, and Public Sector Workplace Bullying

“…For others, the legitimation that government policy provides may cloak other agendas that may have less to do with implementation of policy, and more to do with exerting control over others. Specifically, the public sector's primary reliance upon managerial control mechanisms has compromised and deteriorated public leaders' relationships with their followers [61,62]. Furthermore, the focus within traditional leadership approaches upon personality traits, behavioral styles or identifying types of leaders with associated people management techniques [63,64] reinforces a leader-hero myth of leaders working their magic [65] to successfully subject followers to an apparatus of control.…”

Impact of Leader’s Goal Framing on Followership Behavior: The Role of Work Meaning and Power Dependence

“…Leaders can influence how employees interpret information by manipulating goal framing. Research has shown that employees' attitudes and behaviors can be changed based on the positive or negative language used by leaders [30]. When leaders clarify the significance of work and provide contextual information to employees, they can influence their motivation for followership and behavior through specific responsive language forms and symbols [31].…”