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Publication Detailed Description
Can you be a follower even when you do not follow the leader? Yes, you can
Journal Title
Leadership
Year (definitive publication)
2021
Language
English
Country
United Kingdom
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Abstract
In the ongoing debate in the area of critical leadership studies, the nature of leader–follower
relationships is a thorny issue. The nature of followership has been questioned, especially whether
followers can display resistance behaviours while maintaining their follower position. Addressing
this issue requires a dialectical approach in which followers and leaders alike are primary elements in
leadership co-production. Followers who face destructive leaders are of special interest when
leadership is studied as a co-creational process. This context favours the emergence of a full range of
behavioural profiles in which passives and colluders will illustrate the destructive leadership coproduction process, and those who resist demonstrate that followers may not follow the leader and
still keep a followership purpose. A two-step data analysis procedure was conducted based on the
behaviour descriptions of 123 followers having a destructive leader. A qualitative analysis (i.e.
content analysis) showed a set of behaviours and their antecedents that suggest three main groups of
followers: resisters, obedient and mixed behaviour. Treating these data quantitatively (i.e. latent
class analysis), six followers’ profiles emerged: active resistance, passive resistance, passive obedience, conflict avoidance, support and mixed. Our findings provide evidence that followers who
resist may do it for the sake of the organisation. We discuss our findings in light of followership theory, whereby joining role-based and constructionist approaches allows us to argue that followers
may still be followers even when they do not invariably follow their leader.
Acknowledgements
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Keywords
Leader(ship),Follower(ship),Destructive leader(ship),Followers’ profiles,Followers’ resistance,Critical leadership studies
Fields of Science and Technology Classification
- Psychology - Social Sciences
- Economics and Business - Social Sciences
Funding Records
Funding Reference | Funding Entity |
---|---|
SFRH/BD/132041/2017 | Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia |
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