Followership: Annotated Biblography

About This Bibliography

The following annotated bibliography contains a wide range of followership research that informed our team's construction of this digital collection. While it is not comprehensive, it is a useful resource for those interested in a broad view of existing research on followership.

Annotated Bibliography of Followership Research

Baird, N., & Benson, A. J. (2022). Getting ahead while getting along: Followership as a key ingredient for shared leadership and reducing team conflict. Frontiers in Psychology, 13, 923150.

The researchers bring unique perspectives to shared leadership research by exploring the phenomenon through the lens of followership. Shared leadership has been commonly researched from the lens of leadership and how every team should play leadership roles in solving problems. The authors identified that shared leadership is a relational process that involves a dyad interplay between leadership and followership; and followership is a necessary ingredient for high levels of leadership to exist within a team. To establish this, the authors conducted a quantitative study measuring the relationships between effective leadership, effective followership, dyadic relationships conflict and team-referent relationship conflict among student teams. Keywords: followership, shared leadership, team conflict, social relations model (SRM), multilevel structural equation model (MSEM), leader–follower dynamics

Baker, S. D. (2007). Followership: The theoretical foundation of a contemporary construct. Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, 14(1), 50–60.

The author presented a historical background to followership research and a comprehensive overview of how leadership literature interacts with followership research and study. The author utilized the social exchange theory and leader-member exchange model to explain the dyadic relationship between leaders and followers. The strength of this article lies in its conceptual review by exploring themes such as Followers and Leaders are Roles, Followers are Active not Passive, Followers and Leaders Share a Common Purpose, and The Relational Nature of Followers and Leaders. While this study does not explore in-depth aspects of followership research, it can be used as an introductory manual for understanding the state of followership research and concepts. Keywords: followership, leadership, leader role, follower role, relational nature of leader—follower, organizational behavior, management, authentic leadership
Bastardoz, N., & Adriaensen, S. (2023). What does it mean to follow? A critique of the followership literature and a conceptual model of the emergence of downward following. Frontiers in Psychology, 14, 1072800.

The authors challenged some of the thinking and conceptualization of followership research and study. The strength of this study lies in its attempt to develop a consistent conceptualization and reliable methodology for followership study. The authors achieved this through a systematic review of followership articles (2017-2021). Contributions from this study include a call to abandon the general practice of equating direct reports with followers and the use of more event-based approaches for measuring dynamic follower behaviors. While role-based approach to followership conceptualization has been ubiquitously utilized, the authors called for a shift from role-based to process approach. Keywords: follower, downward following, upward leading, process approach, social influence process, shared goals

Bastardoz, N., & Van Vugt, M. (2019). The nature of followership: Evolutionary analysis and review. The Leadership Quarterly, 30(1), 81–95.

The authors provided an excellent review of literature on followership, from a historical perspective, a stand-alone term separate from leadership, and followership strategies that might exist within a given context. This study has unique strengths in conceptual review and proposition.

Benson, A. J., Woodley, H. J. R., Jensen, L., & Hardy, J. (2024). Mapping the traits desired in followers and leaders onto fundamental dimensions of social evaluation. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied.

This study presents a highly intense examination of followers' trait, both as a stand-alone phenomenon and in relation to leaders' trait. The authors did an excellent conceptualization of key follower(ship) terms from the traits perspective and conducted three studies to test related phenomenon. Keywords: agency, communion, followership, leadership, trustworthiness

Bjugstad, K., Thach, E. C., Thompson, K. J., & Morris, A. (2006). A fresh look at followership: A model for matching followership and leadership styles. Journal of Behavioral and Applied Management, 7(3).

The authors presents an interesting conceptual review of followership studies, and followers behavior. While acknowledging the reasons for the scarcity in followership literature, the authors provided an excellent theoretical foundations of followership and the connections they have with leadership theories. However, Bjugstad et al. (2006) did excellently by explicitly outlining the limitations of the study. Seeing that this study was published in year 2006, it is therefore, important to note that followership research has developed significantly ever since. Keywords: leadership, followership

Carsten, M. K., Harms, P., & Uhl-Bien, M. (2014). Exploring historical perspectives of followership: The need for an expanded view of followers and the follower role. In R. E. Riggio & J. A. Conger (Eds.), Followership: What is it and why do people follow (pp. 3–25). Jossey-Bass.

Studies examining the evolution of followership from political, sociological, and psychological perspectives are rare. The researchers present a rich historical accounts of followership research and practice. The strength of the research extends to the detailed literature review on the different roles and behaviors of followers in a leadership process, and the overlapping relationship between leaders and followers. Keywords: follower, followership, follower-centered, leadership, role orientation

Chircop, J. (2024). Followership is not following: Reframing followership in western higher education. International Journal of Leadership in Education, 1–19.

Like leadership, attempting to develop a definition for followership can be a daunting task. In this study, Chircop (2024) synthesized definitions of followership, from research, and came up with a meaning for the study and practice of followership. What makes this study unique is its focus on western higher education, a space popularly known for high bureaucracy. Understanding that the nomenclature, followership, has various connotation, the study was meticulously written to amplify the neccessity for more inquiries in uncommon spaces such as the higher education.

Essa, E. B., & Alattari, A. (2019). The relationship between followership styles and leadership styles. Research in Educational Administration & Leadership, 4(2), 407–449.

This study was conducted to examine the interactions between leadership and followership styles. While literature review was conducted for both domains, there was a need for a more intense literature review as there are many styles leaders and followers display. Nevertheless, the researchers did excellently in summarizing previous studies conducted in the field. Although this research lacks the rigor a followership research needs, it can be used as a starting point for understanding phenomenon related to the concepts. Keywords:  Followership styles, leadership styles, Jordanian universities

Gajendran, R. S., Mistry, S., & Tangirala, S. (2024). Managing Your Boss (MYB) as a proactive followership behavior: Construct validation and theory development. Personnel Psychology, 77(2), 375–410.

The researchers, writing from a practice lens, attempted to explore the concept of proactive followership and how it influences leadership processes and success. While there was a constant use of the term, employee in place of followers, Gajendran et al. (2024) excellently utilized existing followership and leadership theories in driving their research and providing relevant theoretical propositions. The strength in this research lies in its attempt to develop and test a scale for measuring how/if followers manage their bosses. Keywords:  Construct validation, followership, managing your boss, MYB, proactive behaviors

Güntner, A. V., Klasmeier, K. N., Klonek, F. E., & Kauffeld, S. (2021). The power of followers that do not follow: Investigating the effects of follower resistance, leader implicit followership theories and leader negative affect on the emergence of destructive leader behavior. Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, 28(3), 349–365.

This research brings a fresh perspective to leader-follower relationship by focusing on the followers' non-compliant response to distructive leadership. The researchers addressed this research by theoretically exploring the Implicit Followership Theories and the dynamism of leader-follower relationship. The strength of this research lies in the researchers' ability to test and measure the influence of followers' implicit assumptions and response to their leaders' destructive behaviors. Keywords:  destructive leadership, follower resistance, implicit followership theories, affective events theory, endogeneity
 

Jiang, X., Snyder, K., Li, J., & Manz, C. C. (2021). How followers create leaders: The impact of effective followership on leader emergence in self-managing teams. Group Dynamics: Theory, Research, and Practice, 25(4), 303–318.

The researchers present followership as an important aspect of leadership and group process, particularly in a leaderless or self-managed setting. Like most studies, Jiang et al. (2021) writes about followership from the lenses of leadership and how followership behavior interacts with leadership behavior. The researchers attempted to test the role of followership on leaders' identity, emergence and behavior through a quantative research. The topic of this research "How Followers Create Leaders" places (and gives power to) followers as the more influential element in the leader-follower relationship. Keywords:  followership, leader emergence, self-managing team

Kellerman, B. (2019). The future of followership. Strategy & Leadership, 47(5), 42–46.

Barbara Kellerman is an authority in the field of leadership and has always being a strong advocate of followership. Kellerman presents followership as a system, and distinguishes the term "follower" as an individual. The paper presents a rich exploration of the evolution of followership from multiple lenses and how trends in followership and leadership have evolved significantly. In addition, Kellerman provided a projection for the future of followership research and practice.

Loyola, M. S., & Aiswarya, B. (2023). Followership in organisational leadership studies: A systematic literature review. Colombo Business Journal, 14(1), 119–140.

This paper was written to provide organizational members with an understanding of followership, its application and essense. The authors also explored overlapping theories and concepts that interface with leadership and followership. Keywords: followership, leader-centric approach, follower-centric approach

Oc, B., Chintakananda, K., Bashshur, M. R., & Day, D. V. (2023). The study of followers in leadership research: A systematic and critical review. The Leadership Quarterly, 34(1), 101674.

Through a comprehensive study, Oc et al. (2023) account that between 1910 and 1970, followers were only considered as passive recipients of leadership influence with no power in a leadership process. In the 1970s and 1980s, they were treated as part of the leader’s context. From 1990 to the 2020s era, discourses on followership became more prominent, and it became more common to research the role of followers in leadership, the typologies of followership, and followership identity. The researchers provided areas where leadership and followership theories, research and practice historically overlap. Keywords: followers, review, validity, threats, endogeneity

Othman, C., & Busari, A. (2024). Followership in focus: A comprehensive bibliometric review of research from 1951 to 2024. International Journal of Modern Education, 6(2), 615–629.

The researchers went beyond the conventionary exploration of the meaning of followership to provide an synopsis of the evolution of followership research. While this kind of research on followership is not new, every researcher who embarks on them provides fresh perspectives to how followership emerged and is still emerging. The researchers also provided reviews based on different disciplines, researchers, and countries. Keywords: bibliometric analysis, followership, leadership, VOSviewer