Summary

Followership is a subtopic of leadership studies that represents the role of followers and following in the co-creation of the leadership/followership relation and outcomes. The focus on followership emerged with the shift in leadership research toward relational perspectives aimed at counteracting the predominant “leader-centric” bias that views leadership as initiated, directed, and largely controlled by leaders. Leader-centric approaches attribute outcomes to the differential influence and superior capabilities of leaders, with little to no recognition of the contribution of followers. They treat followers as passive participants who submit to the direction and goals of leaders. To counter this, followership perspectives view followers as active and essential participants in the co-creation of leadership/followership.

Followership approaches argue that there is no leadership without followership: It is in the willingness of someone to follow or defer to another that leadership and followership are co-created. Followership is always present when leadership is occurring, and overlooking or disregarding it does not reduce or diminish its importance. Followership scholars draw attention to the necessary presence of followership by repositioning leadership and followership into a joint construct in which leadership and followership are two sides of the same coin. In this relation, leadership is the study of the agency, behaviors, identity, and characteristics of leaders in the co-creation process, and followership is the study of the agency, behaviors, identity, and characteristics of followers in the co-creation.

Followership is formally defined as followers’ agency, position, identity, characteristics, and behavioral choices in the co-creation of leadership/followership. It can occur in formal relations, such as those seen in hierarchical organizations (i.e., manager–subordinate relations), or it can be seen in informal relations, where individuals choose who will lead and who will follow. Topics addressed in followership research include things such as the nature or style of those who are more or less effective at following or being a follower; what it is like to be in a state or condition of followership; and the characteristics, experiences, or factors associated with holding a followership position. In all cases, followership is fluid and affected by myriad factors such that having the role of follower does not mean that the individual only follows. In many cases, the best followership occurs when followers work in coordination with leaders to support the leader’s role and help attain the leader’s goals.