Northouse, Leadership 9e
SAGE Publishing, 2022
Lecture Notes
Chapter 13: Followership
Learning Objectives
13-1 Describe the follower approach to leadership.
13-2 Define the different theoretical approaches to followership.
13-4 Discuss the strengths of the followership approach.
13-6 Recognize applications of the followership approach.
Annotated Chapter Outline
I. Description
A. Leaders cannot exist without followers, as the process of leading requires the process of
following.
i. An understanding of leadership is incomplete without also understanding the
following.
ii. Many come to associate a negative connotation with the idea of “being a
follower.”
a. Followership is not as compelling to most as leadership; leaders have
B. Followership research first broke ground in the 1930s, thanks to Follet.
i. Core principles, however, weren’t established until the works of:
a. Zaleznik (1965).
b. Kelley (1988).
ii. The traditional approach was leader-centric and focused on leader traits, roles,
and behaviors.
a. Leaders are conventionally seen as the causal agents for organizational
change.
b. As a result, there is a small body of research on followership available,
and it is a relatively young leadership approach overall.
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d. Although followers are understood to share in the overall leadership
C. This narrow focus on leadership may be beginning to change.
i. Susan Cain decries our societal obsession with leadership skills (particularly in
college admissions and curricula).
a. According to Cain, the world needs more followers.
b. This includes team players, people called to service, and individuals
committed to something outside of themselves.
ii. Three major followership works have been released since 2008:
a. The Art of Followership: How Great Followers Create Great Leaders and
Organizations by Riggio, Chaleff, and Lipman-Blumen (2008).
b. Followership: How Followers Are Creating Change and Changing Leaders
D. Followership Defined
i. Followership: A process whereby an individual or individuals accept the influence
of others to accomplish a common goal.
a. This term may be challenging and subjective to define, and it has a
differential emotional tone depending on the nature of the leader or
ii. Followership is not amoral (morally neutral); it has a clear ethical dimension.
a. Followership imposes a responsibility to consider the morality of one’s
actions, particularly whether the outcomes of acts performed during
E. Role-Based and Relational-Based Perspectives
i. Role-based: A followership perspective that focuses on followers in regard to the
typical roles or behaviors they exhibit while occupying a formal or informal
position within a hierarchical system.
a. For example, some followers may be positive people to have at a
meeting due to their energy, engagement, or insight.
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ii. Relational-based: A followership approach that recognizes followership as co-
created by the leader and follower in a given situation; it is ideologically based in
a social constructivism viewpoint, which argues people create meaning about
their reality as they interact with each other.
a. Co-created: A relational concept in followership, describing the ways
that the interplay between leader and follower in a given situation
construct a relational dynamic.
b. Social constructivism suggests that leaders and followers establish
c. Leadership occurs within an interpersonal context of attempting to
F. Typologies of Followership
i. The Zaleznik Typology was the first of the follower typologies, intended to help
leaders understand followers and help followers become leaders.
b. Withdrawn followers (submissive/passive) desire to be controlled by
leaders who permit them to sit back and withdraw in a situation.
c. Masochistic followers (submissive/active) want to be controlled by their
leader, but also want to initiate activity.
ii. The Kelley Typology is the most easily recognized followership typology, which
occupies a grid much like Zaleznik’s, but changes the y-axis (to independent,
critical thinking or dependent, uncritical thinking) and adds a neutral “pragmatic”
zone at the intersection of both axes.
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a. Kelley believes followers are enormously valuable to organizations and
that the power of followers often goes unrecognized.
b. Rather than Zaleznik’s focus on the personality of followers, Kelley
d. Passive followers (sheep, uncritical, and passive). Look to the leader for
direction and motivation.
e. Conformist followers (yes people, uncritical, and active). Always ready at
h. Exemplary followers (stars, active, and positive). Offers independent
constructive criticism.
i. Effective followers have some common qualities: 1) self-management
iii. The Chaleff Typology was designed to amplify the significance of the role of
followers in the leadership process, as Chaleff felt a moral imperative to try to
find the answers to why the German people followed Adolf Hitler even as he
killed over 6 million European Jews.
a. Chaleff argues followers do not serve leaders, but both followers and
b. According to Chaleff, followers should be pressed to take a more
d. The core of Chaleff’s prescriptive admonishments for leader-follower
parity is the idea that followers ought to be courageous.
e. Followers require courage to: 1) assume responsibility for a common
h. Individualist (low support, high challenge). Often marginalized by
others; the individualist brashly lets the leader know where they stand.
iv. The Kellerman Typology is the most recently developed typology of followers,
and is based on Kellerman’s arguments and observations from historical political
contexts: Any leader’s importance is likely to be overestimated (due to power,
authority, and influence), but the importance of followers is underestimated.
a. Sees followers as subordinate “unleaders” with little apparent power,
c. Isolates (completely unengaged). Detached and do not care about
leaders. Those political isolates who do nothing actually strengthen a
e. Participants (moderately engaged). Willing to take a stand for or against
v. These typologies are a valuable starting point for research on the nature of
followership.
a. They also highlight the ways followers have been characterized over
time.
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b. Common followership types are: active-engaged, independent-
II. Theoretical Approaches to Followership
A. According to Uhl-Bien et al. (2014), a systematic analysis of the literature on
followership revealed some important factors of followership:
i. Followership comprises characteristics, behaviors, and processes in individuals
who are acting in relation to their leaders.
B. Theoretical constructs and variables in followership research:
i. In leadership:
a. Leader characteristics: Leader attributes such as power, tendency to
ii. In followership:
a. Followership characteristics: Follower attributes such as traits,
including the extent to which they obey, defer, or resist the leader.
iii. Followership outcomes: Results that occur based on the followership process,
which have a broad range of influences (individual follower, leader, leader-
follower relationship, and leadership process).
C. Reversing the Lens
i. Reversing the lens: An approach to followership that addresses followers in a
manner opposite of the way they have been studied in most prior leadership
research.
a. Focuses on the effect followers have on their leaders and organizational
outcomes, rather than the more typically studied situation.
ii. Reversing the lens has three primary areas of interest:
a. Impact of follower characteristics on follower behavior.
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b. Impact of follower behavior on leader perception/behavior, as well as
D. The Leadership Co-Created Process
i. Leadership co-created process: Conceptualizes followership as a give-and-take
process where one individual’s following behaviors interact with another
individual’s leading behaviors to create leadership and its resulting outcomes.
a. Does not from followership as role-based or a hierarchical rung on a
ii. Leading behaviors are influence attempts, while following behaviors include
granting power, compliance, or challenging leadership.
iii. Components of the co-created process:
a. Follower-leader influences are mutual.
E. New Perspectives on Followership
i. These perspectives are intended to help organizations understand followers.
a. Also, to help individuals understand the positive facets of being a
follower.
ii. Perspective 1: Followers Get the Job Done. Meindl (1995) describes a “romance of
leadership” that has historically been used to overinflate the importance of
leadership to organizational function.
a. This thinking has neglected the importance of the followers in “getting
the job done.”
b. When the role of the leader is considered less romantically, it appears
iii. Perspective 2: Followers Work in the Best Interest of the Organization’s Mission.
Proactive followers are extremely committed to achieving the goals of the group
or organization to which they belong, asserting themselves in ways that are in
alignment with the goals of the organization.
a. They prioritize organizational goals over the leader’s goals, rather than
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iv. Perspective 3: Followers Change Leaders. Effective followers can be identified as
engaged, active, and challenging to the leader; a follower may challenge the
leader in a way that improves efficiency and success in the organization.
a. This occurs when followers have knowledge about a process or
b. De Zilwa (2014), who focuses on relational leader-follower interactions
c. De Zilwa’s authenticity is characterized by followers who are assertive,
v. Perspective 4: Followers Support the Leader. It is just as important for followers
to support a leader—with validations, affirmations, and “emotional backup”— as
it is for them to challenge a leader’s faulty assumptions.
a. A supportive follower can act as a “lieutenant,” helping to affirm,
vi. Perspective 5: Followers Learn from Leaders. In the process of following a leader,
followers necessarily learn about leading from a unique position—where they
have none of the burdens or responsibilities of leadership.
F. Followership and Destructive Leaders
i. Followers have thus far been portrayed as largely beneficial to leadership.
However, there are unproductive, ineffective, and downright harmful ways to
practice followership.
ii. Followers with “dark triad” traits of narcissism, Machiavellianism, and
psychopathy often have deleterious effects on their fellow organizational
members as well as the broader organization.
a. These kinds of followers tend to steal credit for others’ work, self–
iii. Followers may, inadvertently or otherwise, facilitate toxic leadership.
a. Passive and submissive followers’ inaction can contribute to unfettered
leadership or create unhealthy contexts that allow self-interested
leaders to thrive.
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iv. Toxic leaders are dysfunctional and destructive, but still recruit followers on a
shocking scale, which Jean Lipman-Blumen (2005) asserts is due to a series of
psychological factors in followership.
v. Our Need for Reassuring Authority Figures. The psychological elements of our
relationship with authority have been an object of interest since the dawn of
psychology.
a. During youth, we depend on parents to guide and protect us.
vi. Our Need for Security and Certainty. For many, the freedom gained in adulthood
brings uncertainty and disruption where many need consistency and security in
their beliefs and attitudes.
a. When we are “disrupted” and do not feel like we are “in charge,” it
vii. Our Need to Feel Chosen or Special. A casual historical survey indicates a
recurrent theme of figures who were “chosen ones”—whether by a higher
power, a monarch, or a millionaire, these individuals thus become unique, the
sole possessor of the truth, and simply “superior” to their peers.
a. At the expense of recognizing the humanity of others, believing you are
viii. Our Need for Membership in the Human Community. Psychologist William Schutz
(1958) argued that one of humans’ strongest interpersonal needs is to know
whether they belong to the group, and positive and healthy groups are
overwhelmingly beneficial to their members, who feel accepted, comfortable,
valued, and inspired.
a. This creates a vulnerability, however, in that a need to be a group
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ix. Our Fear of Ostracism, Isolation, and Social Death. Acquiring full membership to a
group begins a process of learning and practicing group norms, which over time
becomes internalized into a key part of the individual’s identity.
a. Inclusion and community provide a powerful draw and sense of
x. Our Fear of Powerlessness to Challenge a Bad Leader. Followers may accidentally
enable destructive leaders if they do not feel empowered to change conditions
or challenge the leader and their plans for the group.
a. Even if multiple witnesses and victims within a group arise to accuse, a
III. How Does Followership Work?
A. Followership, still in its relative infancy as a field of study, has few sophisticated models
or empirically supported theories. Some “takeaways” that have valuable implications for
the practice of followership as a broad leadership approach:
i. Elevates the importance and value of followers, changing the traditional tone of
leadership inquiry away from a romanticized, exceptionalism-based notion of a
single “great man.”
a. Instead, the tone becomes more about rich, diverse groups of followers
ii. Followership describes the characteristics and actions of people who have less
power than the leader yet are critical components in the leadership process.
a. Typologies provide a criterion of what followers typically do in different
iii. Provides a better understanding of why harmful leadership occurs and why it
sometimes continues unchecked.
a. Followers are interdependent with leaders in the leadership process.
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c. By understanding their own feelings of powerlessness and need for
IV. Strengths
A. Recognizes followership as an integral part of the leadership equation.
i. In contrast to earlier theories, followers are not just an element, but an equally
central factor to leaders in leadership.
ii. Popper (2016) suggests that followers’ attraction emerges from three
perspectives:
a. Psychoanalytic (leader is a protector).
b. Cognitive-psychological (leader is a suitable, psychologically convenient
B. Forces a new perspective on leadership.
i. Challenges us to take leadership off its pedestal and replace it with followership.
ii. For example, followers exert upward influence through voice and passing
problems up the leadership chain.
a. Leaders are less motivated when followers are passive and “delegate
C. Invites us to view leadership as a co-constructed process in which followers and leaders
share equally.
i. Reminds us that studying leadership alone gives an incomplete picture.
D. Serves a basic prescriptive role: what followers should or should not do is based on the
blueprint created by followership research.
E. Research on Implicit Followership Theory (IFT) suggests that leaders look for both
performance-related attributes and attributes such as loyalty and being able to
cooperate with others in their view of an “ideal” follower.
i. Six characteristics associated with an ideal follower:
a. Industry (followership prototype).
ii. When followers fit the leader’s implicit prototypes for what a good follower is,
followers reported that they liked the leader more and had higher relationship
quality and trust.
V. Criticisms
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A. The nascent quality of the body of followership research means there is little empirical
proof; it is a theoretical structure that remains somewhat conceptually abstract until
much more research is done.
B. Much of the current literature is strictly observational and anecdotal.
i. For example, all four followership models from Zaleznik to Kellerman are based
C. Some believe the leader-centric bent of our social reality is too thoroughly ingrained for
followership to truly blossom; success in followership requires strong and courageous
individuals that are able to both teach the leader and learn from the leader.
i. Until we have more research that is dyadic, we will only understand parts of the
dynamics that explain effective followership.
D. Followership research has not examined the reasons that choosing followership would
ever be a “good deal,” as it demands a significant sacrifice of autonomy and putting
one’s own goals aside to follow a leader.
i. From an evolutionary perspective, followership evolved to address problems in
groups such as hunting, gathering, and peacekeeping.
ii. Some suggested reasons to pursue followership include:
a. Rewards from a leader.
E. Little research on which patterns of followership are beneficial or detrimental.
i. While proactivity is important, followers must be aware and calibrate their
influence attempts by taking the situational factors into account.
a. Leaders may view attempts to influence them as disruptive if they occur
VI. Application
A. Following the leader requires accepting a leader’s authority and influence, and deciding
how to respond to what the leader says.
i. Followership research examines how and why followers respond to leaders.
B. Research supports the idea that followership is every bit as important as leadership;
followers, too, play a very critical and complex role in leadership.
i. The research outlined in the chapter provides a source for analysis of diverse
groups of real-life individuals, allowing leaders to identify and tailor approaches
specifically to the unique personalities and needs of their followers.
a. It can also assist in understanding oneself.
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C. Followership research shows promise for organizational training and development,
although it has not yet been recognized as an essential topic by many training bodies.
D. This information can help leaders to understand followers and how to most effectively
work with them.
i. Leaders have tried for years to treat followers as individuals with unique needs,