Search Results (2)

Followership is as crucial as leadership for organizational success. Significant efforts have been made by numerous researchers to examine how leadership influences followership; however, not enough attention has been paid to the influence of internal factors of followers on followership from the followers’ perspective. This study relies on identity theory to understand the relationship between the influence of followers’ perceived self-following traits (FTP) and followership prototype (FP) on followership, and the mediation role of self-efficacy in the relationship between FTP-FP consistency and followership. In order to avoid common method bias and ensure good discriminant validity of the variables, a two-wave time-lagged data collection design was used to collect 276 valid questionnaires from front-line business staff and junior supervisors in private and public sector organizations of China. Polynomial regression and response surface analysis were used to investigate the effect of FTP-FP consistency on followership. The empirical findings indicated that (1) the more consistent FTP-FP, the stronger the followership; (2) compared to the ‘low FTP-low FP’, employees with ‘high FTP-high FP’ had stronger followership; (3) employees with ‘high FTP-low FP’ had stronger followership than ‘low FTP-high FP’; (4) self-efficacy played a mediating role between FTP-FP consistency and followership. These findings contribute to management practice by revealing antecedents to followership from the perspective follower identity and the effect of follower identity on followership. Full article

Due to the impact of COVID-19, a large number of employees of organizations around the world have been forced to work remotely from home starting in 2020. As a result, leaders and followers face new communication and interaction challenges. If an enterprise is to be successful in the new wave of economic development, it must embrace the role of employee followers. However, there is currently no relevant research. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to analyze the interaction between organic leadership and implicit followers from the perspective of followers who are working remotely and further analyze their relationship with trust in their supervisor, organizational citizenship behavior, and active followership. Using the method of questionnaire measurement, multigroup analysis and ANCOVA and PLS-SEM analysis found the following. First, difference in leadership styles (IV) and implicit followers (IV) had significant effects on employees’ trust in supervisor (DV), organizational citizenship behavior (DV), and active followers (DV). Secondly, the influence of the leaders’ styles (IV) on employees’ trust in supervisor (DV), organizational citizenship behavior (DV), and active followership (DV) was significantly affected only when IFTs were anti-prototypical traits. Finally, organizational citizenship behavior (Med) had an indirect effect between trust in supervisor (DV) and active followership (DV). This article not only fills the gaps in the literature related to leaders and followers, but also provides analytical evidence and new thinking which will enable companies to propose management strategies more effectively for employees working remotely in the face of the impact of the epidemic. Full article