A Followership Approach to Leadership
The Interplay Between Leadership, Context, and Follower Behaviors
Abstract
Abstract. Leadership research has privileged leaders' active role in shaping leader–follower interactions, whereas much less attention has been given to how followers interact with leaders. We propose that leader–member exchange (LMX) mediates the relationship between followership and employee behaviors. We also suggest that top management openness (TMO) moderates these relationships. With a sample of 769 supervisor–subordinate dyads, we examined the role of followership and contextual variables on LMX and outcomes. We found that LMX mediates the relationship between proactive followership and voice and that this relationship was significant only when TMO was high. These findings suggest that followers play an active role in the leadership process and that to stimulate voice one should consider two levels of analysis: followers and leaders.
References
(1991). Multiple regression: Testing and interpreting interactions. Sage.
(2010). On making causal claims: A review and recommendations. The Leadership Quarterly, 21(6), 1086–1120. 10.1016/j.leaqua.2010.10.010
(1998). Out on a limb: The role of context and impression management in selling gender-equity issues. Administrative Science Quarterly, 43(1), 23–57. 10.2307/2393590
(2012). Exploring the process of ethical leadership: The mediating role of employee voice and psychological ownership. Journal of Business Ethics, 107(1), 21–34. 10.1007/s10551-012-1298-2
(2009). Leadership: Current theories, research, and future directions. Annual Review of Psychology, 60, 421–449. 10.1146/annurev.psych.60.110707.163621
(2007). Followership. Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, 14(1), 50–60. 10.1177/0002831207304343
(2019). The nature of followership: Evolutionary analysis and review. The Leadership Quarterly, 30(1), 81–95. 10.1016/j.leaqua.2018.09.004
(2006). A longitudinal study of the moderating role of extraversion: Leader-member exchange, performance, and turnover during new executive development. Journal of Applied Psychology, 91(2), 298–310. 10.1037/0021-9010.91.2.298
(1996). Development of leader-member exchange: A longitudinal test. Academy of Management Journal, 39(6), 1538–1567. 10.5465/257068
(2016). Statistical control in correlational studies: 10 essential recommendations for organizational researchers. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 37(2), 157–167. 10.1002/job.2053
(2010). Pro-self, prosocial, and pro-organizational foci of proactive behaviour: Differential antecedents and consequences. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 83(2), 475–498. 10.1348/096317909X439208
(2016). Contextualizing leaders' interpretations of proactive followership. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 37(7), 949–966. 10.1002/job.670
(2011). Age as moderator of the relationship of proactive personality with training motivation, perceived career development from training, and training behavioral intentions. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 32(2), 248–263. 10.1002/job.670
(2009). Followership styles and employee attachment to the organization. The Psychologist-Manager Journal, 12(2), 111–131. 10.1080/10887150902888718
(2000). Within-group agreement, non-independence, and reliability: Implications for data aggregation and analysis. In K. J. KleinS. W. J. Kozlowski (Eds.), Multilevel theory, research, and Methods in organizations (pp. 349–381). Jossey-Bass.
(2012). Approaching leadership with a follower focus. Zeitschrift für Psychologie, 220, 201–204. 10.1027/2151-2604/a000114
(2012). Positive supervisory relationships. In L. T. EbyT. D. AllenPersonal Relationships (Eds.), The Effects on employee attitudes, behavior, and well-being (pp. 43–66). Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.
(2012). The risks and rewards of speaking up: Managerial responses to employee voice. Academy of Management Journal, 55(4), 851–875.
(1986). Leadership as empowering others. In S. Srivastva (Ed.), Executive power (pp. 51–77). Jossey-Bass.
(2008). Quitting before leaving: The mediating effects of psychological attachment and detachment on voice. Journal of Applied Psychology, 93(4), 912–922. 10.1037/0021-9010.93.4.912
(1983). Analysis of multiplicative combination rules when the causal variables are measured with error. Psychological Bulletin, 93(3), 549–562. 10.1037/0033-2909.93.3.549
(2012). Follower beliefs in the Co-production of leadership. Zeitschrift für Psychologie, 220(4), 210–220. 10.1027/2151-2604/a000115
(2018). Leader perceptions and motivation as outcomes of followership role orientation and behavior. Leadership, 14(6), 731–756. 10.1177/1742715017720306
(2010). Exploring social constructions of followership: A qualitative study. The Leadership Quarterly, 21(3), 543–562. 10.1016/j.leaqua.2010.03.015
(2008). Exploring the antecedents and consequences of follower behavior. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Society for Industrial Organizational Psychology, San Francisco, CA.
(2009). Balance in leader and follower perceptions of leader-member exchange: Relationships with performance and work attitudes. The Leadership Quarterly, 20(3), 452–465. 10.1016/j.leaqua.2009.03.010
(2013). Applied multiple regression/correlation analysis for the behavioral sciences. Routledge.
(2006). Rethinking followership: A post-structuralist analysis of follower identities. The Leadership Quarterly, 17(2), 179–189. 10.1016/j.leaqua.2005.12.005
(2004). Developing leadership capability: What's inside the black box?. Academy of Management Executive, 18(3), 136–139. 10.5465/ame.2004.14776188
(2003). Indifference or obedience? Business firms as democratic hybrids. Organization Studies, 24(8), 1231–1260. 10.1177/01708406030248001
(2011). Conceptualising followership – A review of the literature. Leadership, 7(4), 481–497. 10.1177/1742715011416891
(1994). Supervisor trust building, leader-member exchange and organizational citizenship behaviour. Journal of Occupational & Organizational Psychology, 67(4), 315–326. 10.1111/j.2044-8325.1994.tb00570.x
(2012). When does transformational leadership enhance employee proactive behavior? The role of autonomy and role breadth self-efficacy. Journal of Applied Psychology, 97(1), 194–202. 10.1037/a0024903
(2007). Leadership behavior and employee voice: Is the door really open? Academy of Management Journal, 50(4), 869–884.
(1986). Leader-member exchange model of leadership: A critique and further development. Academy of Management Review, 11, 618–634. 10.5465/amr.1986.4306242
(1999). Attaining decision quality and commitment from dissent: The moderating effects of loyalty and competence in strategic decision-making teams. Academy of Management Journal, 42(4), 389–402.
(2003). Speaking up in the operating room: How team leaders promote learning in interdisciplinary action teams. Journal of Management Studies, 40(6), 1419–1452. 10.1111/1467-6486.00386
(2010). Leader-member exchange and affective organizational commitment: The contribution of supervisor's organizational embodiment. Journal of Applied Psychology, 95(6), 1085–1103. 10.1037/a0020858
(1999). The impact of relational demography on the quality of leader–member exchanges and employees' work attitudes and well-being. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 72(2), 237–240.
(2013). Implicit Leadership and Followership Theories "in the wild": Taking stock of information-processing approaches to leadership and followership in organizational settings. The Leadership Quarterly, 24(6), 858–881. 10.1016/j.leaqua.2013.10.005
(2009). Understanding the impact of proactive personality on job performance. Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, 16(1), 61–72. 10.1177/1548051809334192
(2010). Leadership, affect and emotions: A state of the science review. The Leadership Quarterly, 21(6), 979–1004. 10.1016/j.leaqua.2010.10.005
(2012). Use and misuse of levels of analysis in leadership research: An illustrative review of leader-member exchange. The Leadership Quarterly, 23(6), 1080–1103. 10.1016/j.leaqua.2012.10.002
(2020). A critique of the leader-member exchange construct: Back to square one. The Leadership Quarterly, 31(6), 101385. 10.1016/j.leaqua.2020.101385
(1976). Role-making processes within complex organization. In M. D. Dunnett (Ed.), Handbook of industrial and organizational psychology (pp. 1201–1245). Rand McNally.
(1995). Relationship-based approach to leadership: Development of leader-member exchange (LMX) theory of leadership over 25 years: Applying a multi-level multi-domain perspective. The Leadership Quarterly, 6(2), 210–247. 10.1016/1048-9843(95)90036-5
(1980). Work redesign. Addison Wesley.
(2009). Leader-member exchange and empowerment: Direct and interactive effects on job satisfaction, turnover intentions, and performance. The Leadership Quarterly, 20(3), 371–382. 10.1016/j.leaqua.2009.03.006
(2013). Introduction to mediation, moderation and conditional process analysis: A regression-based approach. Guilford Press.
(1992). Leadership, followership, self, and others. The Leadership Quarterly, 3(1), 43–54.
(2012). Submitting to the follower label followership, positive affect, and extra-role behaviors. Zeitschrift für Psychologie, 220(4), 221–230. 10.1027/2151-2604/a000116
(2005). The role of followers in the charismatic leadership process: Relationships and their consequences. Academy of Management Review, 30(1), 96–112. 10.5465/amr.2005.15281435
(1999). Cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis: Conventional criteria versus new alternatives. Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 6, 1–55. 10.1080/10705519909540118
(2007). Leader-member exchange and citizenship behaviors: A meta-analysis. Journal of Applied Psychology, 92(1), 269–277. 10.1037/0021-9010.92.1.269
(1984). Estimating within-group interrater reliability with and without response bias. Journal of Applied Psychology, 69, 85–98. 10.1037/0021-9010.69.1.85
(1993). r-sub(wg): An assessment of within-group interrater agreement. Journal of Applied Psychology, 78, 306–309. 10.1037/0021-9010.78.2.306
(2014). Implicit theories in organizational settings: A systematic review and research agenda of implicit leadership and followership theories. The Leadership Quarterly, 25(6), 1154–1173. 10.1016/j.leaqua.2014.09.002
(2008). Followership: How followers are creating change and changing leaders. Harvard Business School Press.
(1992). The power of followership. Doubleday.
(1995). The effect of nonindependence on significance testing in dyadic research. Personal Relationships, 2, 67–75. 10.1111/j.1475-6811.1995.tb00078.x
(2000). Multilevel theory, research, and methods in organizations. Jossey-Bass.
(2005). Principles and practices of structural equation modeling (2nd ed.). Guilford Press.
(2006). The sources of four commonly reported cutoff criteria. Organizational Research Methods, 9, 202–220. 10.1177/1094428105284919
(2001). Voice and cooperative behavior as contrasting forms of contextual performance: Evidence of differential relationships with big five personality characteristics and cognitive ability. Journal of Applied Psychology, 86(2), 326–336. 10.1037/0021-9010.86.2.326
(1980). Generalizability of the vertical dyad linkage model of leadership. Academy of Management Journal, 23(3), 451–465. 10.5465/255511
(1997). Leader-member exchange theory: The past and potential for the future. Research in Personnel and Human Resources Management, 15, 47–119.
(1997). Measuring interrater agreement for ratings of a single target. Applied Psychological Measurement, 21, 271–278. 10.1177/01466216970213006
(1999). A revised index of interrater agreement for multi-item ratings of a single target. Applied Psychological Measurement, 23, 127–135. 10.1177/01466219922031257
(2014). Speaking more broadly: An examination of the nature, antecedents, and consequences of an expanded set of employee voice behaviors. Journal of Applied Psychology, 99(1), 87–112. 10.1037/a0034284
(2001). Employee empowerment: An integrative psychological approach. Applied Psychology: An International Review, 50(1), 153–180. 10.1111/1464-0597.00052
(2006). Demonstration and evaluation of a method for assessing mediated moderation. Behavior Research Methods, 38(1), 77–87. 10.3758/bf03192752
(2000). Organizational silence: A barrier to change and development in a pluralistic world. The Academy of Management Review., 25(4), 706–725. 10.5465/amr.2000.3707697
(1999). Taking charge at work: Extrarole efforts to initiate workplace change. Academy of Management Journal, 42(4), 403–419. 10.5465/257011
(1976). Psychometric theory (2nd ed.). McGraw-Hill.
(2013). Followership, leadership and social influence. The Leadership Quarterly, 24(6), 919–934. 10.1016/j.leaqua.2013.10.006
(2006). Modeling the antecedents of proactive behavior at work. Journal of Applied Psychology, 91(3), 636–652. 10.1037/0021-9010.91.3.636
(2003). Common method biases in behavioral research: A critical review of the literature and recommended remedies. Journal of Applied Psychology, 88(5), 879–903. 10.1037/0021-9010.88.5.879
(2012). Sources of method bias in social science research and recommendations on how to control it. Annual Review of Psychology, 63, 539–569. 10.1146/annurev-psych-120710-100452
(2006). Followers as partners: The spirit of leadership. In W. RosenbachR. Taylor (Eds.), Contemporary issues in leadership. Westview Press.
(2008). Asymptotic and resampling strategies for assessing and comparing indirect effects in multiple mediator models. Behavior Research Methods, 40(3), 879–891. 10.3758/brm.40.3.879
(2007). Addressing moderated mediation hypotheses: Theory, methods, and prescriptions. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 42(1), 185–227. 10.1080/00273170701341316
(2014). When do emotionally exhausted employees speak up? Exploring the potential curvilinear relationship between emotional exhaustion and voice. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 35(7), 1018–1041. 10.1002/job.1948
(2005). The role of leader-member exchange in the psychological contract breach – subordinates’ performance relationship. Academy of Management Annual Meeting Proceedings, 1–6.
(2008). The art of followership. Jossey-Bass.
(2008). A cross-national study of work engagement as a mediator between job resources and proactive behaviour. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 19(1), 116–131. 10.1080/09585190701763982
(2011). Antecedents and consequences of psychological and team empowerment in organizations: A meta-analytic review. Journal of Applied Psychology, 96(5), 981. 10.1037/a0022676
(2016). Tackling the problem of construct proliferation: A guide to assessing the discriminant validity of conceptually related constructs. Organizational Research Methods, 19(1), 80–110. 10.1177/1094428115598239
(2007). Follower-centered perspectives on leadership: A tribute to the memory of James R. Meindl. Information Age Publishing.
(2002). Mediation in experimental and nonexperimental studies: New procedures and recommendations. Psychological Methods, 7(4), 422–445. 10.1037/1082-989X.7.4.422
(2003). Recovery, work engagement, and proactive behavior: A new look at the interface between nonwork and work. Journal of Applied Psychology, 88(3), 518–528. 10.1037/0021-9010.88.3.518
(2005). Testing for weak instruments in linear IV regression. In D. W. K. AndrewsJ. H. Stock (Eds.), Identification and inference for econometric models: Essays in honor of Thomas Rothenberg (pp. 80–108). Cambridge University Press. 10.1017/cbo9780511614491.006
(2005). Antecedents of psychological contract breach: The role of similarity and leader-member exchange. Academy of Management Best Conference Paper, 1–6. 10.5465/ambpp.2005.18780720
(2010). What do you think of followers? Examining the content, structure, and consequences of implicit followership theories. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 113(2), 73–84. 10.1016/j.obhdp.2010.06.001
(2012). Ask and you shall hear (but not always): Examining the relationship between manager consultation and employee voice. Personnel Psychology, 65(2), 251–282. 10.1111/j.1744-6570.2012.01248.x
(2013). Revisiting followership through a social identity perspective: The role of collective follower emotion and action. The Leadership Quarterly, 24(6), 902–918. 10.1016/j.leaqua.2013.10.002
(2013). Social cognition in leader–follower relationships: Applying insights from relationship science to understanding relationship-based approaches to leadership. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 34(S1), S63–S81.
(2007). Development and validation of an internationally reliable short-form of the positive and negative affect schedule (PANAS). Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 38, 227–242. 10.1177/0022022106297301
(2006). Unpacking the relationship between CEO leadership behavior and organizational culture. The Leadership Quarterly, 17(2), 113–137. 10.1016/j.leaqua.2005.12.001
(2007). The romance of leadership and the social construction of followership. In B. ShamirR. PillaiM. C. BlighM. Uhl‐Bien(Eds.), Follower‐centered perspectives on leadership: A tribute to the memory of James R. Meindl (pp. 187–209). Information Age.
(2014). Followership theory: A review and research agenda. The Leadership Quarterly, 25(1), 83–104. 10.1016/j.leaqua.2013.11.007
(1998). Helping and voice extra-role behaviors: Evidence of construct and predictive validity. Academy of Management Journal, 41(1), 108–119. 10.5465/256902
(2008). Age, proactivity and career development. Career Development International, 13(2), 112–131. 10.1108/13620430810860530
(2010). Well-connected leaders: The impact of leaders' social network ties on LMX and members' work attitudes. Journal of Applied Psychology, 95(6), 1071–1084. 10.1037/a0020214
(2012). Leader-member exchange (LMX), job autonomy, and creative work involvement. The Leadership Quarterly, 23(3), 456–465. 10.1016/j.leaqua.2011.10.005
(2000). Predictors and outcomes of proactivity in the socialization process. Journal of Applied Psychology, 85(3), 373.
(2002). The role of fair treatment and rewards in perceptions of organizational support and leader-member exchange. Journal of Applied Psychology, 87(3), 590–598. 10.1037/0021-9010.87.3.590
(2014). Key followers and the social facilitation of charismatic leadership. Organizational Psychology Review, 4(3), 199–227. 10.1177/2041386613498765
(1989). Lack of method variance in self-reported affect and perceptions at work: Reality or artifact?. Journal of Applied Psychology, 74(3), 462–468. 10.1037/0021-9010.74.3.462
(2019). Reversing the lens: How followers influence leader-member exchange quality. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 92, 475–497. 10.1111/joop.12268
(2012). Testing multidimensional models of person‐group fit. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 27(6), 536–556. 10.1108/02683941211252419
(2009). Influence of leader behaviors on the leader‐member exchange relationship. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 24(4), 289–299. 10.1108/02683940910952697
(2010). Linking empowering leadership and employee creativity: The influence of psychological empowerment, intrinsic motivation, and creative process engagement. Academy of Management Journal, 53(1), 107–128. 10.5465/amj.2010.48037118
(2009). Moderating role of follower characteristics with transformational leadership and follower work engagement. Group & Organization Management, 34(5), 590–619. 10.1177/1059601108331242
