چکیده:
Followership is a developing paradigm in organizational behavior which focusesmainly on followers. The goal of this study is to explore follower’s implicitfollowership theories (IFTs) which entail an analysis of follower’s views andperception about followership. For this purpose, based on a phenomenologicalapproach, semi-structured interviews with employees of large public and privateorganizations, in Mashhad were analyzed by exploratory content analysis. A total of25 categories of implicit theories were detected in 5 prototypes and 5 antiprototypes.Followership prototypes consist of constructive perception of work, jobcompetencies, mighty arm of leader, moral virtues and initiation pattern; five antiprototypeswere named as role deviances including destructive behaviors,obedience, incompetency, indifference and blue color. Reflecting on the findings, a5 dimensional model was identified, with each dimension having its prototypes andanti- prototypes. Results showed that follower's IFTs differ from leader's follower'simplicit followership theories.
خلاصه ماشینی:
Followership prototypes consist of constructive perception of work, job competencies, mighty arm of leader, moral virtues and initiation pattern; five anti- prototypes were named as role deviances including destructive behaviors, obedience, incompetency, indifference and blue color.
Organizations need a better understanding of followership role, because the new leadership paradigm requires a higher level of interdependence between leaders and followers (Favara, 2009).
Although IFTs have been recently addressed, information processing and socio-cognitive approaches to leadership and followership including implicit theories have not been at the forefront of leadership studies for over 30 years (Epitropaki et al.
Scholars know that implicit theories of both leaders and followers have important personal and organizational outcomes such as LMX, transformational leadership, job attitudes and performance (Epitropaki et al.
Recent studies have emphasized the need for more attention on dimensions, behaviors, characteristics and the roles of followers (Agho, 2009; Bligh & Schyns, 2007; Sy, 2010).
(2014) categorization, this research is a "Role- Based followership" study, since it considers leaders as recipient of follower influence in producing outcomes.
But the question still remains, "how do followers see their roles and what are the positive and negative characteristics of followership role, based on their own views?" So, this study explored follower’s attitudes toward their roles and tried to develop a typology of IFTs; the findings are necessary for personal and organizational outcomes like job attitudes and performances, understanding LMX and matching leaders and followers styles, categorizing followers and developing followership theory (Uhl-Bien et al.