Social constructions of followership - An explorative case study

Abstract: Compared to leadership, followership is an understudied topic. So far, several authors have described follower types, but few have engaged in studying the meaning of followership. The aim of this thesis is to fill this gap in research by exploring leaders' and followers' social constructions of followership. A qualitative methodology is adopted and interviews are conducted at two Swedish organizations, one health care company and one management consulting firm. First, social constructions are explored on a general level to gain an understanding of the meaning of followership. Second, we study whether the role of an individual and the organizational context have an impact on the social constructions of followership. We find that the term followership is complex and holds a multiplicity of meaning to leaders and followers. Moreover, our findings suggest that previous followership research has been too narrow, and that existing classifications of follower types do not fully capture the meaning and complexity inherent in the term. Additionally, we identify differences in leaders' and followers' constructions of followership and differences in constructions between the two organizations. This implies that both of these factors influence the social constructions of followership. Our study contributes to management literature by including leaders, in addition to followers, as constructors of followership. Thus, we provide a more holistic understanding of followership. Moreover, we take the role of an individual into consideration and identify specific components of the organizational context as influencing factors. Our findings offer insights to organizations in terms of understanding the meaning of followership and being a follower.