Abstract
To truly understand spiritual followership, a broad appreciation of prerequisite theories of leadership and followership is necessary. Layer upon layer, spiritual followership emerges from the conceptual and empirical work that preceded it. Spiritual followership is not simply the “flip side” of spiritual leadership, but lays claim to its own unique assumptions. The authors construct a definition of spiritual followership and suggest why doing so has proven so challenging, hitherto. Spiritual followership functions as a process, most notably operating in its teaching and learning relationship with leadership. The spiritual follower is emancipated, empowered, and courageous. Despite espousing a number of positive and spiritual values, the spiritual follower is not romanticized as a perfect example of humanity, but one who struggles, as others do, in juggling loyalty with maintaining a work-life balance or resisting unethical and unwise leader decisions. He or she is nevertheless armed with certain approaches and beliefs, and a critical disposition to question, regardless of any imbalance of power in the leader-follower relationship. The chapter concludes that educational providers and workplaces would benefit from developing the skills, values, and perspectives of followership and, specifically, spiritual followership.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Agho A (2009) Perspectives of senior-level execution on effective followership and leadership. J Leadersh Org Stud 16(2):159–166
Alcorn D (1992) Dynamic followership: empowerment at work. Manag Q 33:9–14
Alvesson M, Blom M (2015) Less followership, less leadership? An inquiry into the basic but seemingly forgotten downsides of leadership. M@n@gment 18(3):266–282
Avolio B, Reichard R (2008) The rise of authentic followership. In: Riggio R, Chaleff I, Lipman-Blumen J (eds) The art of followership: how great followers create great leaders and organizations. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, pp 325–337
Avolio B, Walumbwa F, Weber T (2009) Leadership: current theories, research, and future directions. Annu Rev Psychol 60:421–449
Baker S (2007) Followership: the theoretical foundation of a contemporary construct. J Leadersh Org Stud 14(1):50–60
Bardos G (2013) Trials and tribulations. Politics as justice at the ICTY. World Affairs 176(3):15–24
Bass B (1985) Leadership and performance beyond expectations. The Free Press, New York/London
Bass M, Stogdill R (1990) Bass and Stogdill’s handbook of leadership: theory, research and managerial applications, 3rd edn. The Free Press, New York
Billot J, West D, Khong L, Skorobohacz C, Roxa T, Murray S, Gayle B (2013) Followership in higher education: academic teachers and their formal leaders. Teach Learn Inq 1(2):91–103
Bjugstad K, Thach E, Thompson K, Morris A (2006) A fresh look at followership: a model for matching followership and leadership styles. J Behav Appl Manag 7:304–319
Brewer A (2014) Leadership coaching and followership. An important equation. Springer Science and Business Media, Dordrecht, pp 89–104
Brower H, Schoorman F, Tan H (2000) A model of relational leadership: the integration of trust and leader-member exchange. Leadersh Q 11(2):227–250
Burns J (1978) Leadership. Harper & Row Publishers, New York
Carson J, Tesluk P, Marrone J (2007) Shared leadership in teams: an investigation of antecedent conditions and performance. Acad Manag J 55:1217–1234
Carsten M, Uhl-Bien M (2013) Ethical followership: an examination of followership beliefs and crimes of obedience. J Leadersh Org Stud 20(1):49–61
Carsten M, Uhl-Bien M, West B, Patera J, McGregor R (2010) Exploring social constructions of followership: a qualitative study. Leadersh Q 21:543–562
Cavanagh G, Hanson B, Hanson K, Hinojos J (2004) Toward a spirituality for the contemporary organization : implications for work, family and society. In: Pava M, Primeaux P (eds) Spiritual intelligence at work: meaning, metaphor and morals: research in ethical issues in organizations, vol 5. Elsevier, Boston
Chaleff I (1995) The courageous follower: standing up to and for our leaders. Berrett-Koehler Publishers, San Francisco
Chaston J, Lips-Wiersma M (2015) When spirituality meets hierarchy: leader spirituality as a double-edged sword. J Manag Spritual Relig 12(2):111–128
Chen C, Yang C (2012) The impact of spiritual leadership on organizational citizenship behavior: a multi-sample analysis. J Bus Ethics 105(1):107–114
Cicero L, Pierro A, Van Knippenberg D (2010) Leadership and uncertainty: how role ambiguity affects the relationship between leader group prototypically and leadership effectiveness. Br J Manag 21(2):411–421
Collinson D (2006) Rethinking followership: a post-structuralist analysis of follower identities. Leadersh Q 17:179–189
Conzelmann J (2017) Employee perspectives: the lack of servant leadership in organizations. In: Davis CJ (ed) Servant leadership and followership, Palgrave studies in leadership and followership, Palgrave Macmillan, Cham., pp 155–175
Crossman J (2010) Conceptualising spiritual leadership in secular organizational contexts and its relation to transformational, servant and environmental leadership. Leadersh Org Dev 31(7):596–608
Crossman J (2011) Environmental and spiritual leadership: tracing the synergies from an organizational perspective. J Bus Ethics 103(4):553–565
Crossman B, Crossman J (2011) Conceptualising followership: a review of the literature. Leadership 7:481–497
Crossman J, Doshi V (2015) When Not knowing is a virtue: a business ethics perspective. J Bus Ethics 131:1–8
De Cremer D, Tyler T (2005) A matter of intragroup status: the importance of respect for the viability of groups. Res Manag Groups Teams 7:1–21
Dent E, Higgins M, Wharf D (2005) Spirituality and leadership: an empirical review of definitions, distractions, and embedded assumptions. Leadersh Q 16(5):625–653
Dillon R (2007) Respect. Stanford encyclopedia of philosophy. Viewed 27 Jan 2009. http://plato.standford.edu/entries/respect/
Dixon G, Westbrook J (2003) Followers revealed. Eng Manag J 15:19–25
Drenth P, Koopman P (1992) Duration and complexity in strategic decision-making. In: Heller FA (ed) Decision-making and leadership. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 58–69
Dvir T, Avolio B, Shamir B (2002) Impact of transformational leadership on follower development and performance: a field experiment. Acad Manag J 45:735–744
Engle E, Lord R (1997) Implicit theories, self-schemas, and leader-member exchange. Acad Manag 40:988–1010
Epitropaki O, Sy T, Martin R, Tram-Quon S, Topakas A (2013) Implicit leadership and followership theories “in the wild”: taking stock of information-processing approaches to leadership and followership in organizational settings. Leadersh Q 24:858–881
Fairholm G (1996) Spiritual leadership: fulfilling whole-self needs at work. Leadersh Org Dev J 17(5):11–17
Fairholm G (1997) Capturing the heart of leadership: spirituality and community in the new American workplace. Greenwood Publishing Group Incorporated Praeger, Westport
Fry L (2003) Toward a theory of spiritual leadership. Leadersh Q 14:693–727
Fry L, Vitucci S, Cedillo M (2005) Spiritual leadership and army transformation: theory, measurement and establishing a baseline. Leadersh Q 16(5):835–862
Frye J, Kisselburgh L, Butts D (2007) Embracing spiritual followership. Commun Stud 58(3):243–260
Galvin B, Balkundi P, Waldman D (2010) Spreading the word: the role of surrogates in charismatic leadership processes. Acad Manag Rev 35(3):477–494
Gibbons P (1992) Impacts of organizational evolution on leadership roles and behaviors. Hum Relat 45:1–18
Glover S, Hannum K (2008) Learning respect: showing and earning respect is crucial for leaders. Leadersh Action 28(4):3–7
Glynn M, Raffaelli R (2010) Uncovering mechanisms of theory development in an academic field: lessons from leadership research. Acad Manag Ann 4:359–401
Goffee R, Jones G (2006) Why should anyone be lead by you: what it takes to be an authentic leader. Harvard Business School Press, Boston
Gordon L, Rees C, Ker J, Cleland J (2015) Dimensions, discourses and differences: trainees conceptualizing health care leadership and followership. Med Educ 49:1248–1262
Graen G, Uhl-Bien M (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. Leadersh Q 6:219–247
Grant A (2012) Leading with meaning: beneficiary contact, prosocial impact, and the performance effects of transformational leadership. Acad Manag J 55:458–476
Grant A, Gino F, Hofmann D (2011) Reversing the extraverted leadership advantage: the role of employee proactivity. Acad Manag J 54:528–550
Greenleaf R (1977/2002) Servant leadership: a journey into the nature of legitimate power and greatness. Paulist Press, New York
Greenleaf R (1991) Servant leadership: a journey into the nature of legitimate power and greatness. Paulist Press, New York
Haslam A, Reicher S, Millard K, McDonald R (2014) ‘Happy to be of service’: the Yale archive as a window into the engaged followership of participants in Milgram’s ‘obedience’ experiments. Br J Soc Psychol 54(1):55–83
Heller F (1992) Decision-making and the utilization of competence. In: Heller FA (ed) Decision-making and leadership. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 71–89
Henderson D, Liden R, Glibkowski B, Chaudry A (2009) LMX differentiation: a multilevel review and examination of antecedents and outcomes. Leadersh Q 20(4):517–534
Hernandez M (2008) Promoting stewardship behavior in organizations: a leadership model. J Bus Ethics 80:121–128
Hiller N, Day D (2003) LMX and teamwork: the challenges and opportunities of diversity. In: Graen G (ed) Dealing with diversity. Information Age Publishing, Greenwich, pp 25–57
Hinrichs K (2007) Follower propensity to commit crimes of obedience. J Leadersh Org Stud 14(1):69–76
Hogg M (2008) Social identity processes and the empowerment of followers. In: Riggio R, Chaleff I, Lipman-Blumen J (eds) The art of followership: how great followers create great leaders and organizations. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, pp 267–276
Hollander E, Webb W (1955) Leadership, followership, and friendship: an analysis of peer nominations. J Abnorm Soc Psychol 50(2):163–167
Horsfall C (2001) Team leaders make a difference in raising achievement. In: Horsfall C (ed) Leadership issues: raising achievement. Learning and Skills Development Agency, London
Howell J, Costley D (2008) Understanding behaviours for effective leaderhsip. Pearson Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, pp 25–39
Howell, J Costley D (2006) Understanding behaviors for effective leadership, 2nd edn., Pearson Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River
Hunter S, Bedell-Avers K, Mumford M (2009) Impact of situational framing and complexity on charismatic, ideological and pragmatic leaders: investigation using a computer simulation. Leadersh Q 20(3):383–404
Jaussi K, Stefanovich A, Devlin P (2008) Effective followership for creativity and innovation. In: Riggio R, Chaleff I, Lipman-Blumen J (eds) The art of followership: how great followers create great leaders and organizations. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, pp 291–307
Johnson C (2007) Ethics in the workplace: tools and tactics for organizational transformation. Sage, Thousand Oaks/London/ New Delhi
Jones S (2014) Distributed leadership: a critical analysis. Leadership 10(2):129–141
Junker N, van Dick R (2014) Implicit theories in organizational settings: a systematic review and research agenda of implicit leadership and followership theories. Leadersh Q 25:1154–1174
Karadag E (2009) Spiritual leadership and organizational culture: a study of structural equation modelling educational sciences. Theory Pract 9(3):1391–1405
Kellerman B (2008) Followership: how followers are creating change and changing leaders. Harvard Business School Publishing, Boston
Kelley R (1988) Praise of followers. Harv Bus Rev 66(6):142–148
Kelley R (1992) The power of followership. Doubleday, New York
Kelley R (1998) Followership in a leadership world. In: Spears L (ed) Insights on leadership: service, stewardship, spirit and servant leadership. Wiley, Toronto
Kelly R (2008) Rethinking followership. In: Riggio R, Chaleff I, Lipman-Blumen J (eds) The art of followership. Doubleday, New York, pp 5–16
Knoll M, Schyns B, Peterson L (2017) How the influence of unethical leaders on followers is affected by their implicit followership theories. J Leadersh Org Stud 24(4):450–465
Kohles J, Bligh M, Carsten M (2012) A follower-centric approach to the vision integration process. Leadersh Q 23:476–487
Lepine M, Zhang Y, Crawford E, Rich B (2016) Turning their pain to gain: charismatic leader influence on follower stress appraisal and performance. Acad Manag J 59:1036–1059
Liao Y, Yang Z, Wang M, Kwan H (2016) Work–family effects of LMX: the moderating role of work–home segmentation preferences. Leadersh Q 27:671–683
Lipman-Blumen J (2008) Following toxic leaders: in search of posthumous praise. In: Riggio R, Chaleff I, Lipman-Blumen J (eds) The art of followership: how great followers create great leaders and organizations. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, pp 181–194
Litano M, Major D, Landers R, Streets V, Bass B (2016) A meta-analytic investigation of the relationship between leader-member exchange and work-family experiences. Leadersh Q 27:802–817
Lord R, Brown D, Harvey J, Hall R (2001) Contextual constraints on prototype generation and their multilevel consequences for leadership perceptions. Leadersh Q 12:311–338
Maroosis J (2008) Leadership: a partnership in reciprocal following. In: Riggio R, Chaleff I, Lipman-Blumen J (eds) The art of followership: how great followers create great leaders and organizations. Wiley, San Francisco, pp 17–24
Mehra A, Smith B, Dixon A, Robertson B (2006) Distributed leadership in teams: the network of leadership perceptions and team performance. Leadersh Q 17:232–245
Meindl J (1995) The omance of leadership as a follower – centric theory: a social constructivist approach. Leadersh Q 6(3):329–341
Murji S (2015) Taking followership education to the next level. J Leadersh Educ 14(3):168–177
Mushonga S, Torrance C (2008) Assessing the relationship between followership and the big five factor model of personality. Rev Bus Res 8:185–193
Northouse P (2007) Leadership: theory and practice. Sage, Thousand Oaks
Offerman L, Scuderi N (2007) Sharing leadership: who, what, when and why. In: Shamir B, Pillai R, Bligh M, Uhl-Bien M (eds) Follower-Centred perspectives on leadership. Information Age Publishing, Greenwich
Omilion-Hodges L, Baker C (2013) Contextualizing LMX within the workgroup: the effects of LMX and justice on relationship quality and resource sharing among peers. Leadersh Q 24:935–951
Parker Follett M (1970) The teacher-student relation. Adm Sci Q 15(2):137–148
Pascoe B (2017) Followership and the samurai. J Leadersh Stud 10(3):54–57
Popper M (2015) Followership, deity and leadership. J Theory Soc Behav 46(2):211–228
Potter E, Rosenbach W (2006) Followers as partners: the spirit of leadership. In: Rosenbach WE, Taylor RL (eds) Contemporary issues in leadership. Westview Press, Boulder
Reave L (2005) Spiritual values and practices related to leadership effectiveness. Leadersh Q 16(5):655–687
Riggio R, Chaleff I, Lipman-Blumen J (2008) The art of followership: how great followers create great leaders and organizations. Wiley, San Francisco
Ritter B, Lord R (2007) The impact of previous leaders on the evaluation of new leaders: an alternative to prototype matching. J Appl Psychol 92:1683–1695
Rost J (2008) Chapter 5. Followership: an outmoded concept. In: Riggio R, Chaleff I, Lipman-Blumen J (eds) The art of followership: how great followers create great leaders and organizations. Wiley, San Francisco, pp 53–64
Schneider M, Somers M (2006) Organizations as complex adaptive systems: implications of complexity theory for leadership research. Leadersh Q 17:351–365
Schriesheim C, Castro S, Cogliser C (1999) Leader-member exchange (lmx) research: a comprehensive review of theory, measurement, and data-analytic practices. Leadersh Q 10(1):51
Sendjaya S, Sarros J, Santora J (2008) Defining and measuring servant leadership behaviour in organizations. J Manag Stud 45(2):402–424
Shamir R (2004), Between self-regulation and the alien tort claims act: On the contested concept of corporate social resposibility, Law & Society Review, 38(4):635–664
Shamir B (2007) From passive recipients to active co-producers: follower’s roles in the leadership process. In: Shamir B, Bligh RPM, Uhl-Bien M (eds) Follower-centered perspectives on leadership. Information Age, Greenwich, pp ix–xxxix
Shawn-Burke C, Sims D, Lazzara E, Salas E (2007) Trust in leadership: a multi-level review and integration. Leadersh Q 18(6):606–632
Sikula J, Sikula A (2005) Spirituality and service learning. In: Hoppe S, Speck B (eds) Spirituality in higher education, new directions for teaching and learning, San Francisco, 104, Winter. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco. pp 75–82
Simon AF (2006) Leadership and managing ambivalence. Consult Psychol J: Prac Res 58(2):91–105
Spears L (ed) (1998) The power of servant leadership: essays by Robert K. Greenleaf. Berett-Koehler Publishers, San Francisco
Spears R, Ellemers N, Doosje J (2005) Let me count the ways in which I respect thee: does competence compensate or compromise lack of liking from the group? Eur J Soc Psychol 35(2):263–279
Stech E (2008) A new leadership – Followership paradigm. In: Riggio R, Chaleff I, Lipman-Blumen J (eds) The art of followership: how great followers create great leaders and organizations. Wiley, San Francisco, pp 41–55
Steger J, Manners G, Zimmerer T (1982) Following the leader: how to link management style to subordinate personalities. Manag Rev 10:22–32
Steinbauer R, Renn W, Taylor R, Njoroge P (2014) Ethical leadership and the followers’ moral judgment: the role of the followers’ perceived accountability and self-leadership. J Bus Ethics 120:381–392
Sy T (2010) What do you think of followers? Examining the content, structure, and consequences of implicit followership theories. Organ Behav Hum Decis Process 11(3):73–84
Tse H, Dasborough M, Ashkanasy N (2008) A multi-level analysis of team climate and interpersonal exchange relationship at work. Leadersh Q 19(4):195–211
Uhl-Bien M (2006) Relational leadership theory: exploring the social processes of leadership and organizing. Leadersh Q 17(6):654–676
Uhl-Bien M, Marion R (2009) Complexity leadership in bureaucratic forms of organizing: a meso model. Leadersh Q 20:631–650
Uhl-Bien M, Pillai R (2007) The romance of leadership and the social construction of followership. In: Shamir B, Pillai R, Bligh M, Uhl-Bien M (eds) Follower-centered perspectives’ on leadership. Information Age Publishing, Greenwich, pp 187–209
Van Knippenberg D, Sitkin S (2013) A critical assessment of charismatic transformational leadership research: back to the drawing board? Acad Manag Ann 7:1–60
Van Vugt M (2006) Evolutionary origins of leadership and followership. Personal Soc Psychol Rev 10(4):354–371
Western S (2008) Leadership: a critical text. Sage, Thousand Oaks
Wortman M (1982) Strategic management and changing leader-follower roles. J Appl Behav Sci 18:371–383
Yukl G (2006) Leadership in organizations. Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River
Zaleznik A (1965) The dynamics of subordinacy. Harv Bus Rev 43:119–131
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature
About this entry
Cite this entry
Crossman, J.E., Crossman, B. (2018). Spiritual Followership: Emerging Conceptualizations. In: Dhiman, S., Roberts, G., Crossman, J. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Workplace Spirituality and Fulfillment. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-61929-3_30-3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-61929-3_30-3
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-61929-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-61929-3
eBook Packages: Springer Reference Religion and PhilosophyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Humanities
Publish with us
Chapter history
-
Latest
Spiritual Followership: Emerging Conceptualizations- Published:
- 24 May 2018
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-61929-3_30-3
-
Followership: A Spiritual Perspective and the Implications for Organizational Practice
- Published:
- 25 April 2018
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-61929-3_30-2
-
Original
Followership: A Spiritual Perspective and the Implications for Organizational Practice- Published:
- 24 March 2018
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-61929-3_30-1