Prelims

Half Title Page

Followership in Action

Cases and Commentaries

Title Page

Lead Editor

Rob Koonce

Creighton University, Omaha, NE, USA

Associate Editors

Michelle C. Bligh

Neoma Business School, Mont-Saint-Aignan, France

Melissa K. Carsten

Winthrop University, Rock Hill, SC, USA

Marc Hurwitz

University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Canada

United Kingdom – North America – Japan – India – Malaysia – China

Copyright Page

Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Howard House, Wagon Lane, Bingley BD16 1WA, UK

First edition 2016

Copyright © 2016 Emerald Group Publishing Limited

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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN: 978-1-78560-948-0 (Print)

ISBN: 978-1-78560-947-3 (Online)

Endorsements

As one who has witnessed and experienced the power of followers whose actions have ranged from indifference, harm, or goodness, I commend this book because it reminds us we all must act—act with conviction and courage to ensure the betterment of our institutions and society as a whole.

– Edith Eva Eger, Clinical Psychologist,Auschwitz Survivor

Once your eyes are opened to “followership,” you will see it everywhere. This very fine collection of case studies and thought provoking essays sheds new light on the role that followership plays in every field from business to the arts, as well as the importance of followership to an organization’s (and a leader’s) success.

– Robert Kelley, Carnegie Mellon University

This book has everything – memorable teaching stories, academic analysis, global contributions, every day examples, headline grabbing events and provocative dialogue-starting questions. There isn’t anything like it yet in the field of Followership. What a great addition!

– Ira Chaleff, Author, The Courageous Follower: Standing Up To and For Our Leaders, and Intelligent Disobedience: Doing Right When What You’re Told To Do Is Wrong

Followership in Action reflects the vital interplay between practice and theory and theory and practice. The editors of this volume and each of the book’s contributors, skillfully and creatively address the opportunities, challenges, and ethics of what it means to be leader and follower – the critical importance of generative capacity, interrelationships, and authentic engagement. It is an important contribution to the field that should be read by many.

– Hallie Preskill, Managing Director, FSG

Followership in Action gives a long overdue voice to the “silent partners” in the leader-follower relationship. This collection of engaging cases and commentaries provides readers with a scholarly and practical introduction to the challenges facing followers in business, education, the military, the government, and other settings. Theoretical commentary and discussion questions equip students, faculty and practitioners to explore these issues in depth. Followership in Action is truly a global treatment of followership, with contributors drawn from Europe, Asia, the United Kingdom and North America.

– Craig E. Johnson, Professor of Leadership Studies,George Fox University and Author, Meeting the Ethical Challenges of Leadership

Without Followership, there can’t be Leadership! Drawn from business, education, the arts, government and the military, these crisp and compelling stories are a “must read” for all who want their workplace to be productive and their organization to be at the top of its game.

– Meena S. Wilson, Senior Enterprise Associate,Center for Creative Leadership India and Author, Developing Tomorrows’ Leaders Today: Insights from Corporate India

List of Contributors

Introduction

Research suggests that followers contribute an average of 80% to the success of organizations. Yet leading management scholars have argued for nearly a century that we too often assume the contributions of followers are an effect rather than a cause of that success. Followership in Action responds to this assumption by offering compelling cases and commentaries written from the diverse perspectives of more than 30 scholars and practitioners from Canada, France, India, Malaysia, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States who lend support to the notion that followership is more than an outcome of leadership.

Although followership as a formal discipline is less than a century old, the applied organizational contexts of followership have existed since antiquity. As the study of followership further escalates into the global mainstream of leadership studies, the need accelerates for leaders to enable followers to be more productive for the cause. Through the use of story in case studies, scholarly post-commentaries, and discussion questions posed for furthering classroom and organizational dialogue, Followership in Action offers an excellent way to more proactively engage future leaders and followers in issues that they are likely to face in various organizational settings.

Followership in Action is a highly practical and scholarly book to which leadership scholars, practitioners, and students will actively turn to better understand and apply followership theory to everyday human resource development, management, and leadership contexts. It was written with administrators, coaches, consultants, executives, human resource professionals, academic professors, and support staff fully in mind. Its content will appeal to academia, corporations, non-profits, and other for profit enterprises.