Cross-Cultural and Global Followership Research: Theoretical and Empirical Advances

Session Submission Type: Symposium

Detailed Abstract

The first presentation is based on the author’s publication in Advances on Global Followership v 9 (2016) that offers the theoretical foundation for the concept grounded in leadership, followership, and global leadership literature. Presenter will identify specific contextual elements and evidence of global leader-follower partnership presenting the partnership as a distinctive process in relations to traditional followership or leader-follower relationship. The presentation will focus on the working definitions of global follower and followership, will discuss the main elements of the definitions, and will offer the conceptual model of global followership. The concluding part of the presentation will offer an agenda for global followership research and suggests potential topics and questions for empirical exploration and examination. Overall, considering the rapid utility of the global follower and global followership terms in scholarship and practice, lack of their clear definitions and understanding of their functions, there is an urgency to describe and analyze the phenomena. Moreover, it is important to conceptualize the meanings of global follower and global followership using diverse disciplinary perspectives and to present theoretical, empirical, and practical views on global follower and global followership across continents, industries, and theoretical paradigms.

The second presentation is research in progress. On January 21, 2017 one of the largest demonstrations in U.S. history, the Women’s March, or marches, became a global phenomenon. Women, men and children around the world gathered in their respective cities to give a voice to what organizers termed “intersectional feminism” (Vick, 2017). More than 600 marches took place in the U.S. and sister marches were seen on every continent. March participants answered a grassroots call to action. The goal of this study is to capture a global phenomenon of followership within the march by looking into global follower’s social identities, perceptions of their roles as global followers, and relational dynamic between global followers and global leaders considering unified and fragmented context.
It is widely acknowledged that followers and followership are vital to leadership (Uhl-Bien, Riggio, Lowe, Carsten, 2014). While there have been examinations of the relationship between followers and leaders (Carsten, Uhl-Bien, West, Patera, & McGregor, 2010; Hollander, 1992; Follett, 1949), the majority have been considered through a leader-centric perspective (Bass, 2008) and did not reflect global and fragmented context. This will be a case study that will include interviews, focus groups, analysis of texts (e.g., social media, public press) as well as photo elisitation design to uncover participant's social constructions of global followership (roles, identities, and global leader-follower dynamics).

The third presentation reviews current cross-cultural followership research and suggests research questions for future explorations. The GLOBE 2004 study (House et al., 2004) compared and contrasted culturally based implicit leadership theories from 62 societies around the world. While differences in beliefs about leadership were identified, 22 traits were considered universally positive and 8 as universally deleterious. Interestingly, many of these universal traits equally apply to the follower role. For example, trustworthiness – one of the universal positives for leaders – has also been identified as the top characteristic of effective followers (Agho, 2009). The social constructionist perspective posits that it is followers who grant leadership (DeRue & Ashford, 2010; Uhl-Bien, et al., 2014), which is one mechanism linking followership and leadership traits. The focus of the discussion will be on comparing recent studies and cases of cross-cultural followership (e.g., Blair, 2016; Pascoe, 2016; Tee, Teoh, & Ramis, 2016) from the perspective of the following questions:
• To what extent is followership the same or different cross-culturally?
• What are the implications of the social construction of leadership, especially with the rise of toxic leadership and the socio-political structures that enable it?
• Is positive followership contingent on culture and leadership?
• What are the universal traits of effective followership?



The final presentation is empirical investigation of cross-cultural relationship within followership. This empirical study explores how followers from three different nations see themselves, using the lens of cultural differences. The research illuminates how national differences impact on followership and minority dissent, thus addressing a gap in the leadership-followership literature. The study expands the research on sociocultural constructs beyond culturally limited samples analyzing data from 456 participants in Jamaica, the United States (U.S.), and Thailand. In a world where people from different nations are increasingly working together in multicultural teams, understanding cross-cultural differences in followership and follower dissent may increase innovation and prevent expensive mistakes. This paper reviews three literatures in psychology and organizational science. The social construction of followership describes the social nature of hierarchy in leader-follower relationships. Cultural values theory provides tools to examine how social context can influence followership. Minority dissent theory offers a way to evaluate follower behavior linked to decision-making and innovation. The intersection of these theories elucidates the interrelationships among culture, followership, and minority dissent. A multigroup confirmatory factor analysis demonstrates that each of the three country’s data fit the followership model differently. Further analysis shows the cultural values related to hierarchy (or equality) and valuing new ideas, predict proactive followership. Proactive followership is related to equality in Jamaica, and Thailand. In the U.S., there is a positive relationship between proactive followership and tolerance of people who are different from oneself. In Thailand, independent ideas are positively related to proactive followership.

Some relationships with minority dissent are consistent with the hypotheses. More active followership predicts minority dissent in the U.S. and Jamaica. In the U.S., minority dissent has a positive relationship with being reliable and dependable to one’s in-group, and a negative relationship with conformity to rules and laws. In Jamaica, minority dissent has a negative relationship with interpersonal conformity.

Sub Unit

• Leadership Scholarship

Chair

• Allan W. Bird, Northeastern University

Individual Presentations

• A Conceptual Model of Global Followership - Yulia Tolstikov-Mast, Indiana Tech

• Global Followers’ Roles and Identities Within the Context of the Women’s March - Tobey J. Zimber, Indiana Tech

• Universal Followership in a Cross-Cultural Context - Marc Hurwitz, University of Waterloo

• Followership Across Cultures: A Five Nation Study - Ariel Blair, Weber State University