In December 2021, I earned the Master of Arts in Organizational Leadership degree from St. Catherine University. My master’s thesis topic was followership, the important but often forgotten counterpart to leadership.
My study sought to discover how followers understand and evaluate their own experience working or acting in a follower role, with special attention paid to their understanding of followership and how they describe its significance.
Findings included affirmation of the importance of followership, active and intentional constructions of followership, and acknowledgment that negative perceptions of followers persist.
Findings also underscored the importance of context in constructing followership. Followers who also lead perceive and construct followership differently, and in some ways at higher levels of effectiveness.
Understanding the differences in the ways that followers and leaders construct followership is critical to improving leadership and organizational effectiveness.
You can download the entire thesis here: https://sophia.stkate.edu/maol_theses/44/