Followership in Leadership Studies: A Case of Leader–Follower Trade Approach

AbstractThe current article acknowledges the absence of followership from the leadership literature for many years. Major theories of leadership are reviewed to assert that (1) modern leadership studies have been developed strictly from the leader's perspective with little or no attention on followership, (2) leadership studies have primarily been based on the static understanding of leadership (leaders always remain leaders),1 and (3) there seems to be a need for a new paradigm for leader–follower relationships, which may result in organic relationships between leaders and followers through exchange of leadership and followership functions and roles. Thus, it is argued that the mutuality of relationships and influence between the follower and the leader exists. To address the need for a new paradigm for leadership, the leader–follower trade (LFT) approach is introduced, which may result in the nonstatic and organic approach to leadership–followership as two valuable human behavioral functions. In this case, leadership and followership functions and roles may be traded or exchanged by the positional leaders and followers in different situations or organizational settings toward mutual respect, empowerment, and effectiveness.