The Art of Followership
How Great Followers Create Great Leaders and Organizations
J-B Warren Bennis Series
1. Edition February 2008
416 Pages, Hardcover
Wiley & Sons Ltd
Short Description
The book draws upon various disciplines, from philosophy, to psychology and management, to education, to define and redefine followership and its variety of meanings. It looks at the practice and research that promotes positive followership and examines when and how followers fail to rise to the challenge of active constituency. It draws on multiple disciplines and explores the complex factors that push followers to acquiesce blindly to both good and bad leaders, as well as the intricacies of faulty leader-follower dynamics. Includes the latest research on followership and offers current and future perspectives on followers and the leader-follower relationship.
Perspectives from The Art of Followership
"In many ways, great followership is harder than leadership. It has more dangers and fewer rewards, and it must routinely be exercised with much more subtlety. But great followership has never been more important." -Warren Bennis, Distinguished Professor, University of Southern California, and author, Leaders and On Becoming A Leader
"Thirty years ago, I wrote that 'one of the most serious failures in the study of leadership has been the bifurcation between the literature on leadership and the literature on followership.' Surely, I added, it was 'time that the two literatures be brought together.' I know of no work that faces this challenge so well as The Art of Followership. I expect it to be a landmark work in the complexities of the leader-follower dynamic." -James MacGregor Burns, Woodrow Wilson Professor (emeritus) at Williams College; author, Leadership; and senior editor, The Encyclopedia of Leadership
"The field of followership is still in its infancy. It is rare that people get a chance to build and shape a new area of inquiry. Collectively, we can grow the followership field so that it makes powerful contributions to society." -Robert E. Kelley, professor, Carnegie Mellon University, and author, The Power of Followership and In Praise of Followership
Acknowledgments.
About the Contributors.
Introduction.
Warren Bennis.
PART ONE: DEFINING AND REDEFINING FOLLOWERSHIP.
1. Rethinking Followership (Robert E. Kelley).
2. Leadership: A Partnership in Reciprocal Following (James Maroosis).
3. Three Perspectives on Followership (Jon P. Howell and MarÃa J. Mández).
4. A New Leadership-Followership Paradigm (Ernest L. Stech).
5. Followership: An Outmoded Concept (Joseph Rost).
PART TWO: EFFECTIVE FOLLOWERSHIP.
6. Creating New Ways of Following (Ira Chaleff).
7. Rethinking Leadership and Followership: A Followerâ?(tm)s Perspective (Krista Kleiner).
8. The Hero's Journey to Effective Followership and Leadership: A Practitioner's Focus (Gail S. Williams).
9. Courageous Followers, Servant-Leaders, and Organizational Transformations (Linda Hopper).
10. Followership in a Professional Services Firm (Brent Uken).
11. Developing Great Leaders, One Follower at a Time (Rodger Adair).
12. Getting Together (Gene Dixon).
PART THREE: THE PITFALLS AND CHALLENGES OF FOLLOWERSHIP.
13. Following Toxic Leaders: In Search of Posthumous Praise (Jean Lipman-Blumen).
14. What Can Milgram's Obedience Experiments Contribute to Our Understanding of Followership (Thomas Blass)?
15. What Kind of Leader Do People Want to Follow (Michael Maccoby)?
16. Bystanders to Children's Bullying: The Importance of Leadership by "Innocent Bystanders" (Lorna S. Blumen).
17. Whistleblowing as Responsible Followership (C. Fred Alford).
PART FOUR: FOLLOWERS AND LEADERS: RESEARCH, PRACTICE, AND THE FUTURE.
18. Followersâ?(tm)Cognitive and Affective Structures and Leadership Processes (Robert G. Lord).
19. Social Identity Processes and the Empowerment of Followers (Michael A. Hogg).
20. Lead, Follow, and Get out of the Way: Involving Employees in the Visioning Process (Melissa K. Carsten and Michelle C. Bligh).
21. Effective Followership for Creativity and Innovation: A Range of Colors and Dimensions (Kimberly S. Jaussi, Andy Stefanovich, and Patricia G. Devlin).
22. Conformist, Resistant, and Disguised Selves: A Post-Structuralist Approach to Identity and Workplace Followership (David Collinson).
23. The Rise of Authentic Followership (Bruce J. Avolio and Rebecca J. Reichard).
Notes.
Index.
Ira Chaleff is president of Executive Coaching & Consulting Associates, adjunct faculty at Georgetown University, and the author of The Courageous Follower: Standing Up to and for Our Leaders, from Berrett-Koehler.
Jean Lipman-Blumen is Thorton F. Bradshaw Professor of Public Policy and professor of organizational behavior at the Peter F. Drucker and Masatoshi Ito Graduate School of Management, Claremont Graduate University, and author, The Allure of Toxic Leadership and Connective Leadership.
