Chapter 9: The Romance of Leadership and the Social Construction of Followership

Over the years, leadership studies have tended to emphasize the thoughts, actions, and personas of leaders over those of followers; in addition, leadership situations have tended to be defined from the perspectives of leaders and not of followers (Meindl, 1995). As described by Meindl (1990, 1993), this preoccupation with leaders represents a “romance of leadership”—an infatuation with what leaders do, what they are able to accomplish, and the effects they have on our lives. In this chapter we suggest that a corollary to the romance of leadership may be the “subordination of followership,” and that this subordination occurs in the social construction of followership. We propose that just as leadership is in the eye of the beholder, so is followership. We explore the meaning of the social construction of followership relative to followership concepts, implicit theories of followership, and group-level social construction, including social contagion and emergent norms. We also discuss different types of constructions of followership and why they have particular relevance in today’s work context.