1. Why Follow? Followership Favorability and Followership Styles
University of Nebraska Omaha
Hanna Miller

2. Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) Theory
Review of Literature
Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) Theory
Leadership
Followership
What is Leadership?
We can define leadership as an influential individual working toward a common goal with others (Northouse, 2016).
Fairhurst and Connaughton (2014) leadership should be neither leader-centric nor follower-centric, but most research focuses on leader’s traits, behaviors, and effectiveness.
What is Followership?
There are situations where a follower status is sought after such as “A Follower of Christ” or a follower of the Dalai Lama because in these instances being a follower may serve beneficial (Alvesson & Blom, 2015). More often than not, being a “follower” is often generalized as being inferior and associated with low self-esteem as you do not feel equal to your leader, thus lower in status (Alvesson & Blom, 2015). When members view themselves as followers, they tend to be less “proactive, self-aware, and knowing” (Alvesson & Blom, 2015).
Active Engagement, originally coined by Kelley (1988, 1992) refers to tendency to take initiative and actively participate. Follwers’ Active Engagement does not necessarily refer to the work or task at hand, but rather the relationship with the leader (Gatti et al, 2014). Followership and Followers’ Active Engagement share similar qualities in that followers make the choice to actively participate.
Leader-Member Exchange and Follower’s Active Engagement
Explain in-group/out-group

3. Research Questions H1: RQ1:
According to the leader-member exchange theory, followers who are actively engaged are more likely to be in the in-group than the out-group.
Is followership seen as favorable or unfavorable among professionals? 

4. Methodology Participants Procedures
Minimum 5 year work experience required, mean experience: 15 years
23% Healthcare, 23% Sales
57% Female, 43% Male
Procedures
Utilized social media and SurveyGizmo
Tabulated responses in excel

5. Results RQ1: Is followership favorable or unfavorable?

6. Results H1: Active Engagement leads to in-group membership

7. Implications Limitations Results supported research questions
When people view followership as “unfavorable,” the power which followers possess is devalued.
Actively engaged follower more likely to experience in-group benefits
Lacking research, demographics, and sample size
Instruments were proven, methods for analysis were not

8. Questions?