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Virtuous Followership

In: Strategic Followership

Author

Listed:
  • David B. Zoogah

Abstract

I am interested in followers’ value-creating behaviors in both bad and good leadership situations. Followers’ extraordinary efforts contribute strategic value to organizations through outcomes such as individual and collective development, climate enhancement, and building human capabilities of coworkers, and groups. One other form of behavior that can contribute strategic value is virtuous followership, a complement to virtuous leadership. Scholars who examine followership indicate that followers should behave in accordance with standards of correctness and excellence. In other words, they should behave virtuously. If the relationship and the actors in it are to excel, the virtues exhibited by followers and leaders are critical. Virtuous followership is therefore potentially critical to an effective leader-follower relationship. Virtuousness helps make followers and leaders authentic, which in turn potentially makes the entire enterprise more virtuous and effective via, for example, improved climate. In other words, virtuousness has spirals that yield relational network outcomes. Followers’ virtuousness may also be useful in contexts where leadership is ineffectual. Virtuousness in organizations is an aggregate of the virtuous behavior of employees, whether they are leaders or followers. As I discuss below, two major dimensions of virtuous followership are traits and capacities. Virtuous followership is driven by a number of factors including characteristics of the follower, leader, and the relationship. It also yields proximal and distal outcomes for followers and leaders as well as organizations.

Suggested Citation

  • David B. Zoogah, 2014. "Virtuous Followership," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Strategic Followership, chapter 7, pages 175-189, Palgrave Macmillan.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:palchp:978-1-137-35442-6_8
    DOI: 10.1057/9781137354426_8
    as

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