The Human Factor in Energy: Influence from the Ground Up

Leadership studies remain mostly leader-centered, emphasizing how leaders influence followers to engage in action to pursue collective goals. However, modern organizational theory progressively acknowledges leadership as a two-way, interactive process (Uhl-Bien & Carsten, Organ Dyn 36:187–201, 2007). Upward influence theories highlight that followers actively shape leader behavior, practices, and strategies. One theoretical perspective that can account for this process is resource dependence theory (RDT), which contends that power originates from controlling valuable organizational resources (Pfeffer & Salancik, The external control of organizations: A resource dependence perspective, Stanford University Press, 1978; Tripathi, Front Psychol 12:699340, 2021). Employees, as they are frequently “hosts of tacit resources” in the form of specialized knowledge and distinctive expertise, have the potential to impact their leaders, forming interdependence relationships instead of pure hierarchies (Tripathi, Front Psychol 12:699340, 2021; Pfeffer & Salancik, The external control of organizations: A resource dependence perspective, Stanford University Press, 1978). In support of this concept, leader-member exchange theory (LMX) (Graen & Uhl-Bien, The Leadership Quarterly 6:219–247, 1995) emphasizes the quality of interaction between the leader and the follower regarding mutual trust, respect, obligation, and open communication, which may impact and premise the convenient conditions for followers to engage in upward influence. Because high-quality LMX ensures the psychological safety of employees, it results in speaking up or engaging in voice behavior (Detert & Burris, Acad Manag J 50:869–884, 2007). Moreover, French and Raven’s (Studies in social power, University of Michigan Press, 1959) classic power bases, especially referent and expert power, also explain how followers can influence leaders. Followers with specialized knowledge or high social influence in teams can effectively guide leadership decisions and actions. This is a vital consideration in the energy sector, where risks can be eliminated through speaking up and team participation in the decision-making process.