Emergent follower roles and their consequences: a reciprocal social influence perspective

Recent research suggests that leader-follower relationships are not homogeneous within work-groups. Instead, two different follower roles have been distinguished in terms of the follower's "negotiating latitude" or ability to negotiate his/her work role with the leader. In spite of the importance of this phenomenon, the developmental process by which followers emerge as either in- or out-group cohorts of the leader has not been explicated. The present study examined the adequacy of reciprocal social influence as an explanatory process for the development of different relationships between leaders and specific followers.

Fourteen task groups comprised of six followers and one leader participated in the study. Followers were balanced with respect to gender while all leaders were male. Groups were assigned a 50 minute exercise consisting of a series of memos between members of a hypothetical organization. Two observers assessed social influence behavior during the group sesssion in terms of influence attempts and responses to influence attempts between the leader and each follower. Follower status was assessed by questionnaire measures obtained from the leader and followers.

The results of the study indicated that follower and leader perceptions of follower negotiating latitude were strongly and positively related to leader influence attempts and follower responses. Further, different perspectives on the quality of the leader-follower working relationship were strongly and positively related with influence behavior: self ratings with follower influence attempts; peer ratings with both follower influence attempts and leader responses; and leader ratings with follower responses to leader influence attempts. Two measures of follower task involvement also were strongly and positively related with influence behavior: nomination as second in command with follower responses to leader influence attempts; and assigned task importance with leader influence attempts and follower responses. However, a third measure of task involvement, supervision of other followers, was not related to any measures of influence behavior. By contrast, influence behavior was not related with the follower's satisfaction with either the leader, the task, or their coworkers. These findings are discussed as well as the implications of the study for understanding the phenomenon of emergent follower roles.