TY - JOUR
T1 - The Risky Path to a Followership Identity
T2 - From Abstract Concept to Situated Reality
AU - Larsson, Magnus
AU - Nielsen, Mie Femø
N1 - Published online: 1. November 2017
PY - 2021/1
Y1 - 2021/1
N2 - Followership research has increased recently, but little attention has been paid to the complexities and challenges of creating a followership identity. Researchers typically portray followership as a safe alternative to leadership identity, but we challenge this assumption by using naturally occurring workplace interactions to identify active contributions as well as risks associated with a follower identity. In this study, we use conversation analysis to examine how people collaboratively construct identities, and how identity development shapes and organizes interactions between people. The findings reveal the risks of misidentifying the task at hand, of being too authoritative, and of claiming too much knowledge. Also, our analyses highlight that leader and follower roles remain abstract in workplace interactions and, instead, people focus more on negotiated, task-oriented, practical identities.
AB - Followership research has increased recently, but little attention has been paid to the complexities and challenges of creating a followership identity. Researchers typically portray followership as a safe alternative to leadership identity, but we challenge this assumption by using naturally occurring workplace interactions to identify active contributions as well as risks associated with a follower identity. In this study, we use conversation analysis to examine how people collaboratively construct identities, and how identity development shapes and organizes interactions between people. The findings reveal the risks of misidentifying the task at hand, of being too authoritative, and of claiming too much knowledge. Also, our analyses highlight that leader and follower roles remain abstract in workplace interactions and, instead, people focus more on negotiated, task-oriented, practical identities.
KW - Followership
KW - Leadership
KW - Conversation analysis
KW - Interaction
KW - Interactional risks
KW - Followership
KW - Leadership
KW - Conversation analysis
KW - Interaction
KW - Interactional risks
UR - https://sfx-45cbs.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/45cbs?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&url_ctx_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:ctx&ctx_enc=info:ofi/enc:UTF-8&ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rfr_id=info:sid/sfxit.com:azlist&sfx.ignore_date_threshold=1&rft.object_id=2550000001348401
U2 - 10.1177/2329488417735648
DO - 10.1177/2329488417735648
M3 - Journal article
VL - 58
SP - 3
EP - 30
JO - International Journal of Business Communication
JF - International Journal of Business Communication
SN - 2329-4884
IS - 1
ER -