Paper short abstract:

The position of followers is further weakened by the hierarchical position and formal authority leaders have in organisations at the expense of followers, this paper will argue that leaders need to reach out to followers as partners in the quest to advance organisational goals

Paper long abstract:

The phenomenon of followership has for the recent past being neglected, this neglect is by both followers and leaders alike. The responsibility for this can be adduced to the way leadership and followership are practiced. While followers need to assert their relevance in organisations, leaders need to recognise the invaluable contribution followers make to organisations and consequently the work of leaders. The agitation for the enhancement of the position of followers has undoubtedly increased pressure on leaders to come up with innovative ideas on how to deal with followers (Collinson, 2006; Alvesson & Blom, 2015; Greyvenstein & Cilliers, 2012). Followers are usually viewed as appendages to leaders with little regard to their societal contributions which abound around us (Northouse, 2016).

The rhetorical question could be that after all the attention devoted to leaders, what have they been able to show for it, because leaders alone can not turn around the fortunes of an organisation without the active participation of followers, and this may have brought the realisation that it is time to focus on followers who are the incubators of leaders. The quest to understand followership inspires this study to explore the cultural influences on followership which is the process of following and followers