RUcore Resource Object
RUcore Resource Object
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TitleFollowership in the U.S. federal government
NameKim, Chulwoo (author), Schachter, Hindy L. (chair), Holzer, Marc (internal member), Zhang, Yahong (internal member), Yang, Kaifeng (outside member), Rutgers University, Graduate School - Newark,
Degree Date2011-05
Date Created2011
SubjectPublic Adm. (SPAA),
Leadership,
Public administration
DescriptionPublic organizations in a contemporary society are required more collective actions among leaders and followers in dealing with complex, diverse public problems. Therefore, participative leadership that empowers others in decision making is essential process. However, without considering who the empowered participants, how much influence they have and the various situations in which they find themselves, participative leadership is not a solid resolution to existing public challenges. As a result, identifying the process empowered participants use to follow, which is called followership, is a prerequisite to understanding successful participative leadership. The purpose of this study is to 1) establish employees’ followership in public organizations, 2) build up an exploratory model of the determinant factors of employees’ followership in public organizations and test it empirically, and 3) examine the role of followership on organizational performance. This study employs mixed methods. For quantitative analysis, a large federal data conducted in 2008 were used to test three primary statistical models – determinants of followership, leadership and followership, and followership and organizational performance. For qualitative analysis, around 90 written interviews with federal employees were conducted and analyzed to validate the meanings of followership in public settings. The result reveals the mediating role of followership between participative leadership and organizational performance. It adds another important variable to public administration leadership studies. Theoretical contributions of this research are that it offers 1) the first large scale comprehensive study on followership in the context of public organizations, 2) construct definitions and characteristics of followership in the public sector, and 3) information that supports high followership as one means to improve performance in public organizations. Practical contributions of this research are that it 1) helps public managers to understand the growing important role of the followers in newly changed context of public administration, 2) provides insights on how such managers interact with their superiors or subordinates and which skills they need to develop in different roles, and 3) provides guidance on how to design training programs for followership development. This study concludes effective followership is a key factor that supplements the leadership function to make effective organizations.
NotePh.D.
NoteIncludes bibliographical references
NoteIncludes vita
Noteby Chulwoo Kim
Genretheses
Persistent URLhttp://hdl.rutgers.edu/1782.1/rucore10002600001.ETD.000061083
Languageeng
CollectionGraduate School - Newark Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Organization NameRutgers, The State University of New Jersey
RightsThe author owns the copyright to this work.