Strength in Numbers

Abstract

In this theoretical paper, we explain how employees’ passive and proactive followership behavior can influence the extent to which their managers display socialized or personalized charismatic leadership. We argue that followership behaviors influence managers’ positive affect and psychological empowerment, which in turn drive the degree to which managers manifest their particular charismatic leadership inclination. However, these effects would depend on the strength of managers’ predisposition for one type of charismatic leadership or the other. Implications for charismatic leadership theory and future research are discussed.