The Maintenance of Leader-centricity Via the Discursive Subjugation of the Follower

Abstract

In recent years it has been widely acknowledged that leadership theory and research has typically ignored or downplayed the role of followers. As a consequence, a greater focus on leadership conceptualised as a dynamic relationship enacted between and by both leaders and followers has now emerged, challenging accounts in which leadership is treated as principally something which resides in, or emanates from, leaders. However, despite these developments leader behaviour and cognition has nonetheless remained the primary focus for analysis, thereby continuing the tradition in which followers are largely rendered largely invisible in leadership scholarship. To better understand this continuing leader-centricity, this paper offers a critical historical discourse analysis examining how influential theoretical perspectives within leadership scholarship have contributed to constructing and maintaining a leader-centric account of leadership which simultaneously renders followers as problematic and weak. Adopting a Foucauldian analysis, the paper examines the discursive subjugation of the follower in scholarly texts on leadership throughout the modern period. It discusses the construction of followers and the leader-follower relationship in such texts, identifying key ideas which disempower or denigrate followers. Through this, and its analysis of the broader social function served by the positioning of followers and the problematizations giving rise to these accounts, the paper shows that ‘leadership’ has been repeatedly constructed as the necessary and appropriate response to the ‘problem’ of the follower, thereby contributing to the continuing prevalence of a leader-centric understanding of leadership.