FollowerCentered Perspectives on Leadership

A Tribute to the Memory of James R. Meindl

The majority of leadership theories and studies have tended to emphasize the personal background, personality traits, perceptions, and actions of leaders. From this perspective, the followers have been viewed as recipients or moderators of the leader's influence, and as vehicles for the actualization of the leader's vision, mission or goals. One of the major challengers of this dominant view was the late James R. Meindl. As an alternative to the leadercentric perspective on leadership, Meindl offered a followercentric approach that views both leadership and its consequences as largely constructed by followers and hence influenced by followers' cognitive processes and interfollower social influence processes. As a tribute to Jim Meindl and his contributions to the field of leadership studies, Information Age Publishing is releasing a book on followercentered approaches to leadership. The book covers a wide variety of perspectives that acknowledge the active roles of followers in the leadership process. These include the psychoanalytical perspective, leadership categorization theory, social identity theory, the shared leadership approach, attribution of charisma through social networks, the role of the media in constructing images of the leader, the social construction of followership, vision implementation by followers and a post modern approach to followership. It is hoped that the volume will provoke readers to reflect upon and extend Jim Meindl's seminal work on followership. ars and practitioners curious about the nature of research on leadership, both those with much research exposure and those new to the field.