Exploring the Understanding of Followership in Christian Faith-Based Organisations

Emerging research on followership has overwhelmingly been focused on for-profit organisations. This research investigates the meaning of volunteer followership in a faith-based context by exploring four Christian denominational congregations and how they socially construct their role of being a follower. Using implicit followership theory, we explore their perceptions on ideal followership and how these shape the relationship to leaders. By conducting 25 semi-structured interviews we found that volunteer followers across the different denominations developed different understanding of followership and particularly valued relational attributes. We further found a dialectic relationship between individual personality, institutional norms and the social system which shape the way followership is constructed. Thus, we advance current understandings of the role of volunteer followers in faith-based organisations.