La followership nelle organizzazioni

Titolo Rivista STUDI ORGANIZZATIVI
Autori/Curatori Claudio G. Cortese, Chiara Ghisleri, Paola Gatti
Anno di pubblicazione 2014 Fascicolo 2013/2
Lingua Italiano Numero pagine 27 P. 9-35 Dimensione file 84 KB
DOI 10.3280/SO2013-002001
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Il tema della followership nelle organizzazioni ha iniziato solo di recente a essere oggetto di riflessione teorica e di ricerche empiriche, nonostante la sua importanza sia stata sottolineata da diversi autori nel corso degli anni. Ciò si riflette nella sostanziale mancanza di un vocabolario condiviso per affrontare, studiare e approfondire la followership; nell’assenza di una definizione consensuale di followership; in un corpus di studi ancora poco consolidato; in una ricostruzione storico-teorica in fieri; in un elevato margine di sovrapposizione tra la descrizione del profilo del follower e l’analisi del processo della followership; in una imprecisa distinzione tra subordinato e follower. Il presente lavoro si propone dunque come una rassegna critica della letteratura scientifica sul tema della followership che appare cruciale in quanto, non soltanto, come osserva Collinson (2006), ogni organizzazione ha numericamente più follower che leader, ma «persino coloro che hanno i più alti livelli di responsabilità di leadership rispondono a qualcuno» (Tanoff e Barlow, 2002: 157), ovvero sono dei follower. Tra le dimensioni centrali della followership si ritrovano alcuni aspetti quali, da un lato, la capacità di interpretare ed eseguire correttamente le richieste del leader, dall’altro l’orientamento a stimolarlo attraverso una relazione permeata da pensiero critico e creatività. Sono elementi essenziali l’autonomia, in questa direzione, e l’esercizio di influenza “verso l’alto”, nella costruzione e nel mantenimento della relazione followerleader. Più puntualmente, in modo trasversale a diversi contributi, è possibile individuare, a proposito di relazione follower-leader, alcuni elementi definitori: una asimmetria (di potere e capacità di influenza) sottesa al rapporto tra i ruoli; la condivisione tra leader e follower di un obiettivo comune; la possibilità per il follower di esercitare, a certe condizioni, un’influenza sul leader. Ulteriori studi, soprattutto qualitativi, saranno necessari per precisare questi aspetti. A uno stadio iniziale appare anche il tentativo di esplorare le dinamiche di followership e, in specifico, di individuare gli antecedenti di una followership efficace così come tutti i suoi possibili esiti. Per quanto riguarda gli antecedenti, è stato indaga to soprattutto il ruolo delle dimensioni di personalità, mentre per quanto riguarda gli studi sugli esiti della followership efficace sono stati messi in luce i legami con la soddisfazione lavorativa e con il commitment organizzativo. Tra le principali implicazioni dello studio della followership vi è quella di rendere la conoscenza della leadership più completa ed equilibrata. In questo senso, l’identificazione del profilo atteso di leadership e di followership potrebbe consentire lo sviluppo di interventi formativi mirati a facilitare un’assunzione dinamica dei ruoli di leader e di follower. Ciò sarebbe di particolare importanza per il middle management.;

Keywords:Followership, leadership, successo organizzativo, coinvolgimento, formazione, middle management.

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Claudio G. Cortese, Chiara Ghisleri, Paola Gatti, La followership nelle organizzazioni in "STUDI ORGANIZZATIVI " 2/2013, pp 9-35, DOI: 10.3280/SO2013-002001