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Defying conventional wisdom, leaders' storytelling may have ambiguous and even negative effects on followers. Built upon transformational leadership and leader -member exchange theory, the intention-perception model of storytelling in leadership provides a framework to systematically explain when and why unintended effects of storytelling happen. Despite its theoretical and practical relevance, a quantitative evaluation of the model's main assumptions, and particularly of followers' perceptions of leader storytelling, is still pending.

The authors developed a scale to assess followers' story perceptions in study 1 (N = 79) and confirmed the scale's structure in study 2, an online cross-sectional field study (N = 60). In study 2, the authors also tested a main assumption of the intention-perception model of storytelling, that is, the relationship between followers' story perceptions and story effects, mediated via followers' affective arousal.

Data revealed that story effects indeed depend on followers' perception of the story. In particular, the better a leader's story met followers' needs (need-supply fit), the more adequate the input load transported by the story (story load), the more positive followers' appraisal of their leader's story (story appraisal) and the more positive affective reactions and positive effects of storytelling (transformation, leader -member exchange quality, and trust in the leader) followers perceived.

The authors provide practical insights into how leaders may improve their storytelling by tailoring their stories to the expectations and needs of their followers.

Taking a follower-centric perspective on a common leadership practice (i.e. storytelling), the present research provides first support for the intention-perception model of storytelling in leadership.

This study seeks to confirm the main factors in the followers' perception of leaders and to explore effects of collectivist values, age and work experience on followers' perception of leaders.

Confirmatory factor analysis is done for the 32‐item Romance of leadership scale and an exploratory multi‐level research in perceptions of 452 individuals in five cultural groups.

The study confirms the “influence” and the “interchangeability” of leaders as independent constructs in the followers' perception of leaders. The results indicate: older followers view leadership change more negatively than younger followers; with more work experience followers view the influence of leaders diminishing; differences in perception of followers from collectivist and individualistic cultures were inconclusive.

A large proportion of the sample used in this study were young undergraduates with little work experience and exposure to organisational leadership. A more representative spread of age and work experience in a replication of this study will mean the findings could be generalised.

The research suggests that inexperienced followers attribute more influence to leaders. With greater exposure at work they are likely to see limitations in their leaders' influence. As followers age they see leadership change as more troublesome for organisational performance. This could create cognitive dissonance among followers who see leaders as having diminishing influence but at the same time being increasingly irreplaceable.

This paper contributes to the relatively limited amount of research on followers' perception of leaders. This will assist in understanding the determinants of effective leadership.

This study examines how perceptions of injustice, anger, and group identification motivate follower intentions to engage in collective action against leaders. The study revolved around the Malaysian prime minister’s actions and responses toward allegations of misuse of public funds. Responses from 112 Malaysians via a cross-sectional survey revealed that follower perceptions of leader injustice are significantly related to anger toward the leader, which in turn is related to intentions to engage in collective action. The relationship between perceptions of distributive injustice and anger is moderated by group identification, while group efficacy moderates the relationship between anger and collective action intentions.

Followers’ perceptions of leader trustworthiness affect their trust in the leader (Colquitt et al., 2007). However, because positive benefits of trust generally accrue when trust is reciprocated, examining when and why followers’ perceptions of leader trustworthiness elicit leader’s trust in followers may provide heuristic and practical value. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to examine if followers’ perceptions of leader trustworthiness elicit leaders’ trust in followers, casting follower’s perceptions of leader–member exchange (LMX) quality as a mediator and their perceptions of empowerment as moderating this mediated relationship.

Followers’ perception of leader trustworthiness was measured at Time 1, followers’ perceptions of empowerment and LMX were measured at Time 2 and leaders’ trust in followers was measured in Time 3. The authors tested the research model with data collected from 347 leader–follower dyads using the three time-lagged surveys as noted above.

Followers’ perceptions of leader trustworthiness and perceptions of empowerment interacted to influence followers’ perceptions of LMX quality, which in turn influenced leaders’ trust in followers. Thus, LMX mediated the trustworthiness–trust relationship and this mediated relationship became stronger at increasing levels of empowerment.

Being trusted by leaders is beneficial to followers. Training managers in behaviors that elicit employees’ perceptions of manager trustworthiness has the potential to accrue benefits to employees, managers and the organization.

This study is the first to demonstrate that followers’ perception of leader trustworthiness resulted in leaders trusting followers. In addition, the results support a mediating role for LMX and a moderating role for empowerment in the development of leader trust in the follower. Understanding when and why leaders trust followers offers important insights about development of trust between followers and leaders. The authors discuss implications for theory and practice.

Increasing followers' positive word-of-mouth (PWOM) is a critical means through which social media influencers (SMIs) marketers can increase SMIs' follower count. Studies have reported that authenticity and credibility increase followers' PWOM and have identified the dimensions of authenticity (i.e. originality, naturalness and continuity) and credibility (i.e. attractiveness, trustworthiness and expertise). However, the mechanisms underlying the associations among these dimensions are unclear. Drawing from social exchange theory, the authors developed an integrated conceptual model and explored how the dimensions of SMI authenticity affect those of followers' perception of credibility. Moreover, the authors analyzed how followers' perception of credibility affects the followers' PWOM behavior.

The authors collected 463 valid questionnaires from respondents that followed at least one SMI. Additionally, the authors developed a structural equation model for data analysis.

The results revealed that the subdimensions of SMI authenticity have different effects on followers' perception of credibility. An SMI's continuity positively affects followers' perceptions of the SMI's trustworthiness and expertise. The naturalness of an SMI positively affects followers' perception of the SMI's attractiveness but nonsignificantly affects followers' perception of the SMI's trustworthiness. Additionally, an SMI's originality positively affects followers' perception of the SMI's attractiveness but negatively affects followers' perception of the SMI's trustworthiness. Finally, followers' perceptions of an SMI's attractiveness, trustworthiness and expertise all positively affect followers' PWOM behavior.

By employing multidimensional constructs, the authors obtained results that provide a comprehensive understanding of the effects of SMI authenticity on the SMI's followers' perception of followers' credibility. These results can be used by SMIs to increase SMIs followers' PWOM by determining which aspects of authenticity and credibility SMIs should develop.

This study aims to focus on the perception of leader‐member exchange (LMX). It is assumed that the perceived quality of the relationship is not only related to the actual quality of the relationship, but also to followers' expectancies and preferences. However, little is known about person characteristics that are related to LMX perceptions. This study seeks to examine how far followers' leadership‐related characteristics (romance of leadership, idealised supervisor, need for leadership and dependence) are related to the perception of LMX.

A sample of 588 Dutch employees from different professions filled in questionnaires on romance of leadership, idealised supervisor, need for leadership and dependence and their perception of LMX.

Results indicate a positive relationship between need for leadership/dependence and the perception of LMX, thought not for romance of leadership/idealised supervisor and the perception of LMX. An interaction was found between idealised supervisor and dependence on the perception of LMX.

The study only focuses on four antecedents, although many others could have an effect on the perception of LMX. The study comprised a one‐dimensional assessment of LMX. For future research, a multi‐dimensional assessment is recommended.

The results of this study imply that organisations need to address the expectations that followers have towards their leaders in order to avoid disappointments.

This paper focuses on the perception of LMX and how follower characteristics are related to the perception of LMX. It extends prior research on the perception of leadership into LMX research. Similar to effect on the perception of leadership behaviour, effects on the perception of LMX are important to take into account when LMX is assessed through follower ratings in order to avoid making incorrect conclusions.

Abusive supervision is associated with many detrimental consequences. In this theory-review chapter, we extend the abusive supervision literature in two ways. First, we argue that more attention needs to be given to the emotion contagion processes between the leader and followers. More specifically, leaders’ negative affect can lead to followers’ experiences of negative affect, thereby influencing followers’ perception of abusive supervision. Second, we explore how employees draw upon their cognitive prototypes of an ideal leader or Implicit Leadership Theories (ILTs) to evaluate leader behaviors. In this regard, we argue that ILTs can influence the (negative) emotional contagion process between the leaders’ negative affect and followers’ perception of abusive supervision. In our proposed model, leaders’ expressions of negative affect, via emotional contagion, influence followers’ negative affect, perception of abusive supervision, and two behavioral responses: affect- and judgment-driven. The negative emotional contagion process between the leader and followers also differs depending on followers’ susceptibility to emotional contagion and their ILTs. We conclude by discussing the theoretical and practical implications of our model.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between the perceptions employees have regarding how they are treated in the workplace environment by their current or most recent supervisor, and how this predicted their feelings of power within themselves. The perceptions were measured utilizing the Managerial Leadership Perceptions Questionnaire (MLPQ) created by Parmer (2017). Employee power was measured utilizing the Power Instrument developed by Hinkin and Schriesheim (1989) which stemmed from French and Raven’s (1959) five original bases of power theory to include referent, expert, legitimate, reward, and coercive.

The authors collected a sample of 199 participants gathered from Amazon’s Mechanical Turk digital labor pool. Participants completed a survey which measured their managerial perceptions, bases of power, and demographic characteristics. Statistical analysis was used, including a factor analysis, to explore the relationship between managerial perceptions, bases of power, and demographic characteristics.

This study demonstrated that there were no significant associations between the demographic associations and personal power. There were significant associations between the demographic associations and position power, managerial perceptions and personal power, managerial perceptions and position power, and managerial leadership style and power.

Five bases of power were examined in this study to include referent, expert (i.e. personal power), legitimate, reward, and coercive (i.e. position power). There is a sixth power now, information power, as noted by Northouse (2016) that needs to be additionally examined. Self-confidence and empowerment feelings were not technically measured quantifiably in this study but were expected feelings based on what mindsets power can produce within a person. Researching these additional feelings of self-confidence and empowerment and how this relates to follower power is needed moving forward in this research area. Finally, ethnic differences need to be measured moving forward.

The practical implications of this study show that employees do embody perceptions and attitudes regarding their current or most recent supervisor based on how they are being treated. This, in turn, can affect their own personal feelings of power within themselves and within the overall organization at large. Careers can be affected, both good and bad, organizational cultures can be impacted by both good and bad, workplace assumptions and norms, as well as, workplace relationships can be affected, both good and bad.

The social implications of this study indicated that employees’ perceptions and attitudes regarding their immediate supervisor can create positive or negative feelings toward the supervisor which can, in turn, affect the organization’s culture and workplace environment, both good and bad. Working at an organization is within a social environment that needs to be managed and cultivated appropriately for all parties involved.

The majority of the prior research examines leader–follower relationships. No prior research has utilized this particular perception and attitudinal model, the MLPQ developed by Parmer (2017), and the five bases of power model developed by Hinkin and Schriesheim (1989) together in one study. This study explored employee managerial perceptions and their feelings of power within the follower–leader dyadic relationship, as opposed to the leader–follower dyadic relationship which has been more commonly reported within the literature.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the Chinese leader–follower interaction model in school cases considering followers’ effect at varying social distances.

This study uses a case study approach.

First, Chinese leader–follower interactions in school cases are flexible in practice. Second, within leader–follower flexible interactions, contradictory perceptions and field-of-work consciousness foster different behavior choices between leaders and followers. Third, perceptions concerning the proximity of leaders to followers are positively influenced in relation to hierarchical distinctions and negatively influenced owing to private connections. Finally, the perceived leader distance of leaders from followers further influences the contradictory perceptions and field-of-work consciousness of leaders and followers and positively influences the degree of flexible leader–follower interaction.

This study examined a single institution; hence, results may have been influenced by school-specific features and conditions. Future research should study more organizations to explore whether their unique characteristics and contexts could affect leader–follower interactions, thus providing more generalized and universally applicable conclusions.

First, this study proposed a leader–follower flexible interaction model in school cases and the concepts of field-of-work consciousness and contradictory perceptions, exploring the active effects of followers in the leadership process to offer guidance toward better understanding the leadership process. Second, it was found that private connections between leaders and followers, as well as hierarchical differences, influenced the perceptions of both leaders and followers concerning leader distance in a Chinese context, and the influence of leader distance on leader–follower interactions was also analyzed.

While organizationally relevant outcomes of charismatic leadership have been studied more extensively, we do not know as much about when and why followers attribute charisma to leaders. Drawing on the self-concept based motivational theory of charisma developed by Boas Shamir and colleagues, we propose that congruence between leaders and followers on a core characteristic, namely organizational identification plays an important role. When leaders are high on identification with the organization, they embody and communicate the values of the organization more strongly in their vision and behaviors, which is likely to affect the attribution of charisma to these leaders, but only for followers who themselves strongly identify with the organization. In contrast, those leaders low on organizational identification are more likely to communicate messages that appeal to followers who are similarly low on identification. A multi-source study in the healthcare sector largely supports our model as congruence between organizational identification levels of leaders and followers is positively linked to perceived charisma and, in turn, charisma relates to followers’ organizational citizenship behavior.