| Kelley (1988), considered to be a pioneer in the field of followership, stated, "Followership dominates our lives and organizations, but not our thinking because our preoccupation with leadership keeps us from considering the nature and the importance of the follower" (p. 143). The lack of interest and/or research in followership has caused misunderstandings of the follower. Because many leadership theories incorporate personality traits that can "explain people's behavior across different situations" (Barrick, Parks, & Mount, 2005, p. 745), the current research determined the relationship between an individual's personality traits and followership characteristics. An instrument consisting of demographic questions; the 20-item Kelley's Followership Questionnaire, which measures active engagement and independent thinking; and the 20-item Mini-International Personality Item Pool (IPIP) personality test, which measures a person's Big Five personality levels of extraversion, neuroticism, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness to experience was sent to 238 full-time working adults in the United States through SurveyMonkeyRTM. With the survey data, a Pearson product-moment correlation was done to determine the strength of a linear association between each of the five personality types in relation to the two followership characteristics. A positive relationship was found between the personality characteristics of extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness to experience with the followership attributes of active engagement and independent thinking. The correlation strength ranged from .136 to .374 with all but one significant at the p < .01 level. Neuroticism was negatively correlated to both active engagement and independent thinking at the -.120 and -.133 levels, respectively. Although the research population was diverse, based on geographical location, age, organizational level, and work experience, the respondents indicated an ethnicity of 84% White/Caucasian. Future research should include a longitudinal study to determine if changes occur over time---research to determine if various demographic characteristics, including international cultures, would have an impact on the relationships. |
