How trust shapes followership: a qualitative study of relational responses to leadership

Abstract

Purpose This study aims to examine how trust in leaders shapes enacted followership. Specifically, it explores how cognition-based and affect-based trust influence the ways followers relate and respond to leaders in workplace relationships. Design/methodology/approach Drawing on qualitative interviews with 31 practitioners across 15 organisations, the authors conducted an iterative qualitative analysis to examine how followers interpreted leaders and responded to leadership authority. Findings Different combinations of cognition-based and affect-based trust were associated with distinct patterns of followership: endorsement, compliance, accommodation and alienation. The findings suggest that trust does not always lead to stronger engagement. Rather, followers’ trust evaluations shaped how they interpreted leaders and how they chose to respond to them over time. Originality/value This study contributes to trust and followership research by showing how trust shapes enacted followership. It highlights followership as a relational process rooted in followers’ assessments of leaders and demonstrates how different forms of trust give rise to different responses to leadership authority.