Why Employees Choose to Follow Leaders: Culture and Context at Work – Maike Kugler

Full transcript and show notes: https://www.sharnafabiano.com/2026/07/29/why-employees-choose-to-follow-leaders-culture-and-context-at-work-maike-kugler/

Why do people choose to support a leader in one situation but resist the same person in another? Dr. Maike Kugler challenges the idea that being a leader or a follower is a fixed role or personality trait. Her research explores instead how the choice to follower someone else is something shaped by expectations, relationships, culture, and the specific context in which people are working together.

Maike Kugler researches leadership and followership with a focus on voluntariness, meaning, and relational dynamics. She examines how cultural differences and organizational contexts influence the way people understand their roles, contribute to shared goals, and respond to those who hold formal authority.

You’ll learn:

• Why employees follow some leaders willingly and disengage from others 
• How trust and expectations shape leader–employee relationships 
• Why cultural context changes the meaning of influence and authority 
• How organizations can study leadership relationships beyond simple leader-versus-follower roles 
• Why followership is a social process that changes from one situation to another 

Episode References 

"The (In)voluntary follower," Martin Blom and Mikael Lundgren https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1742715019888078

"Following the beaten paths: a systematic literature review of followership behavior," Maike Kugler and Ruth Sims 
https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/jmd-10-2024-0359/full/html

S1 E4 – Influence of Followership Behaviors on Organizational Success - Ruth Sims
https://leadfollow.buzzsprout.com/1735834/episodes/8516582-influence-of-followership-behaviors-on-organizational-success-ruth-sims

 S3 E6 - The 4 Tiers of Followership - Eric McDermott
https://leadfollow.buzzsprout.com/1735834/episodes/15254928-the-4-tiers-of-followership-eric-mcdermott

Connect with Maike Kugler

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-maike-kugler

University profile: https://www.ehip.eu/hochschule/team/professoren/prof-dr-maike-kugler/