Empirical Connections Between Followers’ Emotional Intelligence and Followership Styles

Emotional intelligence (EQ) has emerged as a prominent leadership topic as scholars believe that higher EQ results in better leadership performance. Although leadership literature primarily focuses on leaders, followers play an essential role in the overall leadership process. However, most studies related to EQ concentrate on how leaders’ EQ impacts followers or how followers’ EQ results in better follower commitment to organizations and personal job satisfaction. The overwhelming focus of EQ on increasing leader competencies or follower behavioral outcomes overlooks many other potential benefits of EQ within the workplace. Some followers enable bad leadership, while others deter such. EQ may be a critical component of how individuals view their roles as followers. If EQ influences followership, increasing followers’ EQ might help derail toxic leadership behaviors. The current research explored connections between midwestern followers’ EQ and followership using Kelley’s followership styles and Bar-On’s conceptualization of EQ, finding positive correlations between some EQ components and followership. Additionally, a manipulated star followership variable uncovered significant differences between the highest-scoring star followers and others.