Open AccessFollowership Resilience in Administrative Structures: A New Perspective
Author(s) -
Emil Nikolov Kotsev,
AUTHOR_ID
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
transylvanian review of administrative sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.203
H-Index - 16
eISSN - 2247-8310
pISSN - 1842-2845
DOI - 10.24193/tras.si2021.3
Subject(s) - followership , proactivity , psychology , deci , exploratory research , resilience (materials science) , social psychology , perspective (graphical) , sociology , knowledge management , public relations , political science , computer science , autonomy , social science , physics , artificial intelligence , law , thermodynamics
The study explores followership resilience in three Bulgarian municipalities. Its purpose is twofold: first, to draw the attention of researchers and managers on followership resilience, and second, to explore proactivity and trust as factors of followership resilience in administrative structures. The study is based on a qualitative approach, and uses a combination of two research strategies – exploratory and descriptive. Data is collected through semi-structured interviews with a sample of 35 municipal employees (10.2% from the general population). Followership resilience is analyzed by means of followers’ psychological readiness to participate in the decision-making process and to trust superiors. Four types of followers are identified and strengths and weaknesses of each type are discussed. The preference of the majority of interviewees (69%) to follow instructions and not to trust leaders is interpreted. It is concluded that the formula for successful followership resilience in terms of proactivity and trust involves achieving balance and coherence.