Despite the significant amount of existing research examining the relationship of follower-related factors with leadership outcomes, there is no systematic, critical review that integrates and helps leadership scholars make sense of this rapidly growing body of research. To address this gap in the literature, we first briefly discuss the leading perspectives explaining the role of followers in leadership. Next, we identify and discuss the most frequently studied theoretical narratives explaining the relationship between follower-related predictors and leadership outcomes. Because theoretical arguments generally make causal claims, we identify and examine how methodological concerns including power analysis, multicollinearity, and endogeneity might prevent researchers from supporting those claims. We further explore how these concerns, when relevant and unaddressed, might affect the reported effect sizes. We provide recommendations to help meaningfully structure the field and seed conversations for theoretical and methodological advancements in research on the role of followers in leadership.

尽管有大量现有研究考察了与追随者相关的因素与领导成果之间的关系，但还没有系统的、批判性的评论来整合和帮助领导学者理解这一快速发展的研究体系。为了解决文献中的这一差距，我们首先简要讨论解释追随者在领导力中的作用的主要观点。接下来，我们确定并讨论最常研究的理论叙述，以解释与追随者相关的预测因素与领导成果之间的关系。由于理论论证通常提出因果主张，因此我们确定并研究了包括功效分析、多重共线性和内生性在内的方法论问题如何阻止研究人员支持这些主张。我们进一步探讨这些担忧，当相关且未解决时，可能会影响报告的效果大小。我们提供建议，以帮助有意义地构建领域和种子对话，以促进追随者在领导力中的作用研究的理论和方法论进步。