Why do people follow leaders? A study of a U.S. and a Japanese change program

Abstract Why is it that people follow leaders? We propose in this article that there are at least three motivational grounds for persuading followers to change their organizational behavior: utility, identity, and values. These motivational grounds are sensitive to the national (and corporate) contexts in which leaders operate. Here, we discuss two CEO-led change programs, one in a U.S. company and the other in a Japanese organization. We seek to describe and contrast the motivational bases of the CEOs' change efforts in the two cases and draw attention to the leader approaches in the two national and organizational contexts. In the U.S. case study, leadership was based on the assumption that a “right” agency (in terms of utility sought or values held) will result in the “right” consequences. In Japan, the link from leadership to followership was different: it was assumed that a “right” (corporate) identity will induce “right” behavior on the part of the followers. We propose that further studies consider the follower context in more detail, thus contributing to the understanding of what makes leaders effective in the United States and Japan.

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