What does this research mean for the field?

Different combinations of cognition-based and affect-based trust in leaders produce distinct patterns of followership—specifically endorsement, compliance, accommodation, and alienation—demonstrating that trust does not universally result in stronger employee engagement. Novelty: ClaimNovelty.INCREMENTAL. Consensus alignment: ConsensusAlignment.NEUTRAL.

What question did this study set out to answer?

To investigate how cognition-based and affect-based trust in leaders shape enacted followership and relational responses to leadership authority in workplace settings.

September 5, 2026International journal of organizational analysis

How trust shapes followership: a qualitative study of relational responses to leadership

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Authors

YWYike WuShenzhen University XJXueting JiangNew York Institute of Technology

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Implication

Qualitative study reveals four distinct followership patterns shaped by cognitive and affective trust in workplace practitioners, indicating trust does not uniformly boost engagement.

Key Points

To investigate how cognition-based and affect-based trust in leaders shape enacted followership and relational responses to leadership authority in workplace settings.
Conducted qualitative interviews with 31 practitioners across 15 organizations.
Performed iterative qualitative analysis to assess how followers evaluate leaders and respond to authority over time.
Identified that distinct configurations of cognition-based and affect-based trust produce four unique followership patterns: endorsement, compliance, accommodation, and alienation.
Demonstrated that trust does not consistently drive stronger workplace engagement, but instead guides how followers interpret and relationally adapt to leadership authority.

Cite This Study

Wu et al. (2026) studied this question.

synapsesocial.com/papers/6a9bd3e16b95aff0620eb1e8 https://doi.org/10.1108/ijoa-02-2026-6539

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Implication

Qualitative study reveals four distinct followership patterns shaped by cognitive and affective trust in workplace practitioners, indicating trust does not uniformly boost engagement.

How trust shapes followership: a qualitative study of relational responses to leadership

Discussion

Member takes

Implication

Key Points

Cite This Study

How trust shapes followership: a qualitative study of relational responses to leadership

Discussion

Member takes

Implication

Key Points

Cite This Study

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