Exploring Leader-Follower Duality and Role Identity in Library Middle Managers

The past two years have brought leadership challenges to every type of library. Multiple crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic, economic uncertainty, challenges to academic freedom, and worldwide attention to diversity and equity issues have created an environment that is uncertain and complex—one ideal for examining the limitations and potential of both leadership and followership. The collegial organizational structures of many libraries call for more distributed or collaborative approaches to leadership.

In a more follower-centric approach leaders and non-leaders to have equal roles in organizational success. When viewed from this perspective, leadership problems are also problems with followership. As Shamir (2007) noted, “to fully examine the process of leadership and its outcomes it is necessary to ‘reverse the lens’ and view the leadership process from a follower-centric perspective which recognizes the significance of the role of followers in the leadership process” (p. xii). This presentation examines the less understood concept of followership within the context of middle leadership in libraries.

Most formally titled leaders float between the roles of leader and follower depending on the context. Middle managers or middle leaders embody the dual roles of leader and follower: they assume leader attributes when hiring, but the same day or even hour may enact the role of follower to a supervisor. This session presents research about women serving as library middle leaders who transition and switch between two often competing roles and is the basis for an exploratory phenomenological study about their relationships to library leaders above them, their sense of agency and empowerment within their positions, and their perceptions of career limitations and challenges.

A panel of librarian middle leaders will discuss their roles in their specific administrative structures and how they both lead and follow. This session will provide a better understanding of the dichotomy of the roles middle leaders play within the organization which may lead to novel ways of approaching leadership challenges in libraries. Many point to a leadership gap in libraries that is growing more problematic with every generation, so growing and developing leaders is a priority for our profession. A better understanding of followership as it relates to leadership and middle management may contribute to library leadership development.