Leadership on demand: A scale development study within the scope of follower centered leadership approach

The performance of followers is an important determinant for organizations to achieve organizational goals effectively and efficiently. However, in the field of leadership, only the leader-oriented one-sided studies that do not take followers into consideration enough are more frequently encountered and such studies are found to be more influential. From past to present, research efforts have paid great attention to how leaders can influence their followers and society, and to determination of the qualities of an effective leader. However, lately, leaders' redundant leadership has been problematized. Although there is no consensus on the qualities that an effective leader should have, the leader's constant intervention in the affairs of the followers and leaders' efforts to influence them are considered problematic for a certain followers' audience today. The main purpose of this research is to determine when and under what conditions followers, especially knowledge workers, are in need of leaders. In order to achieve this aim, the "Leadership on Demand Scale" was developed. The universe of the research consists of middle and senior engineers working in enterprises operating in the private sector. In this context, 151 knowledge workers were reached. The internal consistency, reliability and normal distribution of the scale were measured, and its sub-dimensions were determined. Keywords: Followership, Leadership on demand, Leadership, Knowledge workers, Scale development