Using Followership to Develop New Leadership in Cultures with Greater Power Distance

Leadership theories abound in individualistic societies with the promise that anyone can become a successful leader by following certain guidelines. However, many of our existing theories are culturally specific to individualistic societies with low power distance. People from more collectivist cultures, in which power distance is greater, have a very different perspective of what they can do. In the current paper, I discuss how followership can be helpful for empowering people in large power distant cultures and offer five strategies, using Honduras as an example. The strategies are based on a theoretical examination of basic followership concepts with Hofstede's cultural dimensions of power distance and collectivism (Hofstede, Hofstede, & Minkov, 2010).