The Content and Structure of Supervisors’ Implicit Followership Theories

Abstract

Supervisors and postgraduates exhibit a typical leader-follower relationship. This study carries out research in the field of higher education to explore the content and structure of supervisors’ implicit followership theories (IFTs), reveal the characteristics of followers with different levels of cognitive categories, and develop the scale for supervisors’ IFTs. In compliance with strict procedures, a total of 768 subjects are investigated through four rounds of questionnaires. Subsequently, exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and reliability and validity tests are carried out on the scale developed for analyzing supervisors’ IFTs. The results show that supervisors’ IFTs consist of three factors: good citizen, learning ability and learning attitude. The structure and content of the supervisors’ IFTs scale are different from those used in previous studies by researchers with different cultural backgrounds or in different fields. The scale for supervisors’ IFTs has good reliability and validity. It can be used for postgraduate training and in relevant follow-up research.