Conflict, control and culture: implications for implicit followership and leadership theories

The present review discusses the influence of national culture and socio-political processes on teachers’ perceptions in divided societies, which are structurally unable to meet minority groups’ basic human needs for identity, inclusion and equality. To establish our assumptions, we use the case of Israel to demonstrate that socio-political processes and culture (culture, control and conflict) between majority Jews and minority Arabs have an effect on teachers’ perceptions in schools of the effective leader and the ideal follower (i.e. implicit followership and leadership theories). In the suggested propositions, we claim that when the state is characterised by control and conflict, Arabs will perceive their students as less good citizens and their school leaders as less dedicated and intelligent than Jewish teachers. Further, due to the differences between the cultures, Arabs will perceive their ideal students as more conforming and their effective school leaders as more masculine than Jewish teachers. This review and the suggested propositions open avenues for future research into employee perceptions in different contexts, and contribute to implicit theories (leadership and followership) by explaining the implications of specific contexts for these theories.