Newswise — The reasons many people choose to follow autocratic leaders vary across time, culture and circumstances, but past efforts to understand these reasons are often dismissive of those who do and frequently label such followers as prejudicial or uninformed.
The time is right, it seems, for a renewed effort to understand autocratic leaders and their followers without resorting to methods that strip away assumptions of value to the characteristics of followers of autocratic leaders.
Dr. Peter Harms, assistant professor of management in the Culverhouse College of Commerce at The University of Alabama, was the lead author on a recent paper in the Leadership Quarterly examining Autocratic leaders and authoritarian followers revisited.
Harms is available to discuss why this avenue of study is relevant in today's political climate and why a fresh perspective is needed to understand the reasons people choose autocratic leaders.
Harms received his doctorate in psychology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2008. He is currently an assistant professor of management at The University of Alabama. His research focuses on the assessment and development of personality, leadership and psychological well-being. He has published over 40 peer-reviewed articles and his work has also been featured in popular media outlets such as CNN, Scientific American, Forbes and the BBC. Dr. Harms has been invited to speak to audiences around the world and was selected by the St. Gallen symposium as one of the "100 Knowledge Leaders of Tomorrow" in 2011.
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