Abstract
The essence of how social work leaders elicit cooperation has not received much attention even though the social work profession has produced great leaders. Research has questioned the extent to which existing leadership models apply to social work leadership and proposed the development of a leadership model that is embedded in social work ethics, values and goals. However, neither leadership nor followership happens in social vacuum. Thus, to understand social work leadership and its effects, it is necessary to understand the social context in which they occur and how leaders behave within particular social contexts. This analysis suggests that, in order to comprehend the influence of social work leaders on followers (i.e., social workers), we must first understand the nature of the relationship that already exists between leaders and followers and how this relationship or context influences whether the leader’s prototypicality or behaviour makes the followers to be more likely to engage in cooperative behaviour.