Charismatic Leadership

CHAPTER 9 CHARISMATIC AND TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP

Nature of charisma

Charisma : comes from a Greek word meaning “gift”’ suggesting that leaders have special gifts to distribute.

Gift : more of a social gift. E.g. the ‘pleasing personality’ of charismatic person is thought to be a his/her greatest gift.

Weber (1947) : people with charisma are “set apart from ordinary people and treated as endowed with supernatural, superhuman, or at least exceptional powers and qualities…(that) are not accessible the ordinary person but are regarded as divine or as exemplary.”

Weber (1947) : Charisma occurs during a crisis – when a leader emerges with a radical vision that :

* Offers solutions

* Attracts followers who believe in the vision -> deal with changes in an unconventional ways to achieve the vision (but not too radical).

Non Charismatic leaders : typically support the status quo or advocate only small, incremental changes.

Attribution Theory

Attribution (psychology), concept in psychology whereby people attribute (ascribe, assign, credit to) traits / characteristics / qualities and causes to things they observe.

The fundamental attribution error is cognitive bias in which people put too much emphasis on internal, dispositional factors in explaining people’s behaviors rather than explaining them in terms of situational factors.

Attribution Theory of Charisma Leadership

Leader Traits and Behavior

* Advocate a vision highly discrepant from the status quo

* Acts in unconventional ways

* Make self-sacrifices

* Appear confident about their proposals

* Inspire them with emotional appeals (vs. authoritative / participative leaders)

* Is able to see opportunities that others fail to recognize -> extraordinary leaders

How leaders influence followers ?

* Personal Identification

* Derived from a follower’s desire to please and imitate the leader -> followers idolize these leaders and want to be like them.

*...