Charismatic Leadership : Attribution Theory And Self Concept Theory

Charisma is just a trait and means to have a vibrant persona. The difference between a charismatic leader and a normal leader is that a charismatic leader is more charming and is usually more persuasive than a regular leader.

One of the single most important traits to possess in order to be an effective leader is charisma. Jeff Skilling exuding charisma and was able to convince the media, shareholders, employees, and everyone in between that he was acting in their interest and running a company with integrity and honesty. Skilling’s charisma can be seen in many instances during his career at Enron, but one of his more striking instances of charismatic leadership was how he was able to influence all of the workers at Portland General Electric to convert their 401k’s into company stock (Gibney, 2005). Though this may sound like a relatively commonplace act, it took massive amounts of charisma to gain the trust and confidence of an entire company’s employees.

The charismatic leadership model is similar to the transformational style of leadership; they focus on treating the followers as a whole person that is a vital part of the organization. The leader will be proactive with problems and find solutions before the problems arise. They will assess the situation, identify the possible problems, analyze the environment for solutions, and verbalize the plan to the team members to produce an effect of on boarding. The leadership model is said to be effective based on the fact that the leader is building on self esteem and self worth issues from the

Ehrhart, M. G., & Klein, K. J. (2001) “Predicting Followers’ Preferences for Charismatic Leadership: The Influence of Follower Values and Personality.” The Leadership Quarterly, Volume 12, 155–79.

Charismatic leadership is a passionate, self-confident leader whose character and actions affect people to behave in certain ways. High self-monitors might be more effective leaders because they can easily adjust their behavior to a different situation versus a charismatic or self-confident leader that behave in an assured way.

A charismatic leader will ensure to pay attention to every person making that person feel important. At this time they are scanning the individuals to pick up their moods and their concerns. At this time the charismatic leader will be able to improve their actions and words to suit the situation.

Charismatic leaders are able to inspire emotion and passion in their followers by being optimistic and enthusiastic. Without passionate and emotional employees, an organization will be crippled and unable to face

Antonakis, J., Fenley, M., & Liechti, S. (2011). Can Charisma Be Taught? Tests of Two Interventions. Academy Of Management Learning & Education, 10(3), 374-396. Antonakis et al starts off research by posing a question. “Can leadership, and in particular charisma, be taught? The authors set out to prove in fact that training can training managers a specific set of charismatic leadership tactics not only improves their charisma, but their effectiveness as leaders. Charismatic leadership is defined as by Antonakis et al as being a sub element of transformational leadership. In the first study researchers assigned 34 middle managers from a Swiss company into two groups randomly. One group received training in charisma and the others received no training. The group receiving training were trained in principles on charismatic leadership. In the second study focused on 41 MBA students enrolled in a leadership course at a Swiss public university monitor charismatic leadership. The students were videotaped giving a 4 minute speech addressing problems within the company while also giving a plan of action to staff. After, speech was done, each participant received training in charismatic leadership and was asked to deliver the same speech 6 weeks later by videotape. Results reveal that improvement and effectiveness as a leader were made in both research groups. This study concluded that feedback is important to the growth and development of leaders and must be provided to

Transformational leadership are classified into four components which are pointed out by Bass (1990, p. 28), ‘charisma, idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation and individualized consideration’. Apart from these basic roles, charisma leadership, a collection of personal characteristics, has its own role of literature since it has similarity with transformational leadership and they are contribution to each other (Bertocci, 2009, p. 43; Judge & Piccolo, 2004, p. 755). Leaders’ behaviour reflects them being role models for their followers. Followers respect, admire and trust their leaders who have charismatic effect on their followers to an extremely high grade are willing to take risks

Bryman, A., 1993, ‘Charismatic leadership in business organisations: some neglected issues’, Leadership Quarterly, vol. 4, no. 3, pp. 289-304.

Many great leaders have one thing in common and that is charisma. Charismatic leaders are those that have the capability to inspire and encourage people to do more than they would normally do, despite obstacles and personal sacrifice. (Daft, R.L, pg. 364) Charisma is what provokes energy and commitment out of its followers. These leaders possess the power to motivate their followers to do almost anything. They create an atmosphere of change and express an ideal vision of a better future. The most common characteristics of the charismatic leader involve maturity, communication, humility, and inspiration. These unique qualities impact their followers and conduct themselves in such a way that allows for remarkable results. Then

The major problem with this theory is that no one has ever found a set of leadership traits that could be supported as truly universal an essential to successful leadership. Years of leadership research have not led to the conclusion that there is any consistent pattern of personality traits that characterize leaders.

Charisma theory is described as a “gift”, or a unique superiority of an individual character. This is set by an advantage of which the individual is set apart from the common man and treated as a gem with supremacies (Charismatic vs. Transformational, 2011). Whereas the transformational theory is defined as leaders who enthuse followers to use their own egocentricities to benefit the organization (Charismatic vs. Transformational, 2011). These leaders also possess a gift of having a great impact on their followers (Charismatic vs. Transformational, 2011). Theories are apprehended around the world and almost every aspect of life possesses a theory behind them, whether there is action or unfolding someone’s personality. There are two leadership theories that will be conveyed, Charismatic Leadership and Transformational Leadership. Behind each theory is a founder that explains these concepts, James MacGregor Burns the founder of Transformational leadership (Conger, n.d.) and Karl Emil Maximilian "Max" Weber the founder of Charismatic leadership ("Transformational," n.d.). Over the course of time, movies have been made, demonstrating these theories, for example an old classic “The Lion King” ("Leadership Movies," 2008). This movie coveys both MacGregor Burns and Karl Emil Maximilian "Max" Weber’s theories.

Likewise, leadership is multi-faceted and can apply to many different situations (Stanfield, 2009). E sa (2012) described leadership as getting people to perform tasks in order to achieve certain aims. Stanfield argues that leadership is largely based on experience and does not necessarily depend on the number of followers and that to be able to lead effectively; one must also be able to follow. This is supported by Adeniyi (2010) who adds that there are many forms of leadership and leaders possess different traits and temperaments. Stanfield states that factors such as moral standards and integrity play a role in effective leadership. Leaders are often said to charismatic and possessing the skill that enables them to draw others to their visions or ideas. Although seen as a good quality, he points out that charisma can be either constructive or destructive, depending on how it is channeled

Researchers have proposed several characteristics of leaders described as ‘charismatic’. The widely accepted characteristics of charismatic leaders are (Bryman et al., 2011, p. 90-91):