Summary: Charismatic Leadership

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Introduction According to Klein and House, charisma “resides not in the leader but in the relationship of some leaders and subordinates”(1995). In short, charisma revolves around the affiliations between the individual and the people surrounding him. Charisma has been found to have been a talent possessed by selected individuals, as the word originated from Greek, meaning “gift” (Conger and Kanungo, 1987). Throughout the centuries, many leaders have been found to have led their people through charismatic leadership, namely Steve Jobs, Barrack Obama and many others. It’s been found to be fundamentally different from the other forms of leadership methods, which would be further explored in the essay. This essay would look into the definition …show more content…

Leaders are found to have improved the situations of their surrounds through their words and actions, as seen in Steve Jobs which helped develop Apple Inc. Into the transnational corporation, it is today. Summerfield(2014) also mentioned the example of Abraham Lincoln seeking to bring together the United States and create a congress that works for the people. In layman term, it describes the vision that Lincoln had for his country, a common shared goal he has with his people. This idea is shared by Conger and Kanungo, as they mentioned that leaders are found in groups where “there is a need for coordination of activities of group members to achieve common objectives”(1992). The idea of leadership is defined in Organisational Behaviour as the “ability to influence a group towards the achievement of a vision or set of goals”(Robbins and Judge,2009). This shows that scholars have shared a similar concept regarding leadership, that leaders develop goals to be achieved. The differences between the different leadership theories e.g. charismatic leadership, leader-member exchange, transactional leadership etc. are the methods used to achieve the goals …show more content…

Their mission is not necessarily important, but charismatic leaders are able to convince their followers of the importance of what they are doing. According to the Conger-Kunungo model, there are three stages that followers go through which results in the rise of a charismatic leader. The three stages are “environmental assessment”, ”vision formulation” and “implementation” (Conger & Kanungo 1987, 1992; Conger et al., 2000; Conger et al.,