Charismatic Theory

Charisma has been associated with leadership for centuries, and defined as 'a divinely conferred power or talent'. It was first formalized as a leadership theory by House in 1976, following the work of Weber, an early sociologist, in the 1940s.

The Theory of Charismatic Leadership

During the first decade of the 2000s, the trait approach of leadership gained new interest through the current emphasis given by many researchers to visionary and charismatic leadership.

Charismatic leadership came to the forefront of public attention during the 2008 US elections when Barack Obama was elected as the first African American president. He is believed to be charismatic, among many other leadership attributes he demonstrates.

The trait approach began with an emphasis on identifying the qualities of great persons, shifted to include the impact of situations on leadership, and, currently, has shifted back to reemphasize the critical role of traits in effective leadership. Max Weber defined the term “charisma” as, “charisma is applied to a certain quality of an individual personality by virtue of which he is set apart from ordinary men and treated as endowed with supernatural, superhuman, exceptional powers or qualities”.

Characteristics of Charismatic Leadership

Charismatic leaders are regarded as of divine origin and the recognition of the followers depends upon the demonstration of constant proof, which in turn, augments follower devotion and enthusiasm.  Given below are the characteristics of Charismatic Leadership, what distinguishes charismatic leaders from others:

• Charismatic leaders have a special charm and glow
• They have a natural charisma that draws people to them
• A charismatic leader is good at recognizing the emotions and moods of others
• They effortlessly work with people and make everyone feel important and valued
• Charismatic leaders consistently possess traits of self-monitoring
• They constantly engage in impression and perception management
• They are motivated individuals who pursue attaining social power
• They have strong motivation to attain self-actualization
• They are good at motivating others and use the right word or action to uplift the team’s spirit
• They use these gifts to maintain power and control over the group

Five Charismatic Types

Dubrin, classified Charismatic leaders into 5 types, viz. socialized, personalized, office-holder, personal, and divine charismatic, which are discussed below:

1. Socialized Charismatics:

A socialized charismatic is a leader who uses power only for the benefit of others, rather than using it for private gains. Socialized charismatic leadership (SCL) is a type of leadership characterized by a leader’s altruistic intent and helping others internalizes his or her values. Socialized charismatic leaders are thought to play an ethical leadership role. The socialized charismatic formulates and pursues goals that fulfill the needs of group members and provide intellectual stimulation to them. Followers of socialized charismatics are autonomous, empowered, and responsible.

2. Personalized Charismatics:

Personalized charismatics are leaders who use the powers to a certain extent for personal gains, to serve their own interests. The personalized charismatic leaders have vested interest agenda, characterized by high authoritarianism, high narcissism, self-aggrandizing, and non-egalitarian. Such leaders impose self-serving goals and they offer support to group members only when it facilitates their own goals. They are exploitative leaders who wish to accumulate power by imposing self-serving goals. Followers of this type of leader are typically obedient, submissive, and dependent;

3. Office-holder Charismatics:

For this type of leader, charismatic leadership is more about the office occupied by him/her rather than his/her personal characteristics. By being a holder of a key position, the leaders attain high status. Leaders in a large bureaucratic organization can use their authority and the power associated with the position. Most managers we find in organizations lack charisma. They are bland personalities, the person you never remember, who has nothing of interest to focus on. They are the people we forget since they can never get anyone excited about what they are doing.

4. Personal Charismatics:

A leader with this quality often gains very high esteem through the extent to which others have faith in them as people. Personal charisma is when someone has very high amounts of sophisticated social and emotional skills. Irrespective of the high or low status held by this leader, the personal charismatics are able to influence the followers, through their right traits, behaviors, and characteristics.

5. Divine Charismatics:

A historically important type of charismatic leader is that of the divine charismatic. Middle English also adopted the word as "karisme" to refer to gifts of healing and teaching.  Such leaders tend to have divine grace and they are considered as magnetic savior, who would arise to lead people through a crisis. The divine charismatic leaders are the ones where people think that they are god sent.

Quotes on Charisma

Charisma appears to be extremely powerful to influence people, but it is difficult to define and learn. Given below are a number of different charismatic definitions: