Chapter 7: Charismatic and Transformational Leadership

Question 1

Other politicians acknowledged as charismatic include:

Answer 1

wartime British Prime Minister Winston Churchill; American civil rights leader Martin Luther King; South African anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela; US President Barack Obama; First Minister of Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon; and New Zealand Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern

Question 2

Charismatic effect

Answer 2

The ability to use language to stir emotion, to persuade and to mobilize people

Question 3

Charismatic and transformative leadership are two theories that share a common theme in the leadership discourse:

Answer 3

they view leaders as individuals who inspire others through language to change. Charisma is that ‘something’ that differentiates Nelson Mandela from Jacob Zuma

Question 4

Aristotle posited that persuasion is achieved using rhetorical means,

Answer 4

which include the speaker’s personal character (ethos), stirring the hearers’ emotion (pathos) and using reasoned argument (logos)

Question 5

Aristotelian triad

Answer 5

Ethos, pathos, and logos

Question 6

Charisma only emerges under certain situations

Answer 6

Most notably when an audience is available

You are not charismatic all the time!

Question 7

This suggests that charisma is not simply a possession but a relationship,

Answer 7

Not something individuals ‘have’ but something that others perceive

Question 8

The implication of these questions is that charisma, like beauty,

Answer 8

lies in the eye of the beholder.

Question 9

Martin Luther King nor Barack Obama were born charismatic, though, at a later stage of their lives, exceptional qualities were subsequently ‘recognized’ by their followers

Answer 9

Charisma from this perspective appears not to be a psychological phenomenon but is a social construct (Grint, 2000) and whether charismatics are effective leaders depends, to some extent, on the context.

Question 10

‘dark side’ of charisma

Answer 10

Charisma can be exploited for evil purposes

Example: Hitler

Question 11

According to Weber, domination can be _______ and _______ (coercive)

Answer 11

legitimate

illegitimate

Question 12

Weber (1921/1968) was primarily interested in legitimate forms of domination or power, or what he called ‘legitimate authority’

Answer 12

that allocates the right to leaders to command and the duty of subordinates to obey

Question 13

The starting point for his theory is his classification of legitimate authority into three types:

Answer 13

1) Traditional authority
2) Rational-legal authority
3) Charismatic authority

Question 14

1) Traditional authority

Answer 14

in which compliance is due to the sacred nature of the office. Historically, this was the most important form of domination but it has declined, along with monarchies.

Question 15

2) Rational-legal authority

Answer 15

in which compliance is derived from the rationality of the authority. For example, people generally obey traffic laws because they appear to make sense, and not because police officers are charismatic or because they have some inherited authority.

Question 16

3) Charismatic authority

Answer 16

in which obedience is attributed fundamentally to the exceptional sanctity, heroism or exemplary character of an individual.

Question 17

Weber definition of Charisma

Answer 17

A certain quality of an individual personality by virtue of which he [sic] is considered extraordinary and treated as endowed with supernatural, superhuman, or, at least, specifically exceptional powers or qualities. These are not accessible to the ordinary person, but are regarded as of divine origin or as exemplary, and on the basis of them the individual concerned is treated as a ‘leader’

Question 18

Weber provided four related elements of charisma:

Answer 18

(1) an individual of exceptional powers or qualities;
(2) a social crisis;
(3) a radical solution to the crisis offered by the individual;
(4) devoted followers.

Question 19

‘pure’ or ‘strong’ charisma

Answer 19

Weber believed that charisma could not be analyzed along a continuum; people were charismatic or they were not

Question 20

Weber is emphatic that charismatic power emerges as a quality conferred on a ‘supernatural’ leader only during periods of

Answer 20

‘extraordinary’ social crisis

At such ‘moments of distress’, the charismatic leader ‘seizes the task for which he [sic] is destined and demands that others obey and follow him by virtue of his mission

Question 21

House’s theory of charisma (1977)

Answer 21

House’s reinterpretation of charisma identified the necessary persuasive competencies to influence people and, importantly, proposed that individual-deference predictors of charismatic leaders might be empirically quantifiable

Question 22

According to House, charismatic leaders are those

organizational charisma’ (we call it ‘nurtured charisma’)

Answer 22

‘who by force of their personal abilities are capable of having profound and extra-ordinary effects on followers’

Question 23

House and Shamir (1993)

Answer 23

Integrated charisma and theories of self-identity to explain how leaders engage followers

Question 24

Sociologist Antony Giddens (1991: 52) writes that ‘self-identity

Answer 24

is not something that is just given … but something that has to be routinely created and sustained in the reflexive activities of the individual.’

Question 25

House (1999: 564) suggested that charismatic leaders accomplish significant achievements through the efforts of followers who are

Answer 25

1) exceptionally loyal to the leader
2) have a high degree of trust in the leader
3) and are willing to make personal sacrifices in the interests of the leader’s vision and the collective

Question 26

Conger and Kanungo (1998)

Answer 26

Charisma is an attributional phenomenon

The attribution of charisma qualities to a leader is through a three-stage behaviour process

Question 27

The attribution of charisma qualities to a leader is through a three-stage behaviour process

Answer 27

First, charisma is more likely to be attributed to a leader who articulates an attainable vision that will inspire follower collective action to achieve objectives that are necessary in fulfilling the vision.

Second, a leader who creates an aura of confidence about the vision is more likely to be perceived as charismatic than a leader who demonstrates doubt and equivocation.

Third, charisma is more likely to be attributed to a leader who uses unconventional and novel strategies or practices to achieve the vision. This three-stage process is said to engender high trust in the leader and enhanced follower performance.

Question 28

‘the crisis hypothesis’.

Answer 28

‘Only a crisis – actual or perceived – produces real change’

Question 29

Two attributes are seen to be essential for charismatic leadership:

Answer 29

1) the leader must be determined, self-confident and emotionally expressive;
2) and their followers must want to identify with the leader as a person, whether they are or are not experiencing a crisis

Question 30

Research evidence on the new models, on the other hand, found that charismatic and transformational leadership are positively associated

Answer 30

with a range of important individual (e.g. job satisfaction, motivation, commitment) and organizational (e.g. performance, innovation, change) outcomes.

Question 31

Transactional leadership is primarily defined as

Answer 31

An exchange relationship in which leader and follower are engaged in some kind of agreement, whether economic (e.g. reward), social (e.g. group membership) or psychological (e.g. self-esteem).

Indeed, these transactional exchanges constitute the ‘psychological contract’ – the implicit contract between employer and employee – which remains rooted in such an exchange process.

Question 32

‘transformational’ leadership is not an

Answer 32

exchange process at all

Question 33

Thus, for Burns, all transformational leaders are charismatic, but not all charismatics are transformational

Answer 33

those who are not are likely to be charismatic ‘power-wielders’

Question 34

At the centre of Bass’s model is the notion that

Answer 34

transformational leaders are able to inspire followers to transcend their self-interests for the good of the organization

Question 35

In Bass and Riggio’s (2006) model, transformational leadership involves four essential behaviours:

Answer 35

1) Charisma or idealized effect:
2) Inspirational motivation:
3) Intellectual stimulation:
4) Individualized consideration:

Question 36

1) Charisma or idealized effect:

Answer 36

the leader must share ethical values and behave in ways that allow her or him to serve as a role model for their followers;

Question 37

2) Inspirational motivation:

Answer 37

a leader must have the capacity to inspire and elevate employees’ motivation with challenging work and persuasion, to arouse ‘team spirit’, and achieve extraordinary outcomes at individual, group and organization level;

Question 38

3) Intellectual stimulation:

Answer 38

the leader must encourage her or his followers’ efforts to be creative thinkers and innovate by questioning assumptions, the status quo, reframing problems, and approaching ‘old ways of doing’ in new ways;

Question 39

4) Individualized consideration:

Answer 39

the leader must have the personal capacity to perceive and understand the individual emotions of her or his followers, to demonstrate concern for individuals’ needs, to help each employee to develop her or his skills and to be able to handle human relationships.

Question 40

In addition to the four behavioural elements of the leader, Bass and Riggio’s (2006) model includes two others:

Answer 40

1) contingent reward

2) management-by-exception (MBE)

Question 41

The contingent reward component

Answer 41

is related to follower performance on what needs to be done, with rewards offered in exchange for satisfactory accomplishment of the work

This component, therefore, though important, has the primary and deleterious side-effect of establishing a transactional or instrumental relationship between leader and follower

Question 42

2) management-by-exception (MBE)

Answer 42

consists of ‘active’ management-by-exception, in which leaders carefully monitor followers’ actions. In contrast, in the case of ‘passive’ management-by-exception, leaders only involve themselves when things go wrong so that their intervention is always associated with failure and admonishment.

Question 43

Thus, Bass (1985, 1997) and Bass and Riggio’s (2006) model of transformational leadership includes both elements of

Answer 43

1) the ‘new leadership’ (i.e. charisma, inspiration, stimulation, consideration)
2) and elements of the ‘old leadership’ (i.e. reward for performance exchange).

Question 44

(CIP) model of leadership

Answer 44

Charismatic, Ideological and Pragmatic

Question 45

Upper-echelon charismatic leaders provide

Answer 45

a sense of identity, emphasize a sense of shared experience, and provide direction toward an organizational goal while also empowering followers to use their own discretion to accomplish the higher-order vision

Question 46

‘Ideological leaders’

Answer 46

use past events to provide a common reference point for followers to facilitate sensemaking activities by limiting the uncertainty and anxiety associated with thinking about an unknown change.

Question 47

The CIP model postulates that an effective leader is

Answer 47

a pragmatist, solving complex organizational problems

Question 48

The Bass and Riggio model is probably the ‘most influential’ contemporary theory of leadership

Answer 48

but it has received criticism for its tendency to be US-centric.

Question 49

Critiquing Charismatic and Transformational Leadership

Answer 49

Mainstream leadership studies have criticized transformational leadership for its lack of conceptual clarity. It treats leadership as a personality trait rather than a behaviour or competency that people can learn

Transformational leadership also reinforces the ‘heroic leader’ perspective because of its basic premise that it is the leader who inspires and mobilizes followers to do exceptional things.

Question 50

Icarus paradox

Answer 50

refers to the phenomenon of a business failing after a period of apparent success, where this failure is brought about by the very elements that led to its success