Charismatic Leadership by Ylva Sandberg and Christopher

¶ … Charismatic Leadership

By Ylva Sandberg and Christopher M. Moreman

The two authors commence their article by assessing the role of charisma in efficient management, given specifically by the ability of charismatic leaders to motivate and influence their peers and subordinates. The literary challenge of charisma is represented by the assessment of its nature and the division of tools and mechanisms by which charisma can be created. Still, it would most often appear that charisma is an innate trait with which leaders are either born or not. In other words, it would be possible for a charismatic leader to improve and exploit his/her skills to better attain their objectives, but it would be more difficult for one with no innate charisma to develop it; still, charisma could be created in crisis situations.

The starting point in Sandberg and Moreman's article is represented by the belief that charisma supports the formation of charismatic leaders in various fields, the three more notable ones being religion, politics and business. In such a setting, the two authors set out to conduct research on the traits of charisma and identify the common threats among the different leaders in the political, religious and business environments.

The first step taken in this sense has been represented by the definition of charisma, through the presentation of various explanations as these arise within the specialized literature. Sandberg and Moreman limit themselves to the presentation of secondary data and do not devise and offer their own definition of the concept of charisma.

The second step is represented by the assessment of the charismatic threads at the level of religious, political and business leaders, followed by the presentation of the cores of charisma and the criticism of charisma. In the end, Sandberg and Moreman conclude that all three types of leaders present black and white situations and use the crisis motif to motivate the people around them. Then, the charismatic leaders across the various fields are all popular among their crowds, but will lose popularity once the crisis passes. Last, the charismatic leadership situations are based on admired and popular people, who enjoy the acceptance and welcoming of those around.

"In conclusion, all charismatic leaders need followers that believe and trust in them and their mission; they emerge in times of societal distress or in suppressed subgroups of the society and involve a person seemingly endowed with supernatural authority. The state is volatile and typically the authority gets dissolved when a charismatic leader fails to please its followers, or the societal stress comes to an end. This is true across disciplines and can be found in religious, political, and business charismatic leaders" (Sandberg and Moreman, 2011).