Charismatic and Transformational Leadership - Research Paper Example

Charismatic and Transformational Leadership School Charismatic and Transformational Leadership A skilled influential leader is one of the most fundamental pre-requisites of success for any organization in the present age. Leaders assume the responsibility of not only motivating the followers, but also of structuring the organization in a way that is conducive for the achievement of the organizational goals. Leaders represent the organizational culture and assume immense potential to increase the productivity of the followers with implementing the right strategies and plans. Charismatic and transformational leadership are two of the most fundamental types of leadership. This paper discusses the charismatic and transformational leadership. Charismatic leadership can be defined as a leadership that is characterized by exceptional devotion, exemplary traits and heroism of the leader. The term “charismatic leadership” is conventionally used for such great leaders as prophets, though it can also be used for famous political leaders. One such political leader whose style of leadership is frequently identified as charismatic is Mahatma Gandhi. There are other leaders who may not be entirely popular for their positive traits, yet are known to have certain charismatic features that have had great influence on their followers. One such leader is Adolf Hitler. The charm of such leaders reflects in the fact that followers tend to comply with their instructions unarguably. There has been a lot of research upon the psychological attributes of leaders that make them charismatic in their leadership style. One of the most fundamental traits of charismatic leaders is that they make a very strong appeal to the followers’ values which generates a psychological bond between the charismatic leader and the followers, thus making the leader successful. Charismatic leadership cannot be entirely explained by a sociological approach or a psychological approach individually. Both approaches combine to give an overview of the charismatic leadership. Although the persona of a charismatic leader works wonders for the followers, yet the solution is often not long-lasting. “The followers focus exclusively on the persona and needs of the leader leading to follower dependency” (Rugg-Gunn, 2011). The process of charismatic leadership is governed by three prime factors, namely the traits of the leader, the social situation that imparts need of a charismatic leader, and the bondage between the followers and the leader. There are six steps that explain the process of charismatic leadership from the start till end. These six steps are identification, activity arousal, commitment, disenchantment, depersonalization, and alienation. The identification step occurs as a result of the composition of the three factors that have been discussed before. The identification step is a stage in which the followers are in trouble and in immediate need of a leader who recognizes their problems. In most of the cases, this is the stage in which the social scenario is constantly worsening. Although the leader establishes himself/herself in this stage, yet the followers largely remain passive. In the activity arousal step, the leader encourages the followers to play their role in bringing the change. This is the stage of transformation of the passive admirers into active supporters of both the leader and his/her cause. This stage depicts the life of the charismatic leadership. In the commitment stage, the leader is both at his/her peak of charisma and starts losing the charisma. In this step, the leader demonstrates immense commitment towards the objectives and demands the same from the followers. The leader becomes courageous in the opinion of some followers while others start losing trust in the leader. The stage of disenchantment is an outcome of the social structure. It happens when the leader tries to inculcate routinization in the leadership which is perceived by some followers as the loss of goal, thus causing them to lose faith in the leader. This leads to the stage of disenchantment which causes depersonalization of the leadership. The stage of alienation makes the charismatic leader redundant because of the depersonalization which occurs in the preceding stage. The transformational leader tries to achieve superior results by serving as a role model for the followers so that they are motivated to be innovative and adopt newer ways towards the achievement of the organizational objectives (Gliem and Janack, 2008). Some of the transformational leaders in the history of the USA include John F. Kennedy and President Barack Obama. The transformational leader makes every possible effort to increase the followers’ consciousness of the power of moral values. The power of a transformational leader is that he/she can transform the followers from being afraid, greedy and jealous to confident, generous and admiring. This brings an altogether change in the personality of the followers for the better. Transformational leaders are perceived by the followers as mentors who are a source of elevation and empowerment for the followers. Transformational leaders identify a set of values that they attend to achieve. Behavior of the transformational leaders accords with this set of values. “Value formation is primarily through the process of imitation and learning from significant others” (Sahgal and Pathak, 2007, p. 268). There are four basic behaviors displayed by a transformational leader; idealized influence, inspirational motivation, individualized consideration, and intellectual stimulation. Idealized influence inculcates the leader’s identity in and emotional connection with the followers. The transformational leader communicates his/her inspiring vision to the followers through inspirational motivation. Through individualized consideration, transformational leaders support and encourage the followers and using intellectual stimulation, the transformational leader brings the followers to the level where they are able to look at their problems from a new perspective and develop the potential to make innovative approaches to solve them. Concluding, there is a lot of subjectivity about the interface between the concepts of charismatic leadership and transformational leadership, and the two are frequently used interchangeably. However, an in-depth analysis of the charismatic leadership and the transformational leadership leads to the conclusion that the former is a subdimension of the latter. A charismatic leader is not necessarily a transformational leader but a transformational leader is also a charismatic leader. The positive effect of charismatic leadership is that it provides solution to the problem the followers are not able to deal with on their own. The negative effect of charismatic leadership is that the solution is just as short-lived as the charismatic leader. As soon as the charismatic leader departs, the persona is lost which means loss of everything for the followers. References: Gliem, D. E. and Janack, J. A. (2008). A Portrait of a Transformational Leader: An Analysis of Text and Image on BarackObama.com. American Communication Journal. 10(3). Retrieved from http://ac-journal.org/journal/2008/Fall/4APortraitofaTransformationalLeader.pdf. Rugg-Gunn, M. (2011). Why Charismatic Leaders are not always the answer… Human Asset Development Journal. Retrieved from http://www.normanbroadbent.co.uk/ext/assets/pdf/Why%20Charismatic%20leaders%20are%20not%20always.pdf. Sahgal, P. and Pathak, A. (2007). Transformational Leaders: Their Socialization, Self- Concept, and Shaping Experiences. International Journal of Leadership Studies. 2(3): 263-279. Retrieved from http://www.regent.edu/acad/global/publications/ijls/new/vol2iss3/sahgal/SahgalPathak_Vol2Iss3.pdf. Read More