Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-g7gxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T12:19:42.618Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Charismatic leadership: Beyond love and hate and toward a sense of belonging?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 May 2019

Ken Parry ,
Michael Cohen ,
Sukanto Bhattacharya ,
Andrea North-Samardzic  and
Gareth Edwards Open the ORCID record for Gareth Edwards [Opens in a new window]
Ken Parry
Affiliation:
Department of Management, Deakin Business School, Deakin University, Geelong, Australia Bristol Business School, University of the West of England (UWE), Bristol, UK
Michael Cohen
Affiliation:
Department of Management, Deakin Business School, Deakin University, Geelong, Australia
Sukanto Bhattacharya
Affiliation:
Department of Management, Deakin Business School, Deakin University, Geelong, Australia
Andrea North-Samardzic
Affiliation:
Department of Management, Deakin Business School, Deakin University, Geelong, Australia
Gareth Edwards*
Affiliation:
Bristol Business School, University of the West of England (UWE), Bristol, UK
*
*Corresponding author. Email: gareth3.edwards@uwe.ac.uk
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Developing previous work on charismatic leadership by Boas Shamir and Ken, we investigate the contention that followers of charismatic leaders have an emotional connection with that leader in the form of a ‘sense of belonging’ and links to community. We, therefore, investigate whether there is any evidence of a sense of belonging when people describe those they judge to be charismatic. Using a mixed-methods aesthetic narrative approach, we are able to supply empirical support for the existence of such a relationship and to extend the findings of previous studies by incorporating the connection that the leader has with the community, in general, as an important factor in the leader–follower relationship.

Keywords

leadershipcharismabelongingleader–follower relationshipsaesthetic narrative
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Management & Organization , Volume 25 , Special Issue 3: ‘Take your Lead’: In Search of Very Short, Fairly Interesting, and Reasonably Impactful Contributions to the Future of Leadership Studies , May 2019 , pp. 398 - 413
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press and Australian and New Zealand Academy of Management 2019 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Agresti, A. (2002). Categorical data analysis. New York: Wiley-Interscience.Google Scholar
Aguilera, R. V., & Vadera, A. K. (2008). The dark side of authority: Antecedents, mechanisms, and outcomes of organizational corruption. Journal of Business Ethics, 77(4), 431–449.Google Scholar
Antonakis, J., & Day, D. V. (Eds) (2017). The nature of leadership. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Ashforth, B. E., Schinoff, B. S., & Rogers, K. M. (2016). I identify with Her, I identify with Him: Unpacking the dynamics of personal identification in organizations. Academy of Management Review, 41(1), 28–60.Google Scholar
Baumeister, R. F., & Leary, M. R. (1995). The need to belong: Desire for interpersonal attachments as a fundamental human motivation. Psychological Bulletin, 117(3), 497.Google Scholar
Beyer, J. M. (1999). Taming and promoting charisma in organisations. Leadership Quarterly, 10, 307–330.Google Scholar
Beyer, J. M., & Browning, L. D. (1999). Transfroming an industry in crisis: Charisma, routinization, and supportive cultural leadership. Leadership Quarterly, 10, 483–520.Google Scholar
Billsberry, J., & Edwards, G. (2008). Toxic celluloid: Representations of bad leadership on film and implications for leadership development. Organisations and People, 15(3), 104.Google Scholar
Bryman, A. (2007). Barriers to integrating quantitative and qualitative research. Journal of Mixed Methods Research, 1(1), 8–22.Google Scholar
Bryman, A. (1992). Charisma and leadership in organizations. London: Sage Publications.Google Scholar
Conger, J. A. (1989). The charismatic leader: Behind the mystique of exceptional leadership. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.Google Scholar
Conger, J. A. (1990). The dark side of leadership. Organizational Dynamics, 19(2), 44–55.Google Scholar
Conger, J. A., & Kanungo, R. N. (1987). Toward a behavioral theory of charismatic leadership in organizational settings. Academy of Management Review, 12(4), 637–647.Google Scholar
Conger, J. A., & Kanungo, R. N. (1998). Chariamtic leadership in organisations. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Edwards, G. (2011). Concepts of community: A framework for contextualizing distributed leadership: Distributed leadership and concepts of community. International Journal of Management Reviews 13(3), 301–312.Google Scholar
Edwards, G. (2015). Community as leadership. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar.Google Scholar
Ford, J. (2010). Studying leadership critically: A psychosocial lens on leadership identities. Leadership, 6(1), 47–65.Google Scholar
Haslam, S. A., Reicher, S. D., & Platow, M. J. (2010). The New psychology of leadership: Identity, influence and power. London: Psychology Press.Google Scholar
Hogg, M. A. (2001). A social identity theory of leadership. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 5, 184–200.Google Scholar
House, R. J. (1977). A 1976 theory of charismatic leadership. In Hunt, J. G., and Larson, L. L. (Eds.) Leadership: The cutting edge. pp. 189–207. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press.Google Scholar
House, R. J., & Baetz, M. (1979). Leadership: Some empirical generalizations and new research directions. In Staw, B. M. (Ed.), Research in organizational behavior, vol. 1: 341–423 Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.Google Scholar
House, R. J., & Howell, J. M. (1992). Personality and charismatic leadership. Leadership Quarterly, 3(2), 81–108.Google Scholar
House, R. J., & Podsakoff, P. M. (1994). Leadership effectiveness: Past perspectives and future directions for research. In Greenberg, J. (Ed.), Organizational behavior. The state of the science (p. 458). Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
Howell, J. M., & Avolio, B. J. (1992). The ethics of charismatic leadership: Submission or liberation? Academy of Management Perspectives, 6(2), 43–54.Google Scholar
Howell, J. M., & Shamir, B. (2005). The role of followers in the charismatic leadership process: Relationships and their consequences. Academy of Management Review, 30(1), 96–112.Google Scholar
Jacquart, P., & Antonakis, J. (2015). When does Charisma matter for top-level leaders? Effect of attributional ambiguity. Academy of Management Journal, 58(4), 1051–1074.Google Scholar
Joosse, P. (2014). Becoming a God: Max Weber and the social construction of charisma. Journal of Classical Sociology, 14(3), 266–283.Google Scholar
Johnson, R. B., & Onwuegbuzie, A. J. (2004). Mixed methods research: A research paradigm whose time has come. Educational Researcher, 33(7), 14–26.Google Scholar
Junker, N. M., & van Dick, R. (2014). Implicit theories in organizational settings: A systematic review and research agenda of implicit leadership and followership theories. Leadership Quarterly, 25(6), 1154–1173.Google Scholar
Kark, R., Shamir, B., & Chen, G. (2003). The two faces of transformational leadership: Empowerment and dependency. Journal of Applied Psychology, 88(2), 246.Google Scholar
Kempster, S., & Parry, K. (2013). Charismatic leadership through the eyes of followers. Strategic HR Review, 13(1), 20–23.Google Scholar
Kets de Vries, M. F. R. (1988). Origins of charisma: Ties that bind the leader and the led. In Conger, J. A., and Kanungo, R. N. (Eds.). Charismatic leadership: The elusive factor in organizational effectiveness (pp. 237–252). San Francisco, CA, US: Jossey-Bass.Google Scholar
Klein, K. J., & House, R. J. (1995). On fire: Charismatic leadership and levels of analysis. Leadership Quarterly, 6(2), 183–198.Google Scholar
Oc, B., & Bashshur, M. R. (2013). Followership, leadership and social influence. Leadership Quarterly, 24(6), 919–934.Google Scholar
O'Connor, J., Mumford, M. D., Clifton, T. C., Gessner, T. L., & Connelly, M. S. (1995). Charismatic leaders and destructiveness: An historiometric study. Leadership Quarterly, 6(4), 529–555.Google Scholar
Ortony, A. (2002). Metaphor and thought. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Parry, K. W. (2008). The thing about metaphors and leadership. International Leadership Journal, 1(1), 6–23.Google Scholar
Parry, K., & Kempster, S. (2014). Love and leadership: Constructing follower narrative identities of charismatic leadership. Management Learning, 45(1), 21–38.Google Scholar
Sarason, S. B. (1988). The psychological sense of community: Prospects for a community psychology. Cambridge, MA: Brookline Books.Google Scholar
Schyns, B., Meindl, J. R., & Croon, M. A. (2007). The romance of leadership scale: Cross-cultural testing and refinement. Leadership 3(1), 29–46.Google Scholar
Shamir, B. (1991). The charismatic relationship: Alternative explanations and predictions. Leadership Quarterly, 2(2), 81–104.Google Scholar
Shamir, B. (1992). Attribution of influence and charisma to the leader: The romance of leadership revisited. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 22(5), 386–407.Google Scholar
Shamir, B. (1994). Ideological position, leaders’ charisma, and voting preferences: Personal vs. Partisan elections. Political Behavior, 16(2), 265–287.Google Scholar
Shamir, B. (1995). Social distance and charisma: Theoretical notes and an exploratory study. Leadership Quarterly, 6(1), 19–47.Google Scholar
Shamir, B., Arthur, M. B., & House, R. J. (1994). The rhetoric of charismatic leadership: A theoretical extension, a case study, and implications for research. Leadership Quarterly, 5(1), 25–42.Google Scholar
Shamir, B., & Kark, R. (2004). A single-item graphic scale for the measurement of organizational identification. Journal of Occupational & Organizational Psychology, 77(1), 115–123.Google Scholar
Shamir, B., House, R. J., & Arthur, M. B. (1993). The motivational effects of charismatic leadership: A self-concept based theory. Organization Science, 4(4), 577–594.Google Scholar
Thau, S., Aquino, K., & Poortvliet, P. M. (2007). Self-defeating behaviors in organizations: The relationship between thwarted belonging and interpersonal work behaviors. Journal of Applied Psychology, 92(3), 840.Google Scholar
Warren, S. (2008). Empirical challenges in organizational aesthetics research: Towards a sensual methodology. Organization Studies, 29(4), 559–580.Google Scholar
Weber, M. (1947). The theory of social and economic organization. London: Edinburgh.Google Scholar
Wood, T. (2002). Spectacular metaphors: From theatre to cinema. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 15(1), 11–20.Google Scholar
Yagil, D. (1998). Charismatic leadership and organizational hierarchy: Attribution of charisma to close and distant leaders. Leadership Quarterly, 9(2), 161–176.Google Scholar