The Dark Side of Charismatic Leadership

As the technology is growing, the world keeps evolving, so also is the field of leadership. This being said, I shall examine (1) what Charismatic Leadership entails, and (2) how it influence relations between leaders and followers? Given the various definition of leadership, most scholars will probably agree that leadership can be described as 1) an influencing process that exists between a leader and his/her followers and 2) the way this process is explained by dispositional leader characteristics and behaviors, follower attributions and perceptions of the leader, and the context in which the influencing process occurs (Antonakis & Day, 2011). That is, leadership involves the ability of the supposedly leader to influence the behaviors and performances of the followers. The leaders must exalt their authorities and influences over people through a derivation process. The process in which a leader derive his/her authorities and influences in an organization or society is termed charisma. Charismatic leadership occurs when the leader behaviors are motivated by altruistic motive (Conger and Canungo, 1996). That is, a charismatic leader makes decision in accordance to the needs of the people and in consideration of the general populace. A leader can be motivated by various reason to perform an action but a charismatic leader is he who led for the benefit of people. He is neither acquired the power for his personal gain nor use the position for selfish interest but for common good. This shows that altruism here denotes the states of putting the needs of people in consideration over personal needs or gains. In charismatic leadership, the followers are convinced of the leaders’ ability, personality, and aware of their power and authority as well as ethics of exalting such power. This gives room for interactive session between the leader and followers, such that the leader can exercise his/her power over the followers likewise the followers also have power over the leader. Therefore, the leader must have a strong sense of personal responsibility to be a “good” charismatic leader because charismatic leadership is leadership based on emotions. There is no coercion, but voluntary action ( Takala, 2005). Given the above description of charismatic leader as leadership based on emotions in which there is no coercion but the followers carry out the leader directive voluntarily, where there is mutual understanding as well as interactive session between the leader and followers and in which the followers have been convinced of leaders ability thereby giving him/her the ultimate support to discharge his/her duties accordingly, it can therefore be argued that a charismatic leadership can drive society towards dictatorship/totalitarianism regime. History has shown that charismatic leaders have turned to full blown dictator. For instance, Adolf Hitler, Stalin and even Osama Bin Laden. The nature of charisma is not rational but emotional. It is evidently not quite rational by nature. That is, it is not based on the overwhelming knowledge or leadership skills of the leader, but on personal features which the followers value most on the leader. Therefore, charismatic leadership leaves space for irrational behaviors and extra space for persuasion and manipulation tendency. Since followers have been impressed by the leaders’ charisma, there is absolutely zero checks and balance in the leaders’ directive and actions in the society. This attitude in charismatic leadership is injurious to the society thereby driving society towards dictatorship regime.