charismatic leadership
1. Introduction
There have been over 1,000 studies to do research about what leadership is over the last 50 years. How leaders behave. What traits they have. On 29 October 2003, there were 1,4139 books relating to “leadership” on Amazon for sale. Just over six years later, that number had almost quadrupled to 53,121-and clear evidence that within a short space of time there will be more books about leadership than people to read them (Grint, 2010).
Almost all types of organization function successfully with an effective leader. We have substantial evidence that skilful leaders have the ability to raise the productivity of the organization. Hence, most studies were done to seek to explain what leadership is and to identify the characteristic of the people who are successful in its leadership practice. Various leadership theories came out. Kurt Lewin identified leadership styles in three categories: Autocratic Leadership, Democratic Leadership and Delegative Leadership (Lippitt, 1939). Max Weber classifies leaders as Bureaucratic Leader, Traditional Leaders and Charismatic Leaders. In 1978 Burns defined yet another classification: Transactional Leaders and Transformational Leaders. Burns Transformational Leadership is similar to Charismatic Leadership style proposed by Weber. Many of the research have been done on various aspects of charismatic leadership.
In this essay I would like to give an overview of leadership and focus on charismatic leadership. In addition, I will identify Steve Jobs as a charismatic leader and explain his charismatic leadership with examples.
2. Definition of “Leadership”
Leadership is something very crucial to any group or organization. What a leader does is usually very difficult to describe in words. John Martin defined leadership as a process in which the leader is able to influence the behaviours and actions of those being led (Martin, 2005). While Keith Grint simply described leadership as “having followers”. Most of the
There have been over 1,000 studies to do research about what leadership is over the last 50 years. How leaders behave. What traits they have. On 29 October 2003, there were 1,4139 books relating to “leadership” on Amazon for sale. Just over six years later, that number had almost quadrupled to 53,121-and clear evidence that within a short space of time there will be more books about leadership than people to read them (Grint, 2010).
Almost all types of organization function successfully with an effective leader. We have substantial evidence that skilful leaders have the ability to raise the productivity of the organization. Hence, most studies were done to seek to explain what leadership is and to identify the characteristic of the people who are successful in its leadership practice. Various leadership theories came out. Kurt Lewin identified leadership styles in three categories: Autocratic Leadership, Democratic Leadership and Delegative Leadership (Lippitt, 1939). Max Weber classifies leaders as Bureaucratic Leader, Traditional Leaders and Charismatic Leaders. In 1978 Burns defined yet another classification: Transactional Leaders and Transformational Leaders. Burns Transformational Leadership is similar to Charismatic Leadership style proposed by Weber. Many of the research have been done on various aspects of charismatic leadership.
In this essay I would like to give an overview of leadership and focus on charismatic leadership. In addition, I will identify Steve Jobs as a charismatic leader and explain his charismatic leadership with examples.
2. Definition of “Leadership”
Leadership is something very crucial to any group or organization. What a leader does is usually very difficult to describe in words. John Martin defined leadership as a process in which the leader is able to influence the behaviours and actions of those being led (Martin, 2005). While Keith Grint simply described leadership as “having followers”. Most of the