Charisma as signal: An evolutionary perspective on charismatic leadership

We present an evolutionary perspective on charismatic leadership, arguing that charisma has evolved as a credible signal of a person's ability to solve a coordination challenge requiring urgent collective action from group members. We suggest that a better understanding of charisma's evolutionary and biological origins and functions can provide a broader perspective in which to situate current debates surrounding the utility and validity of charismatic leadership as a construct in the social sciences. We outline several key challenges which have shaped our followership psychology, and argue that the benefits of successful coordination in ancestral environments has led to the evolution of context-dependent psychological mechanisms which are especially attuned to cues and signals of outstanding personal leadership qualities. We elaborate on several implications of this signaling hypothesis of charismatic leadership, including opportunities for deception (dishonest signaling) and for large-scale coordination.     

浅析韦伯的"卡理斯玛"及其发展

在韦伯理论中,“卡理斯玛”是一个相当活跃的,因而充满歧义和使用混乱的概念。要对它这些多元内涵进行分类,并厘定它们之间的关系,必须回到其发生学本义中。从其起源及发展来看,该概念有三种基本的意义:“个人品质(能力)”,“社会革命力量”及“法理的根源”。它们有一个共同的特征:神圣性和不稳定性。其目的与手段之间存在着内在张力并发展为“卡理斯玛悖论”。     

Generic charisma - Conceptualization and measurement

In these times, when fame is available to almost anyone, it is worth being able to measure the extent and dimensions of a person's charisma. Most of the research on charisma to date is restricted to the area of leadership. In this article, however, charisma is generalized to take in all human beings and is conceptualized as a multi-dimensional cognitive-affective phenomenon. The article presents a pilot study aimed at providing an adequate operational definition of the construct as well as an initial tool for its measurement. A following literature review shows how authors have developed the concept of charisma and its initial operational dimensions for empirical research. A questionnaire is developed in three stages. The factor analyses applied in stages two and three point towards a six-factor solution (i.e. six dimensions of charisma). Further analysis reveals that the developed instrument is reliable and viable as well as applicable for future theoretical and practical work.     

Charisma,Macht und Narzissmus

Charisma, power and narcissism. On the diagnostics of an ambivalent leading qualityManagers are often obviously narcissistic personalities with “charismatic qualities”. The author discusses the background of these qualities and their ambivalence, because behind the brilliance of a successful manager may be a hidden narcissistic problem as the actual motive power. Nevertheless a constructive narcissism is to be distinguished from a destructive one. Charismatic constellations as well as narcissistic dynamics are to be understood not only as an individual problem but as an interactional phenomenon, involving both sides of a relationship. In order to explain these dynamics, the author presents the concepts of “narcissistic collusion” and “expanded self”. It is of great importance to the coach, to be able to analyse and to deal with these relational patterns — and also to preserve oneself from being involved in such narcissistic dynamics.     

Charismatic leadership: Eliciting and channeling follower emotions

Research on charismatic leadership has been criticized for the ambiguity of its central construct. Attempts to define and measure charisma have frequently treated it as a complex construct consisting of multiple components. However, little work has been done to develop a theoretical model that offers a parsimonious rationale explaining why certain leadership attributes are considered “charismatic” while others are not, or how these attributes combine to produce charismatic effects. Addressing these issues, we present a model that situates emotion as the primary variable in the charismatic process. We use recent research on the moral emotions to frame a theory of followership-relevant emotions (FREs) that describes how leaders use emotions such as compassion, admiration, and anger to compel their followers to act. We then discuss the Elicit-Channel (EC) model of charismatic leadership, positing that the charismatic relationship is a five-step, cyclical process. In the EC model, leaders elicit highly motivating emotions from their followers and then channel those emotions to produce action that, if successful, results in outcomes such as positive affect and trust. These outcomes then enable the leader to continue the cycle, eliciting emotion once more. We conclude by offering a research agenda, addressing potential methodological concerns, and discussing future directions.     

Perceptions of charisma from thin slices of behavior predict leadership prototypicality judgments

Signaling theory suggests that people use cues transmitted by leaders to form impressions of charisma but the validity of these impressions remains unexplored. Here, we examined whether perceptions of charisma from thin slices of nonverbal behavior relate to inferences based on more information. We tested whether ratings of charisma from 5-, 15-, and 30-s clips (with no audio) of speakers delivering a message predicted evaluations of vision articulation and leadership prototypicality made from 60-s multimedia clips (with audio). The results indicated that thin-slice charisma judgments predicted the criterion scores for leadership prototypicality but not vision articulation from all of the 5-, 15-, and 30-s silent clips. The current data therefore suggest that thin slices of charisma can be valid indicators of leadership.     

A meta-analytic review and future research agenda of charismatic leadership

Charismatic leadership is a critical construct that draws much attention from both academic and practitioner literatures. Despite the positive attention received by the charisma construct, some have criticized its conceptualization and measurement. These critiques have, in turn, cast doubt on what we know regarding the antecedents and outcomes of charismatic leadership. In this review, we adopt a recently developed definition of charismatic leadership and then conduct a meta-analysis of its antecedents and objective outcomes. Following an examination of 76 independent studies and 36,031 individuals, results indicate that the Big Five traits and cognitive ability vary in their association with charismatic leadership. Other findings show that dimensions of charismatic leadership predict outcomes of interest, such as supervisor-rated task performance, supervisor-rated citizenship behaviors, and group or organization performance. Several shortcomings are identified, however, in testing theoretical and methodological moderating variables. The present research ultimately provides a roadmap for new frontiers in theoretical, measurement and empirical work on charismatic leadership.     

风力与丹采齐舞——从《诗品》对曹植的评价看钟嵘的诗歌审美观

钟嵘在《诗品》中以曹植五言诗的"骨气奇高,词采华茂"为审美标准来品评其余120多位诗人,他这种重风骨和丹采的审美倾向对当时和后世的诗歌创作和诗歌审美都产生了积极的影响。在重风骨方面,它是对汉魏以来竞靡丽的文坛风气的拨正;在重丹采方面,客观上推动了诗歌自身的发展,突出了"文的自觉"这一特征。     

School Gangs of Yogyakarta: Mass Fighting Strategies and Masculine Charisma in the City of Students

In Yogyakarta twenty-three school gangs including secular, Catholic, Christian and Islamic school gangs were identified in 2007/2008. Gangs not only proliferated in city settlements or kampong after the fall of the New Order regime in 1998, but they also developed in urban secondary schools and many are beholden to political parties. The growth of gangs is due to a number of conditions, including weakening authority of the state, absence of state surveillance and the reduction in social control from families and schools. This article addresses three questions: how and why did schoolboy gangs emerge in Yogyakarta; what is the pattern of hostility and what drives the young men to confront each other through violence and; how do the leaders of the gangs express their identities and charisma both in front of their enemies and in front of their anak buah (followers)? The first part of this essay gives an overview of the emergence of Indonesian youth gangs; the second considers contestation and hostility including tawuran (mass fighting) and stealth and attack strategies, such as nglitih (a sudden attack by a few); and the third addresses the nature of charismatic leadership through depictions of gentho (the powerful leader). I also describe how a student builds prowess as a leader during the preparation of tawuran and when carrying out attacks on the enemy school.