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.     

利比亚政治危机的历史探溯

卡扎菲集团没有构建合法型、传统型统治的基础,构建"魅力型统治"成为其目标。卡扎菲以"第三世界理论"和《绿皮书》为指导,以民众革命、伊斯兰社会主义、对抗西方等实践行为,构建"魅力型统治"。随着社会变迁和全球化的冲击,完全凭铁腕和魅力赢得民众认同来寻求合法性显得日益艰难。卡扎菲统治的42年,政治动员缺乏国民士气和公共精神所需求的能量。这次利比亚政治危机是北非政治危机"滚雪球效应"引发的利比亚国内政治斗争的扩大化,外来力量尤其是北约的干预直接放大了这种效应,反映了利比亚现代化中威权政治的衰朽,卡扎菲强人政治"魅力平凡化"的历程。     

北美推展中国文化的接受群体分析

中国文化在美国推广和展现有七次震撼性的巡回,在美国主流接受群体中获得了极大的反响。1849年华工赴美淘金,中国文化以群像出现在美洲大陆。此后李鸿章访问纽约、梅兰芳访美演出、宋美龄国会演讲、邓小平中美建交之后的亮相、中国经济地位提升华人新移民以群体形象融入主流、白先勇策划组织《牡丹亭》加州巡演,美国的主流接受群体以一种个人魅力、皇家文化、通俗文化的共鸣来欢迎中国元素。环视近年来的中国文化在美国的推展,效果似乎不够显著,其原因在于忽视了推展中国文化的接受群体研究和操作过程。     

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.