Charismatic leadership in relation to Weber’s theory is the perception of the sub-ordinates that a leader has an attractively inspired gift, which will change their lives extraordinary (Sendjaya, 2015). It is based on the characteristics of the leaders like passion, confidence, and high level ability to influence people. However, these abilities of the leaders sometimes contribute to dysfunctional attitudes, such as high level egoism and self-centralism (Van Wart, 2014). In other words, a leader can be positive charismatic leader or negative charismatic leader. The leader with positive charismatic leadership abilities is oriented to others, whereas the leader with negative charismatic leadership abilities is self-centered.
Examples of Positive and Negative Charismatic Leadership
There are two examples of charismatic leadership, such as Jeffery Skilling and Bill Clinton. However, one used charismatic leadership in a positive way and one used it in a negative way.
Jeffery Skilling
It is identified earlier that charismatic leadership can be bad/ good for the organization and the followers. One of the examples of a leader acted as negative charismatic leader is the Enron’s top executive Jeffery Skilling. He developed a culture that was not only ambitious and dynamic, but unethical that contributed to fraud. The culture of the company was dominated by the leader as the followers felt no power, but to involve in unethical business activities (Daft, 2012). He followed the narcissistic leadership style as the characteristics of narcissistic leadership include lavish sense of self-importance, belief on the unique position, urge for high level admiration, interpersonal exploitativeness, lack of empathy, greed and egotistical attitudes (Rosenthal & Pittinsky, 2006).
It can be ascertained by the fact that Skilling during his tenure in Enron eliminated the business rivals and frightened followers. He was involved in the manipulation of the information to achieve his interests and to cheat the public. In addition, he forced the average employees to use their retirement plans to invest in company’s stock. On the other side, he and other top executives got retention bonuses (Johnson, 2003; Tourish & Vatcha, 2005).
Skilling practiced negative charismatic leadership as he communicated the impudent vision to transform Enron from an owner and machinist of natural gas pipelines to a company focused on assets. As a strategist, the rating of skilling was not good but he was good in motivating his followers to take risks i.e. to follow what pleased him. One of the executives identified the culture of Enron under the leadership of Skilling as yes-man. He as a negative charismatic leader rejected all limits to his scope and authority to exploit the irrational wants of the sub-ordinates (Khurana, 2002).
The disastrous charismatic leadership of the Skilling is best described by the Fortune Magazine in 2000. The magazine indicated that the leadership of the Enron portrayed themselves as the dashing Elvis. The Elvis, who destroyed the world of country-club dances using gold-lame suit, glittery guitar and spinning hips. The role of Skilling was of Darth Vadar, a master of the whole world with the ability to control the minds of the people. He usually used the phrasing of war and extremism to stimulate a sense of honor and individuality between stakeholders (Gupta & Van Wart, 2015).
Bill Clinton
In comparison to Skilling from Enron, Bill Clinton is the example of positive charismatic leadership. Positive leadership is associated with the characteristics of positive visions, inspiration and trust between leaders and followers. In turn, positive charismatic leadership characteristics lead to results like positive initiative to achieve goals, motivation as part of synergy effects and self-sacrifice for the good of others (Sendjaya, 2015). In contrast to Skilling, Bill Clinton portrayed the positive characteristics of the charismatic leadership (Matandare & Mugomba, 2015) by taking Dr. King as a role model for his ability to communicate a clear vision and to pull people together to put efforts to achieve a common goal (Nsoedo, 2016).
As a charismatic leader, Clinton focused on the empathy in comparison to Skilling who had lack of empathy. It can be understood by the example of a presidential debate in 1992, when Clinton and George H.W. Bush were asked a question about the national debt. They were asked that how national debt affected them. Bush started to avoid the question, but Clinton walked over to the lady and asked her the same question. He stated that in his state, when people lose jobs he is in a better position to know them by their names. In his opinion, attention is all about the empathy. He was a great communicator that is an essential characteristic of a charismatic leader. He knew the difference between talking at people and talking to/with them. The Guardian’s Alastair Campbell gave him the title of greatest political communicator in the world (Huffington Post, 2013). He did not impose the wordings on the people like Skilling to gain personal interests or for the self-prestige.
Clinton listened to the people as a positive charismatic leader. He connected with the ordinary people and listened to them. His instrumental ability enabled him to win the hearts of the people. He described in the “My Life” that in his whole life he have been interested in listening the stories of others. He wanted to know people to understand their issues and feelings (Huffington Post, 2013). His ability to connect with others, who considered him a role model for themselves, enabled him to be ahead of other government officials. His ability to influence others can be ascertained by the polls by Wall Street Journal and NBC. He beat out all the key political leaders with a high level margin. In comparison to Skilling, Clinton focused on the empowerment of the people. He believed on empowering others. It can be understood by the fact that he empowered other people at the Foundation at local level (Nsoedo, 2016). Table 1 identifies the leadership characteristics of the Skilling and Clinton.
Conclusion
It can be concluded from the above discussion that charismatic leadership can be good or bad. In case of clear vision, inspiring others, and empowerment and listening to others a leader can achieve ultimate goals. On the other hand, fear, self-promotion, and lack of empathy lead to destructive environment. Hence, it is important for a leader to focus on positive charismatic leadership characteristics to achieve the individual and organizational goals.
References
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Johnson, C. (2003). Enron’s ethical collapse: Lessons for leadership educators. Journal of leadership education, 2(1), 45-57.
Khurana, R. (2002). The curse of the superstar CEO. Harvard business review, 80(9), 60-67.
Matandare, S., & Mugomba, M. (2015). Charismatic leadership and the socio-economic transformation of the church. International Journal of Humanities and Social Science, 5 (6), 169-173.
Nsoedo, E. E. (2016). Effective Leadership in the 21st Century: Bill Clinton and the New Way to Philanthropy. Open Journal of Social Sciences, 4(02), 186.
Rosenthal, S. A., & Pittinsky, T. L. (2006). Narcissistic leadership. The Leadership Quarterly, 17(6), 617-633.
Sendjaya, S. (2015). Personal and Organizational Excellence through Servant Leadership. Dordrecht: Springer.
Tourish, D., & Vatcha, N. (2005). Charismatic leadership and corporate cultism at Enron: The elimination of dissent, the promotion of conformity and organizational collapse. Leadership, 1(4), 455-480.
Van Wart, M. (2014). Leadership in public organizations: An introduction. USA: Routledge.
Washington Post. (2013). Bill Clinton Has A Superpower, And Mastering It Can Make You Successful Beyond Belief. Retrieved from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/08/bill-clinton_n_3718956.html
