The Blackwell Encyclopedic Dictionary of Organizational Behavior

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Weber (1947) was the first to apply the term charisma to LEADERSHIP. According to Weber,
charisma is a "divinely inspired gift" attributed to leaders by followers. Charismatic leaders as described
by Weber are individuals who by force of their unique and powerful personalities, and their vision and
convictions, are able to draw the attribution of charisma to command admiration, TRUST, loyalty,
devotion, and COMMITMENT on the part of followers, and induce major social change. In the mid-
1980s several psychologically oriented leadership scholars advanced theories to explain outstanding,
exceptionally effective leadership. These theories were the 1976 Theory of Charismatic Leadership
(House, 1977), the Attributional Theory of Charisma (Conger & Kanungo, 1987), and the
Transformational (Bass, 1985) and Visionary Theories of Leadership (Bennis & Nanus, 1985; Sashkin,
1988) (see TRANSFORMATIONAL/TRANSACTIONAL THEORY). I refer to this genre of theory as
the neocharismatic leadership paradigm.
The most recent definition of charismatic leadership is advanced by House and Shamir (1993) who
argue that charismatic leadership is the ABILITY of an individual to gain intensive moral commitment
of followers, and exceptionally strong IDENTIFICATION of followers with the charismatic vision and
the collective. According to these authors charismatic leaders accomplish follower commitment and
identification by appealing to follower cherished VALUES and nonconscious motives and by engaging
follower self-perceived identities, enhancing follower SELF-EFFICACY and sense of consistency, and
making follower self-worth contingent on their contribution to the charismatic mission and the
collective. Theoretically, these effects are achieved by a select set of leader behaviors such as:
– Articulation of a vision of a better future for followers to which the followers are claimed to have a
moral right (see MISSION STATEMENTS).
– Display of passion for the vision, and significant self-sacrifice in the interest of the vision and the
collective.
– Display of self-confidence, confidence in the attainment of the vision, determination, and persistence
in the interest of the vision.
– Behaviors that selectively arouse the nonconscious motives of followers that are of special relevance
to the attainment of the vision.
– Extraordinary personal and organizational RISK-TAKING in the interest of the vision and the
collective.
– Display of high performance expectations of followers and confidence in their ability to contribute to
the collective effort.
– Concerted effort to assist followers in their professional development.
– Symbolic behaviors that emphasize the values inherent in the collective vision (see SYMBOLISM).
Symbolic behavior is expressed in a number of forms: demonstration of integrity,
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