2009/05/15 by Sarah Robinson, Sarah K. Robinson, Ron Kerr · 59 citations
Business, Management and Accounting · Psychology · #Charisma #Charismatic authority #Context (archaeology) #Empirical research #Epistemology #Foregrounding #Job Satisfaction and Organizational Behavior #Law #Leadership #Leadership studies #Leadership style #Leadership, Courage, and Heroism Studies #Legitimation #Management and Organizational Studies #Political science #Politics #Psychology #Servant leadership #Shared leadership #Situational leadership theory #Social psychology #Sociology #Transactional leadership #Transformational leadership
paper · doi:10.1177/0018726709104546
published in Human Relations 62(6), 875-903 (SAGE Publishing)
openalex publication_date 2009/05/15 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/26
Charismatic leadership has often been associated with positive organizational change. Although some of the literature acknowledges the less positive aspects there is a lack of critical approaches to leadership. Empirical case studies demonstrating the more negative aspects of charismatic leadership and theoretical concepts that can be used to understand transformational and/or charismatic leadership as potentially destructive phenomena. This article therefore presents, from a critical perspective, an empirical study of leadership within a British international organization, drawing out the conditions that allowed an episode of charismatic leadership to be established. It also presents a theoretical study in which, by introducing Bourdieu's concept `symbolic violence', we are able to explore the legitimation of power in relation to this episode of leadership. We conclude that the use of symbolic violence, by foregrounding power, is helpful in unmasking the potential human cost and possible long-term damage of extreme leadership episodes within organizations.