1. INTRODUCTION Charisma is a strange, fascinating, and ultimately puzzling phenomenon.

It converted a German postcard painter into the architect of the greatest worldwide genocide It turned a short Frenchman into a powerful emperor that dominated European political and military life for two decades. It transformed a Harvard drop-out student into a shrewd businessman, whose Windows® operating system now runs the vast majority of personal computers throughout the world. Charisma is something we all know but can hardly explain. Managers learn that they need charisma to become successful; politicians are taught that a charismatic leadership is the pathway to success. This essay will address the concept of charisma itself as well as some of the most common areas of controversy linked to it. Is there a way to learn to be charismatic? Is charisma always a good thing? What kind of influence it has on others? 2. EARLY CONCEPTIONS OF CHARISMA AND CHARISMATIC LEADERSHIP Charisma is a Greek word, meaning "divinely inspired gift", such as the ability of performing miracles or predicting future events. The German sociologist Max Weber, whose early writings are considered to be the most influential on the subject, defined charisma as a form of influence based on a follower's perception that a leader possesses exceptional qualities, rather than as a formal authority. In his view, charismatic leaders display a remarkable self-confidence and a strong self-determination. They are likely to have a strong conviction in the moral righteousness of their own beliefs. Moreover, their subordinates see them as unconventional, risk-taking, visionary and exemplary. According to Weber, charismatic leaders emerge with their vision during a period of exceptional crisis, and by providing a solution to that crisis, attract their followers who believe in their leader's vision and who perceive him as extraordinary. A number of sociologists and political scientists have followed the tracks of Weber and attempted to describe charisma and to identify the conditions under which it flourishes. The theory of House identifies specific traits for charismatic leaders and behaviors as well as the influence that such leaders have on their followers. For him, charismatic leaders are likely to have a strong need for power, high selfconfidence and a strong conviction in their own beliefs and ideals. While the need for power results in attempts to influence the others, self-confidence and strong conviction usually generate the followers' trust and belief in the sound judgment of the leader. The following behaviors were regarded to be typical of charismatic leaders: impression management, articulation of an appealing vision, communication of high expectations, and expression of confidence in followers. In a study using so called personality adjectives, charismatic leaders, in contrast with non charismatic leaders, were found to be enthusiastic, outgoing, imaginative, enterprising, competent and wise. Thus, some scholars have abandoned the view of charismatic leadership according to personal characteristics, arguing that a variety of charismatic leaders made it impossible to single out particular traits. Although charismatic leaders differ significantly from their non-charismatic counterparts, the mentioned characteristics cannot be affiliated to all leaders. 3. THE LATEST APPROACH Most recently, charisma is being compared to a theatrical role played by a leader, who engages in four scene-like behaviors: framing, scripting, staging, and performing. Framing implies a communication technique that causes others to accept one meaning over another. Charismatic leaders choose to refer to values and ideas of their audience, while stressing the importance and efficacy of their own vision. A typical example of framing involves presenting the mission and goals of an organization in a way that generates enthusiasm and support amongst the followers. Scripting literally refers to a set of directions that describe the scene, the behavior of the actors, as well as the role in which they are cast. Leaders are usually playing the role of directors of a performance, or a visionary man leading his followers towards a certain vision. A good example of scripting is the working environment at McDonalds, where scripts are written to integrate activities of the personnel in a repetitive, automatic way. Staging consists in a deliberate design of the performance of the leader in order to create a dramatic stage effect and

to provide followers with inspiration and example. In the time when manufacturing own clothing became prohibited, Gandhi's self-made clothes animated his followers to stand up against British colonial rule. Finally, a fourth behavior -- performing -- is closely related with the active promotion of the vision of the leader, in an attempt to empower his followers to imitate him. Again, Gandhi's self-sacrifice and discipline spoke to his followers and encouraged them to follow his steps. The life and the visions of Martin Luther King, Winston Churchill, or Mother Theresa sent powerful message to the masses, which approvingly set on to pursue their vision. 4. TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT OF CHARISMATIC LEADERS A potential controversy in the study of charismatic leadership in organizations is the fact whether or not charisma can be cultivated. Although there are some personal traits naturally associated with charismatic leaders, various programs for training and developing such leaders have been created. While there can be certain barriers to the capacity of individuals to be trained in the charismatic leadership such as personal abilities and experiences, it seems that it is possible to develop the necessary skills. Shortly, charismatic leadership can be developed by cultivating four competencies. First, leaders must be trained in the critical evaluation and the detection of problems, so that they can successfully handle crisis situations. Second, leaders should be equipped with visioning skills, which could be fostered by training their creative thinking. Third, communication skills for conveying a vision need to be enhanced by developing linguistic (mostly verbal) skills. Fourth, leaders should cultivate skills in impression management, which reinforces the bases of their charisma. Finally, empowering skills need to be fostered in order to enable members of the organization to bring the leader's mission to action. Empowerment can be enhanced through a variety of techniques: communicating high performance expectations; improving participation in decision-making; getting rid of constrains imposed by bureaucratic arrangements (such as excessive emphasis upon rules, regulations and routine): setting meaningful goals; and backing up the foregoing by appropriate reward systems. 5. CHARISMA IN ORGANIZATIONS Although the question whether charisma is something innate or rather acquired remains unanswered, most researchers stress its importance for organizations. Corporations need people, but people also need corporations. Employees are looking for organizations that meet their needs, expectations and goals. By becoming better educated, the employee places him/herself in a more marketable position. Corporations fearing their possible loss of good employees are increasingly addressing those challenges by looking at who is leading their people, and how those people respond to that leadership. Charisma has been found at all organizational levels, admittedly more at the top than bottom or middle levels. In a study of followers, many of them described their superior as someone who inspired loyalty to organization, commanded respect from everyone, had a special gift of seeing what important and made subordinates enthusiastic about assignments is. Some of those subordinates had complete faith in their leader and felt good to be near him. They were to be associated with the charismatic leader and trusted his capacity to overcome any obstacle. The charismatic leaders served as a symbol of success and accomplishment for his followers. Subordinates developed more self-assurance under such leaders in contract to those working for non-charismatic leaders. They felt their work was more meaningful if their leader was publicly acknowledged as charismatic. The subordinates of charismatic leaders worked longer hours per week, which suggested the heightened motivation. Subordinates in lower ranks also saw their units and the organization as more productive. To sum up, charismatic leaders exercise extraordinary power within an organization. They have enormous influence on corporation and its employees. Hopefully, this influence is often used for the good of the organization, but sometimes the black side of charisma emerges resulting in many undesirable consequences for all. 6. A DARK SIDE OF CHARISMA Even though so many words of appraisal were directed towards charismatic leadership in organizations, there are a number of serious problems that are likely to occur in corporations led by charismatic leaders. Most of the problems occur with negative charismatic leaders, but some may take place as well with a positive charismatic. Negative charismatic leaders emphasize devotion to themselves more than to ideals. They may use ideological appeals, but merely as a means to gain power, after which the ideology is ignored or changed to serve the leader's personal objectives. Decisions of these leaders reflect a greater concern for self-glorification and maintaining power than for the welfare of the followers. Many negative charismatic leaders are likely to be extremely narcissistic and

self-centered. Such leaders, by pursuing their own goals can turn out to be disastrous to the organization and its employees. A good example of such a disaster is the Polaroid Company. Thanks to its charismatic leader Mr. Land, for 30 years Polaroid held the monopoly on the camera market. Not satisfied with his accomplishments, Mr. Land decided one day to design and market his own camera. Blinded by his own vision, he did not bother to evaluate his idea or research the market. His expensive camera turned out to be a huge failure costing Polaroid millions of dollars. Leaders, like Mr. Land may realize that their vision is doomed to flop; yet they choose to pursue it for the fear of appearing incompetent or incapable. 7. CONSEQUENCES OF NEGATIVE CHARISMATICS Negative charisma often translates into poor inter-personal relationships at the organizational level. Negative charismatic leaders are often narcissistic who lack a genuine concern for the needs and welfare of their people and use their persuasive skills to manipulate and exploit others. As a consequence, these leaders have difficulty maintaining co-operative relationships with subordinates, peers and superiors. Impulsive and unconventional behavior specific for most charismatic leaders may be viewed by some people as aggressive and disruptive. Likewise, the strong conviction of these leaders to untraditional ideas will alienate people who remain committed to the traditional ways of doing things. Furthermore, many charismatic leaders seek to create impression of their uniqueness and indispensability to organization. While some impression management serves to protect leader's reputation, its surpluses may generate unpleasant consequences. For example, a leader might take a credit for any success without acknowledging the contributions of other people. This practice alienates others and misses an opportunity to develop loyalty and commitment to the vision. In addition, many charismatic leaders tend to focus on the big picture and neglect important details of daily operations. They willingly engage in highly visible activities, but are reluctant to participate in more routine operations. Moreover, optimism and self-confidence of charismatic leaders might result in failure to recognize flaws in the vision. Identifying to close with the vision may undermine the capacity to evaluate it objectively. Many leaders overestimate their judgment ability and come to believe in their own infallibility. Finally, charismatic leaders often fail to develop competent successors. Negative charismatic leaders try to keep their subordinates weak and dependent. Instead of consciously developing qualified successors, they may seek to undermine or remove anyone with the leadership qualities. With all these weaknesses, many charismatic leaders are doomed to failure. They may loose power or contribute to the collapse of the entire organization. The success is however possible if a leader has the expertise to make good decisions, if the environment does not pose any serious threats, and if the leader has enough skills to maintain power. Nevertheless, employees and organizations are much better of with a positive charismatic leader. They experience positive growth and become more achievement-oriented. Communication is open and more effective and all employees are encouraged to participate in decision-making. The whole organization appears more dynamic and competitive. 8. CONCLUSION Despite many attempts at definition, it seems that charisma depends to a huge extent on the perception of the followers. It is confusing to conclude whether charismatic leadership is always a good thing or whether is always needed in dynamic organizations. It seems to be a desirable quality if the leader does not seek his personal fulfillment and stays committed to the organization and its employees. However, because of some dangerous traps it sets up, charisma remains a tricky quality- capable of doing as much good as evil.