Charismatic and Transformational Leadership - Essay Example

Leadership has been defined as the activity of social influence, whereby one person can procure and enlist the support and aid of others in the achievement of a common goal (Rowold & Heinitz2007). It is the means of organizing the group of people with the aim of fulfilling a given goal. There re are different sorts of leadership models, such as transactional leadership, charismatic leadership, transformational leadership, and so on. In this context, it will involve the discussion of the Charismatic leadership and Transformational leadership. When looking at the main leadership styles, the main distinctions is that in Charismatic leadership, the leader's attraction, as well as charm, develops and inspiration and devoutness among the followers towards their leader.; whereas, in transformational leadership, variation in individual and social systems are developed through the common version. The rest of this essay will seek to clarify the differences between the two terms extensively.

Difference between charismatic approaches to leadership and transformational approaches to leadership

Charismatic Leadership: this approach of leadership, restrains itself on the leader's attraction and charm by developing devotion together with inspiration among the followers towards the leaders. However, charismatic leaders might not have any interest in changing anything in the organization; instead, they tend towards their gain and enhance their image, and they are difficult to replace. The theory of charismatic leadership highlights the two processes whereby the charismatic leaders impact their followers: Identification of the personality and the internalization of the believe s and values (Rowold & Heinitz2007). In this type of leadership, the success of the team relies on the leader, therefore, when the leader leaves the position, the members will lose the enthusiasms.

Transformational leadership: While on the other hand, the approach in the transformational leadership entails a leadership approach that can lead to a change in the society of the individual through a shared vision. In this kind of leadership, the leaders have an adaptive trait, and in most cases, they are being trained on how to become leaders. In transformation leadership, leaders have a key focus on changing the organization together with their followers; this kind of leadership seems to be working based on the betterment of the organization and their followers. Leaders under transformational leadership will be substituted by the next in line command in the organization if they are adequately trained (Yukl, 1999).

Similarities between charismatic leadership and transformational leadership

Both Charismatic Leadership and Transformational leadership have charisma attribute: Concerning the meaning of the term charisma, it means that (1) the leaders have a gripping charm or attractiveness that can stimulate devotion in the followers; (2) the leaders have the delightfully conferred talent or power. The leaders on both approaches rely on this quality to gain their followers(Rowold & Heinitz2007).

Both Charismatic Leadership and Transformational leadership have leaders with the vision: Charismatic leaders have a potential of having a clear vision, they are good at scanning and evaluating the environment. The leaders develop the powerful picture of the future that makes people committed to the common goal whereby success will be determined by the achievement of the goal. Thirdly, in both leadership approach, they can rouse the understanding of their followers by giving a new perspective of viewing the predicaments that were existing earlier and yet they were not correctly solved (Yukl, 1999).

Conclusion

The two leadership models, Charismatic leadership approach and the Transformational Leadership approach, offers the base for a complete evaluation of the leadership concepts within the setting of their differences and similarities together with a conclusive discussion on the approaches to address contemporary leadership challenges and issues. This kind of leadership approaches is spotted among our leaders in the fields of politics, religious, at the learning institutions and in schools.

References

Rowold, J., & Heinitz, K. (2007). Transformational and charismatic leadership: Assessing the convergent, divergent and criterion validity of the MLQ and the CKS. The Leadership Quarterly, 18(2), 121-133.

Yukl, G. (1999). An evaluation of conceptual weaknesses in transformational and charismatic leadership theories. The leadership quarterly, 10(2), 285-305.