Strengths And Weaknesses Of Charismatic Leadership

Marx Weber introduced the term charisma into social theory and political sociology. Sociologist and philosopher, Marx Weber distinguished three types of leaderships or authorities. Charismatic, traditional and lastly, legal-rational. I will be looking at the charismatic leadership. This type of authority is worshipped and there could be a bad or a good type of charisma. The word charisma is derived from the Greek word charismata. Charismata means, the gifts from the God. It is something you don’t have to necessarily earn, or deserve, it is something freely given. It is a talent. Charismatic leadership points to an individual who has certain traits that make the leader extraordinary. “Charisma will be applied to a certain quality of an individual …show more content…
Charismatic leaderships can be problematic because these leaders make promises of overhauling unfair or unjust systems. We give these types of leaders their legitimacy, because, we as humans believe in their ability to reveal the truth of social life to us. We also believe in their extraordinary powers and we do what they want us to do because we want to please them. We, humans are born into rules and norms of social world and we follow these rules and norms. The social world is constructed before we enter it and we learn when we are only babies through imitation.
These types of leaders hold the mission to unite its people together and amid differences in order to maintain a goal. An example of a negative charismatic leader, is Hitler. Cult leaders have a lot of charisma and they are a charismatic authority that people want to follow and believe. Many people never question what these types of leaders tell them to do, because they are so caught up in their role, their personality, so their actions are never questioned whether they are right or …show more content…
There are many similarities and also differences between both in understanding contemporary politics. They are both related in a way because charisma can also be bad. Charisma can create a loss of sense of judgement. There are three ways you can influence other people and that is with force, reason and charm. Charm is not rational and is based on emotional manipulation. Charismatic leaders use charm to influence people instead of reason, and when they run out of it they turn to force. Charisma is also very addictive. Charismatic leaders can start to crave more approvals and power which distracts them from the actual goal or vision they set out. Followers can also become addicted, to their