Relationships And Leadership In Hook English Literature Essay

Hook is a sequel to the original Peter Pan’s story, The movie takes place after the departure of Peter Pan from Neverland. Peter Pan is a boy who didn’t want to grow up and lived in the small island of Neverland. He loved visiting and listening discreetly Wendy, a 13 years old girl who tells her two younger brothers some incredible and fantastic stories.

But someday, in purchasing his shadow, Peter and Wendy meet each other and he brings her and her two brothers in Neverland in order to Wendy tells to the children with who Peter lives – the gang the Lost Boys – hers stories. Peter is the leader of the Lost Boys, a band of boys who were lost by their parents as Peter, and came to live in Neverland.

Wendy meets also the greatest enemy of Peter Pan, the pirate Captain Hook, whose hand he cut off in a duel with Peter; Captain Hook is always looking for his revenge.

Facts

Now Peter Pan is an adult and he got married with Moira, the granddaughter of Wendy, and has two children, Jack and Maggie. Now he’s Peter Banning, a brilliant layer who forgot all his adventures in Neverland.

The family flies to London to visit Moira’s grandmother, Wendy Darling who helped Peter find a family when he was a young orphan.

Peter, Moira, and Wendy attend a ceremony for the expansion of Wendy’s orphanage. While they are out, Captain Hook kidnaps the children, leaving a signed note. Wendy tells Peter that he is in fact Peter Pan and that his old enemy has returned and taken his children for revenge, but he fails to remember anything.

Tinker Bell appears before Peter that night and knocks him unconscious and flies him to Neverland. There he is discovered by Captain Hook, who threaten the children unless he accepts Hook’s challenge to a duel. Tinker Bell intervenes and is granted three days in which to prepare him for it. The Lost Boys, now led by a boy named Rufio at first dismiss him as an old man who has no hope of regaining his former glory, but he begins to learn the magic of Neverland.

Characters

Family Tree

Peter Banning

He’s the main character and has different kind of personality, because he is both Peter Banning and Peter Pan.

Peter Banning is a successful layer, passionately fond of his work. But he is a stressful person, with a lot of work. His relationship with his family is strained by continuous absences and broken promises.

He’s a tactless and impatient father and he doesn’t manage his authority very well with his children. His wife Moira struggles to keep them together and grows frustrated at Peter for his callous behavior.

In Neverland, Captain Hook uses Jack’s frustration over his father’s continuous broken promises to steal his affection. Peter is heartbroken when he sees Hook treating Jack like a son and becomes determined to win his family back. He finally remembers his past and learns how to fly by recalling his “happy thought”: being a father.

Peter regains the leadership of the Lost Boys and they challenge Hook and his pirates in an all-out battle. Peter regains Jack’s love and saves Maggie.

Returning home, Peter realizes the love he has for his family and the importance of having a youthful heart. He seems to be the perfect father, at least the father that his wife and children expect.

Wendy remarks to Peter that his adventures are now over, but Peter says to live would be a great adventure too.

Transactional leadership [] :

There is an exchange between Peter and The Lost Boys; the interest of the boys is that to get back their leader and fight the pirates. They help Peter to get back his abilities and Peter wants to be as strong as before to be able to win against Hook.

Participative leadership [] :

ƒ  Delegation: after the death of Rufio and before leaving Neverland, Peter gives authority to one person to lead The Lost Boys and to make sure everything is going to be fine in the future.

Social Exchange Theory [] :

The Lost Boys are using this theory with Rufio, during the “Interim”. But theyt change their relationship, expecting that Peter organize the tasks for the final battle against the pirates and Hook.

At the end, when Peter Banning become again Peter Pan, we can find the five major leadership traits on him: intelligence, self-confident, determination, integrity and sociability. Peter Pan is exerting a charismatic leadership with the lost children group. Its special skills and powers (He can fly, he uses the cockerel screaming as a battle flag) are considered by the lost children as natural leader characteristics.

Wendy Moira Angela Darling

She’s Moira’s grandmother and the family flies to London to visit her. She helped Peter to find a family when he was a young orphan.

She was in love with him when Peter was still in Neverland, but he doesn’t remember at the beginning.

She commands respect and she’s liked by everybody. She is the perfect grandmother for the children; she’s full of fantastic stories.

She knows more about Peter than himself because she still remembers everything before Peter fall in love with Moira. And after the kidnapping by Hook, she try to remind Peter who he was, and that he’s the only person to challenge Captain Hook.

Wendy’s leadership behavior is characterized by an achievement-oriented leadership; she try to perform the best on Peter.

We can also talk about the Social Exchange Theory: she provides a psychological support to Peter, and shows that she believes on him.

Moira Banning

Moira is Wendy Darling daughter, and Peter Banning wife. She is very sensitive, tormented by the absence of her husband. Her husband is always working and selfish. She is suffering from the lack of love she has from her husband. They do not have a real couple life. She is also embarrassed by his behavior towards his children. He is very strong, impersonal and does not show affection. She seems to be powerless but her anger can help her act strongly, for example when she threw out Peter’s cellular.

She did not know Peter was Peter Pan, nor about how much Peter loved his mother. She cannot understand the turning back of her husband towards his sorrowful past.

We can say that this character also faces the psychodynamic approach [] to leadership: as a parent she is motherly, gentle, loving and kind. She is a good leader in the family but she is maybe too much of a “laissez-faire” parent.

Jack Banning

Jack is Peter and Moira Banning’s son. Even if he acts tough, he is a hypersensitive little boy, missing his father’s love. Jack has lots of expectations toward his father: he would like his father to be proud of him, being encouraged, to share more than aggressiveness. Jack is quite impious with his father.

Their relationship is not very healthy. Peter makes wrong promises to Jack; he makes him believe that he would come to his baseball match, but the D-day Jack has a disillusion, his father is not there and worst, somebody working for Peter is filming Jack as his father asked him. To demonstrate his son his love, Peter gave Jack a watch that belonged to his great grand-father.

Kidnapped by Captain Hook with his little sister Maggie, when Peter comes to save them in Neverland, Jack tries to catch him out. Thwarted in view of the defeat of his father, he chooses Captain Hook’s side who pretends to be his family and that it is his new home. He becomes “Captain Hook Junior”, thinking under the influence of Hook. He did nothing when Hook decided to break his father’s watch, which had a very sentimental value. If he stands up to his father, as Hook Jr., he is totally submissive and terrified.

But things and events remembered him he had a family, people he loved. He discovers Hook did not love him but was using him. When he saw his father flying to rescue him and his sister, he became full of pride to have Peter as a father.

“Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart… Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside, awakens.” Carl Jung

In the psychodynamic approach to leadership, Jack is maturing, his key issue is responses to authoritarian leaders “his parents” and particularly to his father which is a very authoritarian parent on contrary to his mother which is more laissez-faire. However, his reactions are not rational but refer to his suffering and emotions.

Maggie Banning

Maggie is Peter and Moira Banning’s daughter. She is very girly, loving Peter Pan stories, gentle, attaching, and full of happiness. She has got a sweet little voice. She loves her family a lot and is style-conscious of the atmosphere reigning between her parents and his brother, Jack. She is scared of arguments and bad things in general.

Kidnapped by Hook with his brother, she took on the role of mother to pirates when we heard her singing a song her mother sang to her and his brother. She is good on creating emotion to people not pretending to have one.

Maggie is a very little girl so in the psychodynamic approach to leadership, she is very dependent to her parents particularly to her mother with who she has a strong symbiotic relationship.

The lost boys

The lost boys live in Neverland. They are orphans and will not grow up since they stay in Neverland. Not growing up and staying in Neverland is a choice they make because they are afraid of becoming adults and do not trust them. This is due to the fact they were abandoned and they have a really bad image of grown-ups: the pirates and especially Hook. They are always fighting against adults in the movie. The only adult they accept is Peter Banning who will change their vision of adults.

We can count: Thud Butt, the largest member of the lost boys, Ace, Pockets, Don’t Ask, Too small, Latchboy, No Nap or Rufio. Their names show that they reject all the adult’s rules. They chose their names.

Rufio is the leader of the lost boys since Peter’s departure from Neverland. Rufio’s leadership can be compared to the social exchange theory. The other lost boys expect him to take care of their everyday life: he organizes the tasks, represents the group when dealing with the pirates, and modifies the group’s goals as circumstances change.

The relationship and exchanges between the leader and followers involves abstract items: Rufio represents the authority they never had. The followers are motivated by more than what the leader can award to them: their survival against the pirates is at stake.

The followers play an active role in determining and retaining the leader. That explains why Rufio is intimidated by Peter Banning’s presence at first but soon wishes he had a father like Peter. He is killed by Captain Hook during a duel.

The Lost Boys first considers Peter Banning is an old man who has no hope of regaining his former glory and will never be Peter Pan again. But Peter regains the leadership of the Lost Boys. At the end, he designates the largest member of the Lost Boys, Thud Butt as leader of the Lost Boys in his absence.

Tinker Bell

Tinker Bell is a tiny fairy. She lives in Neverland with the lost boys. She helps Peter gain memory of his childhood and “happy thoughts” in order to fly again. She is in love with Peter, but understands why he must continue his relationship with his family. Tinker Bell saves Peter’s life by granting three days to prepare him for the fight against Hook. She takes care of the lost boys. She is like a mother for the lost boys and is the only woman they know.

Tinker Bell’s leadership with the lost boys can be described with the leader-member exchange theory. She develops specific relationships over time with the old boys and separate exchange relationship with each individual boy. Tinker Bell’s role as a “mother” has been mutually defined by Tinker Bell and the lost boys.

Captain Hook

Captain James hook is a villainous pirate captain, and lord of the pirate harbor in Neverland, where he is widely feared. Most importantly, he is the archenemy of Peter Pan. Hook wears a big iron hook in place of his hand, which was cut off by Peter Pan and eaten by a saltwater crocodile. Hook hates Peter obsessively and lives for the day he can make Peter and all his Lost Boys walk the plank.

Captain James Hook is a pirate, and Peter Pan’s greatest adversary. He swears revenge on Peter for cutting off his hand and feeding it to a giant crocodile. Thereby, he has decided to kidnap Peter’s children to make him come back and face him.

Hook is represented as a very unfeeling and cruel person. He is unmistakably the pirates’ leader. His crew has fear of him and so do whatever he likes. The only one who dares talking to him is Mr. Smee. Captain Hook is a manipulative person. Hook attempts to turn Maggie and Jack to his side, claiming that parents hate their children. Maggie refuses to believe this, and is dragged away. Jack’s ire towards his Dad allows Hook to turn him easily. Thus, he has managed to make Jack forget Peter, and now consider him (Hook) as his father.

Even though, he looks to be a bad man with the pirates and his enemies, in privacy he seems to be much more sensitive and even depressive.

Extract from the movie:

Captain James Hook: No stopping me this time, Smee. This is it. Don’t make a move Smee, not a step. My finger’s on the trigger. Don’t try to stop me, Smee. 

Smee: Oh, not again. 

Captain James Hook: This is it. Don’t try to stop me this time, Smee. Don’t try to stop me this time, Smee. Don’t you dare try to stop me this time, Smee, try to stop me. Smee, you’d better get up off your ass. Get over here, Smee! 

Smee: I’m coming. I’m coming. 

Captain James Hook: Stop me! This is not a joke! I’m committing suicide! 

[Smee makes the gun go off which aims at the toy ship in the pool model] 

Captain James Hook: Don’t ever frighten me like that again. 

Smee: I’m sorry. 

Captain James Hook: What are you? Some kind of a sadist? 

Smee: I’m sorry. I’m sorry. How do you feel now? 

Captain James Hook: I want to die. 

Smee: [kisses him] Oh, now, now. 

Captain James Hook: There’s no adventure here. 

Smee: [hold out Hook’s gun] You call this no adventure? 

Captain James Hook: Death is the only adventure I have left, Smee

Lastly, Captain Hook appears to be some kind of a charismatic leader [] , in need of recognition and submission.

Mr. Smee

Smee is Captain Hook’s boatswain and main henchman. He is faithful and devoted to him. He obeys his orders and stays close to him. He seems to be the only one who appreciates the captain: he always stands up for him and gives him help. We can observe that he almost has a maternal behavior towards him.

He looks like a typical pirate, wearing dirty clothes, hat and headband, and often can be seen drinking a bottle of wine.

He sometimes is absent-minded and makes many blunders. Nevertheless, Smee is eager for money, as we can see him trying to steal captain’s jewels during the final battle. Indeed, here are his only devotion limits towards the captain and reveal his pirate instinct which has been put aside.

He is a comic and simple-mind character and does not assert himself. However, he creates the plan of trying to convince Peter’s children to “love” Hook.

Finally, even though he is on the dark side, he does not seem to be nasty. Also we can see him brushing up the sidewalk at the end of the movie, and smiling at Peter Pan.

The pirates

The movie makes a mockery of the pirates. They are stunned and comic, trying to look vicious. In that way, they are in need of a leader who is unmistakably Captain Hook. They do not really know what they have to do but following and obeying him. They are scared of him because of his charismatic behavior.

Balance between Relationships and leaderships theories

First of all, one relevant point found in this movie is that some key characters are part of the two worlds and act differently in each one. We can pick Wendy and Peter Pan as an example.

These two characters are naturally charismatic, the situations they had to face in the past during various dangerous quests (Defeat the pirates) or the social organization (The village of the lost children) developed their skills and abilities in leadership.

After the analysis of Wendy’s leadership, we can pick up two theories helping to describe hers behavior First of all, by an achievement-oriented leadership; she tries to perform the best on Peter. We can also talk about the Social Exchange Theory: she provides a psychological support to Peter, and shows that she believes on him.

Peter is acting differently in one and another world. Indeed, he forgot his childhood, and his “new life” forced him to develop another type of leadership, really different from the one he was known for in the Neverland. We already analyzed the leadership aspects of Peter Banning very criticized in the real world by Moira his wife, his daughter Maggie and above all the troubled relationship as a result of its excessive authoritarian behavior with his son Jack.

In the Banning family, we mainly used the theory concept of psychodynamic approach to leadership developed by Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung. Hook is pointing out the lacks of Peter as a father and a husband. The broken promises to his son, the excessive authority and the lack of time spent with the whole family can be interrelated as a psychologic result on the full repression of his childhood memory.

The theory concept fits with the internal difficulties of the family and the leader-follower relationships between Peter (The leader) and Moira, Maggie and Jack (Followers).

In Neverland we focus on two social groups, enemies and antagonists in their social organization: The lost children and the pirates.

The lost boys learned to live together in an island and organized their selves after the departure of the charismatic leader Peter Pan to the “adult” real world. The social interactions between the lost children made emerging a natural leader of the group. Rufio demonstrated its competences (Using weapons, skating fast) and its leader characteristics (Loyalty to the group, bravery…). The social exchange theory is perfect to describe the relationships of the lost children’s group. The influence of Rufio through time in the group has awarded him of the leader status.

The comeback of Peter Pan and the recovering of his lost memory made the group of lost children rethink the terms of the exchange relationship between them and Rufio. Peter Pan got back his natural leading role.

The particularity of Tinker Bell’s role inside the lost children’s village can be explained by the leader-member exchange theory. As described above, she has developed interpersonal relationships and separated exchange relationship with each individual boy. Tinker Bell is acting as a “wise mother”.

Concerning the Pirates, contrary to the social exchange theory based relationships used by the lost children, there is clearly a charismatic leadership recognized by all the crew towards the captain Hook, using authority and intimidation to exerce the influence on his followers. Hook does not hesitate to execute an arbitrary punishment to a member of his crew in order to reaffirm his leadership. The story of his “hook” and his lost hand is giving him special powers through the perceptions of his crew. Hook is imposing a unique vision, defeat Peter Pan, and want to ensure the victory by testing his whole crew’s loyalty.

In a way, Peter Pan is exerting also a charismatic leadership with the lost children group. Its special skills and powers (He can fly, he uses the cockerel screaming as a battle flag) are considered by the lost children as natural leader characteristics. On top of that, he defeated Hook during an epic fight several years ago. The group is changing its behavior from a social exchange theory style used with Rufio (Considered as a interim leader), to a typical charismatic leadership relationship between Peter and the followers.

CONCLUSION

Hook is not only a basic family entertainment movie. We used to describe the complex relationships between the characters through this report. In many ways, Hook can be considered as a metaphoric vision of the complex family relationships, as the troubled relationship between Peter Banning and his son Jack.

Secondly, the movie is pointing out a very actual theme: Being work-driven is causing a lack of time and motivation to keep the traditional family values on.

The movie has developed multiple and complex links of relationships between the characters. As described above, many leadership theories were distinguished between the characters. In Hook, two parallel worlds are coexisting; each has got its own rules.

Concerning the leadership theories expressed in the movie, the parallel worlds are permitting a duality, as a deforming mirror. In Peter’s behavior, his leadership style completely changes between one and the other world. Is it because of the different situations (leading a family and a village of lost children does not require the same skills)?

Is it because of the loss of imagination of Peter since he left Neverland? Is it because of the full repression of his past? Hook is a movie allowing numerous psychological questions.

This movie was a pleasure to study in order to link the different leadership theory models to (a fictional) practice.

Appendices

(Leadership Models and Theories: A Brief Overview by Emily Spencer)

Appendix 1 A TRANSACTIONAL LEADERSHIP

Transactional leadership is based on an exchange between leaders and followers. It is effective because it is in the best interest of followers to do what the leader wants. There are four types of behaviours that are associated with transactional leadership: contingent reward, active management by exception, passive management by exception, and laissez-faire leadership.

 Contingent reward behaviour includes the clarification of what is expected of followers in order to receive rewards. Rewards, such as money and time-off, are used as incentives to motivate followers to perform. Management by exception refers to leadership that utilizes corrective criticism, negative feedback, and negative reinforcement. It can either be active or passive. A leader employing the active form of management by exception is always on the lookout for problems and takes corrective actions immediately following a minor mistake or rule violation by a follower. Such a leader is always acutely aware of what his/her followers are doing. A leader using the passive form does not monitor followers as closely, and only reacts to problems once they have occurred. Mistakes are only noticed and addressed once they become obvious obstacles to goal attainment. Laissez-faire leadership is descriptive of a leader who acts indifferently to followers and who is not concerned with the mission. This type of leader abdicates all leadership roles and responsibilities. Laissez-faire is often considered a non-leadership factor.

Although transactional leadership is effective in certain situations, there is increasing evidence that it is not an effective leadership model for achieving long-term objectives. Followers are motivated to perform certain tasks, contingent on rewards, but transactional leadership fails to motivate followers to perform beyond their basic job requirements. It is essential to understand that human behaviour is often based on a series of exchanges, yet the transactional leadership model is too simplistic and offers no explanation for intrinsic motivation. Furthermore, although transactional leadership focuses on the exchange between leaders and

Appendix 2 PARTICIPATIVE LEADERSHIP

Participative leadership is interactive and allows followers some influence over the leader’s decisions. It may occur in many ways. The following four decision procedures are generally regarded as distinct and meaningful and can be ordered along a continuum beginning with non-participative autocratic decisions, and raging to the highly participative action of delegation:

1. Autocratic decision: the leader makes a decision alone.

2. Consultation: the leader asks followers for their opinions and ideas, then makes the decision alone after seriously considering their suggestions and concerns.

3. Joint decision: the leader meets with followers to discuss the problem and to formulate a decision; the leader has no more influence over the final decision that any other participant.

4. Delegation: the leader gives authority to an individual or group to make a decision. There are usually limits in which the final choice must fall and final approval may or may not be required before implementation.

 There are many benefits to participative leadership. For one, it is likely to increase the quality of a decision, especially when followers have knowledge that the leader lacks. Furthermore, commitment is usually increased with increase influence. Participative leadership can also sharpen the decision making skills of followers and it is, thus, a useful way to develop future leaders. In addition, it can facilitate conflict resolution and team building.

 Participative leadership goes beyond the goal-oriented behaviour that is addressed in the trait approach, while simultaneously extending beyond the simplistic leader/follower exchange that occurs in the transactional leadership model. The degree of participative leadership that is awarded to followers is a reflection of his/her individual knowledge and skills, while at the same time limited by leadership ability and situational constraints. The leader is not only driven by goal attainment, follower development is a key objective as well.

 A leader must not make the decision to delegate lightly. A leader who delegates then abdicates all responsibility is not performing his/her duties as a leader. An effective leader can delegate while continuously offering guidance and nurturing follower development. Although delegation can easily be an abuse of leadership responsibility and, therefore, could be classified as a non-leadership function, when applied correctly delegation is an excellent leadership tool for follower development and helps to shape leaders for the future.

Appendix 3 SOCIAL EXCHANGE THEORY

There are many different theories based on social exchanges. Most forms of social interactions are based on an exchange of benefits or favours, either material,

psychological, or both.44 Often it is through a variety of social exchanges that an individual emerges as the leader of a group. A simple demonstration of competence and loyalty to the group may shape the expectations others form about the leadership role that an individual should play in the group . His/her influence over group decisions is then compared to that of other group members. Furthermore, an individual who has demonstrated good judgement accumulates ‘idiosyncratic credit’ which allows him/her more latitude than other group members to deviate from nonessential group norms.45 If a leader steers the group in an innovative way which turns out to be successful his/her expertise is confirmed, and the leader is awarded more influence and status by the group. If the leader’s proposal turns out to be a failure, however, then the group is likely to rethink the terms of the exchange relationship.46

 Leaders are responsible for more than simply task accomplishment. Leaders are expected to: organize the work, distribute rewards, provide psychological support, represent the group when dealing with other groups, modify the groups goals as circumstances change, and define reality in a way that is consistent with the underlying needs and values of the group members.47 Innovation is expected of leaders, especially when dealing with serious problems or obstacles.

 According to social exchange theory, there are likely to be differences for elected versus appointed leaders. Expectation among followers may be greater for an elected leader compared to an appointed leader. Also, it is theorized that elected leaders have higher feelings of responsibility to the group than appointed leaders do. 

Leader/follower interaction is a key component of the social exchange theory. Like transactional leadership, social exchange theory is based on an exchange of benefits and favours between the leader and the followers, but there are two important differences.

First, in social exchange theory, the exchange might involve more abstract items and followers are motivated by more that what the leader can award to them. Second, in social exchange theory, followers play an active role in determining and retaining the leader. The leader is not a power yielder like the transactional model proposes.

 Many leadership models not only take into account the leader/follower relationship but also realise that situational variables affect leadership performance. These models are referred to as contingency models. They recognize that a leader’s impact on followers is dependent on both the leader’s behaviour and the characteristics of the situation. An effective leader in one situation is, therefore, not necessarily an effective leader in all situations.49 Six contingency theories are described in this paper: the LPC Contingency model, Hersey and Blanchard’s situational leadership model, the path-goal theory of leadership, the multiple linkage model of leadership, leadership substitute theory, and Vroom and Yetton’s normative decision model. Each subsequent contingency theory moves away from a centralization of the leader/follower relationship and progressively emphasizes the importance of situational variables on leadership effectiveness.

 Appendix 4 PSYCHODYNAMIC APPROACH TO LEADERSHIP

The psychodynamic approach to leadership is based on the premise that an individual’s first experience with leadership begins the day that he/she is born. This happens through exposure to parents as leaders. Developed by psychoanalyst, Sigmund Freud, and his disciple Carl Jung, the theory puts forth a variety of concepts that surround leadership in a family setting.

-The first concept, the family origin, suggests that the role of the parent is to socialize the child into society and to respond to the basic needs of the infant.

– The second stage is called maturation, or individualization. During this stage the child becomes increasingly independent of his/her parents and learns how to deal with authority figures. Often this is a direct reflection of the child’s relationship with his/her parents.

– Following this stage, as the child becomes an adult, he/she develops relationships with leaders which mirror the parent-child relationship. The young adult may act dependently, counter dependently or independently towards the leader.

– Finally, as an adult some people may choose to repress their childhood memories and move on. The psychodynamic approach hypothesizes, however, that full repression cannot occur. It suggests that unwanted memories and feelings if not dealt with directly will take other forms such as an ulcer or anger towards an innocent individual.

The psychodynamic approach to leadership assumes that an individual can change behaviors and feelings towards leaders by gaining insight into the leadership relationship that they had with their parents. In this way one can develop personal insight and grow as an individual. The theory is useful because it analyses the relationship between leader and follower. Originally developed to treat people with serious social difficulties, it is currently one of the methods used to improve leader-follower relationships. In application, the psychodynamic approach suggests that leaders with insight into their own personality and those of their followers will act more effectively than those without such insight.

Appendix 5 CHARISMATIC LEADERSHIP

It is widely believed that charismatic leaders are the product of follower perceptions and attributions that are influenced by actual leader traits and behavior, the context of the situation, and the individual and collective needs of the followers. There are many different theories of charismatic leadership. Although they differ in their reasons for why charisma has been attributed to the leader they all share the basic assumption of what a charismatic leader is. This section describes charismatic leadership in general without delving into the details of each specific theory of charismatic leadership.

 

Charisma is a Greek word that means “divinely inspired gift”. The term has since been used to describe a leader whose followers think that he/she is endowed with exceptional qualities. Such a leader is thought to yield influence over his/her followers because of these special powers instead of needing to use traditional or formal forms of authority.

 

Charisma is believed to be attributed to leaders who advocate a unique vision, yet one that lies within the range of acceptability by followers. It is thought more likely to be attributed to leaders who act in unconventional ways to achieve their vision. Furthermore, leaders who make self-sacrifice, take personal risk, and incur high costs to achieve their vision are more likely to be viewed as charismatic.

 

Often the followers of a charismatic leader think that the leader’s beliefs are correct. They, therefore, obey the leader willingly and without question, feel affection towards the leader, and are emotionally involved in the mission. As well, followers of a charismatic leader often believe that they can contribute to the success of the mission and consequently set high performance goals for themselves.

 

On their own part, charismatic leaders usually have high self-confidence and a strong need for power. They often hold a strong conviction in their own beliefs and ideals, and use these to articulate ideological goals relating the mission, with the hope that followers will imitate their behavior. Charismatic leaders are likely to engage in behaviors designed to impress their competence upon their followers and they hold high expectations about follower’s performance while simultaneously expressing confidence them.