پیوندهای رابطه ای متصل : ابعاد رابطه رهبر و پیرو و انتساب کاریزماتیک

Recent research on charismatic leadership has focused on the relationship between the leader and follower. Thus far though, researchers have simply assumed the existence of the relationship or distinguished between strong and weak relationships between the leader and the followers. What have been overlooked are the underlying dimensions of the relationship that may influence a charismatic attribution. The current study identifies two relational qualities and tests the relationship of these dimensions with the perception of charisma in a sample of Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) and their top management team (TMT) members. Results indicate that a constructive relationship is positively related to the attribution of charisma, while a competitive relationship has a negative relationship with the charismatic attribution. Implications and future directions for the study of charismatic leadership from a relational perspective are discussed.

These limitations notwithstanding, our findings give merit to studies aimed at understanding the relational factors that influence the perception of charisma. Our findings that different dimensions of the relationship between leader and follower can have both positive and negative impacts on the attribution of charisma underscores the need to look at this relationship as a multidimensional and not a uni–dimensional construct. Finally, while there are skeptics of the importance of charismatic leadership (Meindl, 1990 and Meindl, 1995), there has been mounting evidence supporting the positive impact on organizational performance that is associated with leaders who are attributed by their subordinates to be charismatic (Agle and Sonnenfeld, 1994, Bass, 1985, Conger and Kanungo, 1987 and House et al., 1991). With the frequent uncertainty and changes that continue throughout today's work environments, charisma may become even more important. Thus, if attributes of the leader-follower relationship are associated with increases and decreases, then to the extent that charisma leads to an increase in performance and positive results for the organization then it would be important to understand such relational factors.