The Paradigm of the Charismatic Leader

This invited contribution is a reflection on my motivation for writing the book Leadership and Organization: A Philosophical Introduction (Spoelstra, 2018). The premise of the book is that popular leadership adjectives, e.g. ‘transformational’, ‘authentic’ and ‘servant’, are much more interesting than the corresponding leadership constructs suggest. The book claims that these popular leadership concepts are still shaped by the figure of the charismatic leader, even though the concept of charisma in leadership studies has lost much of its appeal. In this paper,I further suggest that popular leadership concepts, including the ones mentioned, create a followership that deserves to be critically interrogated.