Charismatic and Other Leadership Types

7.1 Weber's Charismatic Authority

Max Weber (1922, Economy and Society) identified three types of legitimate authority:

1. Traditional: Based on custom and inheritance (kings, feudal lords)
2. Legal-rational: Based on law and formal position (bureaucrats, elected officials)
3. Charismatic: Based on exceptional personal qualities that inspire devotion

Charismatic leadership is inherently unstable — it depends on the leader's continued demonstration of extraordinary quality. Weber described "routinisation of charisma" — the process by which charismatic movements stabilise by developing rules, succession plans, and institutional structures.

7.2 Conger and Kanungo's Charismatic Attribution Model (1987)

Jay Conger and Rabindra Kanungo (1987) proposed that charisma is attributed by followers based on 5 leader behaviours:

1. Vision formulation: Articulating an idealistic, desirable future state
2. Sensitivity to environment: Detecting opportunities and constraints
3. Sensitivity to follower needs: Empathy and responsiveness
4. Personal risk-taking: Visible self-sacrifice for the vision
5. Unconventional behaviour: Innovative, counter-normative tactics

7.3 Distributed Leadership

Distributed leadership (Spillane, 2006) holds that leadership is not concentrated in one person but distributed across multiple individuals in an organisation. Particularly relevant for flat organisations, schools, and collaborative government programmes (e.g., Jan Andolan campaigns) where informal leaders at multiple levels drive implementation.

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