Transformational Leadership Vs Charismatic Leadership

This essay compares and contrasts the effectiveness of transformational and charismatic leadership approaches in the workplace. It provides examples of effective leaders who have used a combination of both approaches and highlights the importance of leadership in achieving organizational goals.

Running Head: Organizational Leadership
Organizational Leadership

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Introduction of leadership
The significance of leadership at the workplace cannot be denied as it not only just helps in
framing an effective group but it also helps in binding them together and for making
continuous efforts for accomplishing desired goals on behalf of the organization.
Leadership is an integral part of the organization. The leader and his approach not only
help the team to walk on the showed path but also showcases the opportunities to the
whole team through which walking on the same path for every team member can generate
positive outcomes. Therefore, leadership is an important concept for every organization in
terms of accomplishment of the tasks in an effective manner. There are a number of
leadership approaches available in the business context and every approach has its own
significance which is used in different situations for addressing the unique set of challenges
(Bhasin, 2017).
Scope of this essay
In this essay, two leadership approaches will be discussed, contrasted and compared to
determine the effectiveness and significance of leadership approaches in the workplace.
Leaders should be capable enough to analyse the significance of leadership approaches
along with determining the perfect time to implement the appropriate leadership approach
as per the requirement of the situation. The major advantages of leadership approach for
the organization are that deals effectively with the situation along with generating positive
outcomes, helps in reaching to the set mission and vision. Leadership creates a positive
impact on organizational success and growth. Thus, roles of leaders have been given
priority in order to manage the organizational tasks along with managing the human
resources to perform those tasks in an expected manner.

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Transformational Leadership Vs Charismatic Leadership
Figure 1: Difference between charismatic and transformational leader
Leadership refers to the ability of an individual in terms of leading and convincing a group
of people to believe in the leader's vision. Another crucial duty of a leader is to position the
right person in the right position for accomplishing the tasks and to gain positive outcomes.
However, leaders also need to face criticism from his own subordinates sometimes but as
the primary element for an effective leader is being positive in all sorts of situations which
transforms the negative situations at the workplace into positive and effective ones.
Effective leadership is considered as the lynchpin for a successful organization and in the

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context to the leadership approaches, it has been observed that it is the duty of leaders to
motivate, guide and direct the employees towards the appropriate direction so that their
efforts could be moulded in order to attain desired goals and objectives. Coordination,
teamwork and workforce diversity are some of the major requirements for every
organization in order to move towards sustainable growth and overall development. With
regards to this, leaders are held accountable for guiding and directing the employees to
develop and maintain an effective workplace environment where all employees could feel
safe, secure and satisfied (McCleskey, 2014).
Above discussed elements are some of the necessary aspects of all leadership theories and
in this scenario, transformational and charismatic leadership approaches hold true as their
applicability in the modern workplaces is more effective than other leadership styles. The
leaders who have adopted any of these leadership theories or both of them have lead
towards growth and development. According to the modern business environment and
requirement, transformational and charismatic leadership approaches are considered as
the most effective approaches as these approaches not only helps the leaders to attain goals
but these approaches also act effectively in dealing with the challenges of modern business
environment (Banks, et. al., 2016).
Elements of Transformational and Charismatic Leadership
According to transformational leadership approach, leader works along with his
teammates in order to determine the requirement of change and the place where change is
required in order to create a vision to guide the change by inspiration, as well as by
executing the change by walking along with the teammates in order to originate adequate
techniques to gain positive outcomes. On the other side, charismatic leadership is
considered as the perfect approach to motivate employees along with giving them
adequate support for boosting up their morale in order to encourage them for performing
the assigning duties in an appropriate manner. In this leadership style, followers treat their
leaders as the role model as the qualities of a leader inspires the subordinates (Tepper, et.
al., 2018). For building up trust amongst the employees with regards to the qualities and
decisions taken by the leader, it is necessary for the leader to showcase the effectiveness.

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Thus, it is said that a leader should always be confident in his work and the approaches
followed by him to tackle the situations. Thus, it could be said that both transformational
and charismatic leadership approaches have their own significance and leaders implement
each of the approaches as per the situation (ST. Thomas University, 2018).
Apart from this, the transformational leadership approach is considered as the advanced
version of the charismatic approach because both are interrelated at some point. It has
been evaluated that in charismatic leadership approach, leaders were focused on customer
satisfaction but the transformational leaders focus on both sides i.e. satisfaction of
customers as well as their employees. Ultimately, transformational leadership is
considered very effective in many contexts. For example, if an entrepreneur wants to take
his start-up to a large extent, it is necessary to implement transformational leadership
approach because, for a start-up, it is necessary to appoint the employees along with
retaining them for a longer period of time. It is said by few business experts that
transformational leaders have the ability to inspire.
On the other hand, charismatic leaders are known for generating positive and higher
outcomes rather in comparison to other types of leaders. The major difference analysed
between these two approaches is that charismatic leadership approach only focuses on
enhancing organizational performance whereas the transformational leadership approach
focuses on increasing productivity for employees by them appropriate training and
development sessions for fulfilment of organizational goals and for enhancing customer
satisfaction, adopting new and unique measures to fulfil employees’ demands to enhance
their satisfaction along with retaining them for longer period of time in order to move
towards suitable growth and overall development.
For example, one of the most effective leaders of this era is Jeff Bezos, CEO, and founder of
Amazon Inc. It is the largest internet retailer and it operates in more than 188 countries
across the globe. In his initial times, Jeff Bezos was acting as an autocratic leader due to
which he faces huge criticism from his employees and colleagues and some of his decisions
were also went against the company’s goals which resulted as the huge losses for the
organization (Breevaart, et. al., 2014). After realising the fact that the adopted leadership

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approach is affecting business' performance, Jeff Bezos quickly transformed his approach
and adopted transformational leadership approach in order to reach towards the desired
goals of the organization resulted in gaining trust and loyalty from the employees. Today,
Amazon stands on the 7th position as the largest companies in the UK. (Engelen, et. al.,
2015). As a transformational leader, Jeff is also known as the charismatic leader as well
because when he deals with his employees, he uses transformational leadership approach
and while dealing with the customers, he implemented charismatic leadership approach in
order to gain positive outcomes (Ellyatt, 2018).
Thus, both the approaches are known for creating a fascinating vision for the future and
through this, transformational leaders easily create their positive and impressive persona
across their surroundings. Jeff Bezos links the company's long term goals and the personal
values of the employees in order to generate interest amongst them to move towards the
vision of the organization. With this regard, Jeff Bezos has an adequate set of vision and
mission which encourages his subordinates to generate new and innovative ways to
perform the assigned tasks (Hoch, et. al., 2018). By this manner, Amazon is continuously
moving towards sustainable growth and overall development. Apart from this, Jeff Bezos’
innovative approach has helped both his subordinates and the organization to continuously
rise up in the market along with gaining the competitive advantage over existing
companies. Jeff Bezos’ leadership style is a mixture of both transformational and
charismatic leadership approach and it has helped the organization to sustain in the
dynamic and competitive business environment, retaining key and talented employees
with the organization along with introducing new products and services to enhance
customer satisfaction.
In the last few decades, the growth rate of Amazon has been increased at a very fast pace
and the major reason behind the organizational success is the adaptation of the customer-
centric approach (Hartung, 2013). Jeff Bezos thinks that the primary factor for sustaining in
the competitive business environment is fulfilling customers’ demands along with retaining
their interest in the organization by giving them huge choices with regards to their
demands and wants. This thinking style is influenced by both transformational as well as

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charismatic leadership styles and with regards to this, all employees along with him always
seek for innovation through which new products and services could be offered to the
consumers with the objective of retaining their interest in the organization along with
enhancing the customer base (Schmitt, Den Hartog & Belschak, 2016).
Comparison of Charismatic and Transformational Leadership
Both the approaches are considered as effective leadership approaches and both are
regularly practiced in the modern business environment in order to deal with different
business scenarios. These leadership approaches are concerned as the technique of
encouraging some standard set of behaviours through appropriate communication
methods along with persuasion and force of personality. Charismatic leaders and the
transformational leaders are known for their convincing ability which is used for getting
the things done by others in the required manner.
Apart from this, charismatic leaders offer all sort of resources and training to its teammates
in order to motivate them for creating new ways for accomplishing the tasks and the
charismatic leadership approach only focuses on improving organizational performance,
thus, employees are left dissatisfied which leads to increase labour turnover whereas,
transformational leaders provide training measures to its employees in order to boost up
their efficiency for the objective of enhancing both organizational as well as employees'
productivity along with focusing on increasing customer satisfaction. Charismatic leaders
are found good communicators with effective influencing verbal skills through which they
set up a positive and reliable image amongst its teammates.
Apart from this, charismatic leaders are also known for their distinct ability to dissect and
decipher any sort of inefficiency within the workplace. These elements make a charismatic
leader effective and reliable and it results in the generation of critical thinking which is
mainly used for generating various ways to deal with a situation and this also creates
differences between charismatic leadership approach and transformational and other
leadership approaches (Teamwork Definition, 2017). Thus, it could be said that both the
leadership approaches have their own significance and both could be implemented at
modern workplaces but while comparing both the approaches, transformational leadership

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is more effective as it helps in satisfaction of both customers as well as employees (Mittal &
Dhar, 2015). There are the number of similarities between transformational and
charismatic leadership approach as a transformational leader is also considered as the
charismatic leader because roots of transformational leaders are somewhere connected
with the charismatic leader.
This could also be verified with the live example of Jeff Bezos as his style of leadership is a
mixture of both transformational as well as charismatic leadership approach. The motive of
the transformational leader is to transform the whole organization in all aspects in order to
attain desired goals while charismatic leaders could be satisfied with the status quo
(Shamir, Arthur & House, 2018). In the real world of business, very few leaders are found
with both transformational as well as charismatic leadership approaches. Steve Jobs, a
well-known leader of a behemoth brand i.e. Apple Inc. was also an effective leader and his
style of leadership could also be considered as the mixture of both transformational as well
as a charismatic leadership style. He had demonstrated an ability to inspire his employees
and with regards to this, he had been able to take his employees along with himself and the
organization up in the dynamic and competitive business environment.
Later on, the organization has made its name to be counted in the top ten most valuable
companies across the world. This achievement proves the effectiveness of Steve Jobs and as
the result; he has been able to mark its position on the top in the list of most effective
leaders across the globe. There is another example of an effective leader i.e. Jeff Bezos and
his leadership style could also be taken as the mixture of both transformational and
charismatic leadership style. He could be taken as an effective charismatic leader as he is
enthusiastic and self-confident. This has made him the person with an attractive
personality and by his actions; he influences people around him to walk on the directed
path (Oreg & Berson, 2015). Charismatic leaders have been identified with five basic
characteristics such as they have the vision, ability to express that vision, willingness to
take risks to attain vision, a sense of knowledge towards both environmental as well as
target audience’s needs and unique behaviour which makes them unique from ordinary
people. These elements create difference amongst the charismatic and transformational

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leaders. This helps the leaders to develop their reliable and positive image in the
organization and the employees, thus, attainment of desired goals and objectives for the
organization becomes an easy task. Following are two common elements of Jeff Bezos’ and
Steve Jobs’ leadership style which proves that they both are transformational as well as a
charismatic leader:
Idealised influence: This is considered as the basic capacity of the leader which proves him
both positive and moral role model for its followers. Everyone cannot be a leader as they
do not have substantial qualities of being an effective leader. Steve Jobs is another big
example of an effective leader with effective leadership approaches to lead and guide its
subordinates in order to enhance their skills along with the objective of making
appropriate utilisation of the available resources in order to attain desired goals (SacaveEm,
et. al., 2017).
Inspirational motivation: Big leaders such as Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos, etc. always believes
motivation is the primary factor for inspiring subordinates as well as junior level
employees so that desired goals could be accomplished. Steve Jobs was efficient enough to
guide their employees along with this; he was capable enough to manage to retain them
with the organization for a longer period of time. This resulted in Apple to become the
leading manufacturer of smartphones in the global market. In the same manner, Jeff Bezos
who is also known as the most effective leader of this era has utilised his strengths to the
optimum level through which his dream has come true of selling everything over the
internet. Jeff Bezos has a unique capability of analysing the quality of an employee and this
shows the effectiveness of a true leader. On the basis of employees' efficiency and
knowledge, tasks are assigned in the organization in order to reach towards the desired
vision of being the earth's most customer-centric company. Apart from this, there is
another great skill which plays a key role in making a leader effective enough to develop
positive relations with his employees and teammates i.e. communication skills. The
primary reason for the rapid growth and development of Amazon is the interpersonal skills
of Jeff Bezos. He always believes that employees are a crucial part of the organization and

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as it is necessary also for the objective of encouraging them towards the attainment of
organizational desired goals (Menges, et. al., 2015).

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