Charismatic Leadership Within an Engineering Technology Management

Introduction

Charismatic people are often recognized as flamboyant, powerful speakers, and people whom capable to persuade others of the values of their message (Bryman, 1992). Most people believed that charismatic people were born with this special quality, while actually charisma really can be learned. Riggio (2012) emphasized that charismatic leaders are very skilled communicators by nature. These people are impressive verbally and capable to communicate to followers on a deep emotional level. Winston Churchill and John F. Kennedy are some examples of these kind of leaders (Riggio, 2012). Both of them are capable to make people adhere and obey them voluntarily.

Charismatic leaders are often found in the political setting such as president and/or prime minister. The abilities of charismatic leaders to make people willing to follow them voluntarily beneficially for an effective leadership. However, the evidences show that not all charismatic leaders have the abilities to lead. Many times people witnessed the leaders with charismatic appeals were step down from their leaders’ positions because they did not have sufficient competencies to lead.

In the engineering setting where all workers are required to have high technical and technology skills, it seems that charismatic leadership less likely to occur in this field. Nevertheless, Steve Jobs was perceived as a charismatic leader for people in the technology field. It indicates that charismatic leadership does occur in the engineering technology management, yet what qualities that the leader in this field possess that make people perceive him as a charismatic leader? Would it be as such qualities that charismatic leaders possesses generally? This paper would analyzed charismatic le...

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