Charismatic Leadership Behavior and An Affective Events Model - Walter & Bruch - Article

This article integrates existing research and a more comprehensive perspective of leadership into a conceptual framework, in which factors such as type of leadership and contextual characteristics are taken into consideration.

Individual antecedents of Charismatic Leadership Behavior

From a demographic perspective, women are more likely to behave as a transformational leader and also age is related to the behavior as transformational leader. Furthermore the cognitive ability of a leader is positive related with transformational leadership even as the personality traits proactivity, risk-taking, self-confidence and social sensitivity. Positive moods and emotions are generally strengthening charismatic leadership. Last, much research has been done on Emotional Intelligence, which is really important for a charismatic leader.

Contextual antecedents of charismatic leadership

Contextual antecedents include position characteristics, which can be defined as the position of the leader within the organization. Besides that, social context characteristics, organizational characteristics, crisis situations and national culture are factors which belong to the contextual antecedents and therefore influencing charismatic leadership.

Affective Event Model

The Affective Event Model is based on the Affective Events Theory, which distinguishes affect-driven behavior from judgment-driven behavior. Affect-driven behavior is the behavior caused by individuals’ moods and emotions, where judgment-driven behavior is caused by individuals’’ work attitudes. This theory also integrates contextual aspects with individual determinants of employees’ behavior. To summarize the model:

1. Charismatic leadership can influence either affect-driven elements or judgment-driven elements.

2. Leader’s emotional intelligence is a moderator on two relations: the relation between leader positive affect to leader work attitudes (a leader can perform charismatic behavior, even if he doesn’t feel that way) and the relation of leader positive affect to charismatic leadership behavior (reduces the effects, high EI leaders can easier retain to positive work attitudes.

3. The leaders’ context factors are categorized into two groups: context features, which shape the job characteristics, demands and constraints, and context features that influence leaders’ positive feelings through the work events. Context factors shape the work attitude of employees.

4. The personality of leaders influences their affective reactions.