Here is the synopsis of our sample research paper on Charismatic Leadership. Have the paper e-mailed to you 24/7/365.
Essay / Research Paper Abstract
This 5 page paper explains why leaders such as David Koresh and Charles Manson had so much power over their followers. Charismatic authority is defined and explored along with the motivation of such leaders. The propensity of ordinary people to join cults is also addressed. Bibliography lists 5 sources.
Page Count:
5 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_Charlead.doc
Buy This Term Paper »
Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
self-doubt, of coercion and charisma, every one is susceptible. One wonders if that is really true. Are leaders with charisma so influential as to transcend all boundaries or are certain
people more susceptible to the call of the cult leader? Are these leaders really special or just possess certain personality characteristics or psychiatric disorders? Goode reports that social scientists have
over and over again shown that most people follow orders from a presumed authority, whether or not the orders contradict conscience. For example, a famous experiment conducted by psychologist Stanley
Milgram demonstrated that 65 percent of the subjects delivered what they believed were high-voltage shocks to another human being when told to do so by an experimenter (Goode).The implications of
this study are shocking as well. It shows that people are unduly influenced by authority and rarely listen to their own intellect and conscience. Interestingly, in this experiment, the figure
did not have charismatic authority. Nevertheless, the authority was given this person by virtue of his position or traditional authority. Authority is generally defined as one having the right and
the power to act. Max Weber broke the definition down into three subcategories which are legal-rational authority, traditional authority and charismatic authority (McLeish 64). The first is essentially the right
and the power of the government to act; it is the implementation of formal rules by the society. The second type of authority that Weber designated is traditional (64). This
is not as clear cut. Traditional authority involves the acceptance of rules that have been handed down. Thus, rules based on religion or custom would fall into this category.
Charismatic authority is quite a different story and somewhat of an enigma. By virtue of attractive personality characteristics, a man or woman acquires authority because the people believe in his
...