On charisma and need for leadership

Abstract

Some scholars have argued and found that the relationship between transformational leadership and outcomes can be moderated by subordinate or situational characteristics (e.g. Bass and Avolio, 1990; Podsakoff, MacKenzie, and Bommer, 1995). Still, there is insufficient evidence on this issue. In this paper we examine need for leadership (De Vries, 1997) as a moderator of the relation between a measure for charismatic leadership (Bass, 1985a; Den Hartog, Koopman & Van Muijen, 1994) and subordinate outcomes. Need for leadership is found to moderate the relation between charismatic leadership and three out of four criteria. Furthermore, we examine the relation between charismatic leadership and need for leadership. While it has been asserted that transformational leaders are able to empower and develop subordinates to become leaders themselves (e.g. Bass and Avolio, 1990; Kuhnert, 1994; Yammarino, 1994) we find a positive relationship between charismatic leadership and need for leadership, which suggests that subordinates are more, instead of less, dependent when a charismatic leader is present.leadership;character trait