Untethering charisma from transformational leadership theory and measurement, pointing out the conceptual gaps, definitional problems, and methodological shortcomings, has immense importance for society and is vital for theory development and the empirical research that it will trigger.

Ho...

Variants of the term “charisma,” however, predate Sohm as well as biblical sources, and have roots in classical Greek mythology—the graces, Charites, and in particular the goddess Charis (Smith 1998). The term charis signifies much in classical Greek; in addition to gratitude (as in eucha...

Most scholars and lay people have some sort of implicit notion of what charisma is, the “you-know-it-when-you-see it” phenomenon. As it refers to leadership, many use the term to refer to some sort of gift, charm, or alchemic ability—inaccessible to most—that some leaders have ma...

Adding to the confusion is that the concept of “charisma” is frequently equated to or confounded with another hazy topic in organizational behavior, “transformational leadership” (Yukl 1999). And, despite the best efforts of scholars to constructively critique these two construct...