Transformational/charismatic leadership's tranformation of the field

Abstract

I use a framework by Reichers and Schneider (1990) to explore the evolution of leadership research across time. This analysis leads to development of the doom and gloom arguments about the field in the 1970s and early 1980s. Transformational and charismatic leadership is discussed as it takes off following the doom and gloom period. That takeoff is followed by revisiting the shift to transformational/charismatic leadership and considering why some of the leading and next-generation scholars set off in this new direction. I then link transformational/charismatic leadership with more traditional approaches and finish with conclusions concerning forces for change, assessing where the leadership field is currently, and providing a future assessment with some caveats. I conclude that a crucial contribution of transformational/charismatic leadership has been in terms of its rejuvenation of the leadership field, regardless of whatever content contributions it has made. This rejuvenation came about because of what most would consider a paradigm shift that has attracted numerous new scholars and moved the field as a whole out of its doldrums.