Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

Leading to inspire others: charismatic influence or hard work?

Leading to inspire others: charismatic influence or hard work? Purpose – The purpose of this paper was to examine inspiring others as a psychological construct in leadership contexts by investigating lived and personal experiences of inspiring leaders. Design/methodology/approach – A phenomenological design was used to investigate leaders' personal and lived experiences of leading to inspire others. In‐depth interviews were conducted with seven participants nominated by others as inspiring leaders based on the demonstration of five characteristics (vision, openness, transparency, passion, and being somewhat unconventional). Findings – Participant responses coalesced into five key dimensions of leading to inspire others: connecting, leading, inspiree, action, and context; enabling a functional description of the phenomenon. Furthermore, results indicated that leaders could intentionally cultivate opportunities to inspire others through interaction and effort. Research limitations/implications – Given that the paper investigates leaders' experiences of the phenomenon, further investigation into the relational and reciprocal aspects of inspiring others is required. Research has primarily focused on participants in the inspiring relationship independently of each other (i.e. either the inspiree or the leader). Practical implications – Contrary to assertions in some transformational leadership studies that personal charisma is the primary component to inspiring others, these findings indicate that inspiring others requires an active process where leaders establish interpersonal connections and enable action. Originality/value – Research on inspiration is at a formative stage. This paper represents an initial foray into the space where scholarly knowledge on leadership theory and inspiration intersect to provide greater insight into leading to inspire others. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Leadership & Organization Development Journal Emerald Publishing

Leading to inspire others: charismatic influence or hard work?

Download PDF
19 pages

Loading next page...
 
/lp/emerald-publishing/leading-to-inspire-others-charismatic-influence-or-hard-work-sUxuNaS6i6

References (90)

Publisher
Emerald Publishing
Copyright
Copyright © 2011 Emerald Group Publishing Limited. All rights reserved.
ISSN
0143-7739
DOI
10.1108/01437731111170021
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper was to examine inspiring others as a psychological construct in leadership contexts by investigating lived and personal experiences of inspiring leaders. Design/methodology/approach – A phenomenological design was used to investigate leaders' personal and lived experiences of leading to inspire others. In‐depth interviews were conducted with seven participants nominated by others as inspiring leaders based on the demonstration of five characteristics (vision, openness, transparency, passion, and being somewhat unconventional). Findings – Participant responses coalesced into five key dimensions of leading to inspire others: connecting, leading, inspiree, action, and context; enabling a functional description of the phenomenon. Furthermore, results indicated that leaders could intentionally cultivate opportunities to inspire others through interaction and effort. Research limitations/implications – Given that the paper investigates leaders' experiences of the phenomenon, further investigation into the relational and reciprocal aspects of inspiring others is required. Research has primarily focused on participants in the inspiring relationship independently of each other (i.e. either the inspiree or the leader). Practical implications – Contrary to assertions in some transformational leadership studies that personal charisma is the primary component to inspiring others, these findings indicate that inspiring others requires an active process where leaders establish interpersonal connections and enable action. Originality/value – Research on inspiration is at a formative stage. This paper represents an initial foray into the space where scholarly knowledge on leadership theory and inspiration intersect to provide greater insight into leading to inspire others.

Journal

Leadership & Organization Development Journal – Emerald Publishing

Published: Sep 28, 2011

Keywords: Inspiration; Inspiring others; Connecting; Active process; Leadership; Leaders

There are no references for this article.