The Organization of Charisma: Promoting, Creating, and Idealizing Self

Abstract

This paper focuses on charisma made possible by organization. For such charisma to emerge, two conditions are necessary. The first condition is that potential members perceive in the organization, something of profound significance for their lives. The second is that the organization offers the means through which this profound significance may be attained. Based on these two conditions, three charismatic relationships are described: the self-promoting, the self-creating, and the self-idealizing. In order to provide a more fully detailed account of the relationship between member expectations and satisfaction by an organization, an interpretivist study, which focuses on the way in which charisma is organized and sustained, is presented.