Who May Become Followers Of Charismatic Leaders And Under What Circumstances?

Using a sample of 261 students, this paper examines a charismatic leadership model. The results show that individuals with low (versus high) self-esteem are more likely to accept personalized charismatic leaders under a crisis (versus opportunistic) situation. On the other hand, the results show that high (versus low) self-esteem individuals are more likely to accept socialized charismatic leaders under an opportunistic (versus crisis) situation. These results indicate a contingency approach to charismatic leadership in which different types of followers accept different types of charismatic leaders under different situations. Implications of these results and limitations are discussed and suggestions for future research are provided.