The theory of charismatic leadership was first conceived by German sociologist Max Weber during the early 1900s. He described the charismatic leader as “set apart from ordinary men and treated as endowed with…exceptional powers and qualities…which are not accessible to the ordinary person but are regarded as of divine origin or as exemplary, and on the basis of them the individual concerned is treated as a leader.”11
To Weber, charismatic leaders were those capable of bringing dramatic change and transformation. He described charisma as “a certain quality of an individual personality.”12 Times of great change or upheaval tend to support the emergence of such personalities, because people seek an authority figure ...
