Charismatic Leadership and Employee Motivation - Research Paper Example

 Charismatic Leadership and Employee Motivation Introduction Any organized human activity, which is done in-group, will be most times constituted into structure called organization. Organization is a structure with a ‘collage’ of humans doing their allocated work under the supervision of a leader, for the benefit of the organization as well as them. These workers will normally be apportioned into different departments for better arrangement or streamlining of work. These workers or employees will be apportioned into different departments or roles according to their educational qualifications, experience, skill, knowledge etc. Then after the recruitment and apportionment is over, it is the duty of the leader to provide the employees an optimal working environment, in which they will work effectively. So, it is the duty of the leader is to provide an optimal working environment for its workers. From time immemorial, the success or failure of an organization or any other human activity depends on the role, the leader plays. The leader is the one who can lead humans under him/her to ‘heaven’ or ‘hell’. If the leader follows a set of traits he/ she can ‘sprinkle’ success on many lives, including the workers in his/her organization. The leadership traits should be visible and should be put to effective use when the leader, as a ‘builder’ builds a group and as a ‘founder’ launches an organization. The leader can build a group, by associating individuals who came from the same ‘stable’ like friends, work mates, family members etc and by recruiting individuals with talent, knowledge and attitude. That is, as Schein (2004, p.261) said, “... best way to build an organization was to hire very smart, articulate, tough, independent people and then give them lots of responsibility and autonomy”. With this ‘living’ group, and the material things like capital, machines, infrastructure etc the founder cum leader embark on an organization. But, in most cases, a leader will normally take over or preside over or manage an existing organization. That is, the building or recruiting of the ‘group’ of workers as well as the installation of infrastructure, set up etc, would have already taken place, with the leader only leading and managing the organization. This job of taking an existing set up and managing it, brings in set of challenges, which can be taken care by formulating certain strategies. That is, challenges can be overcome by implementing leadership programs implemented by a leader. Leadership styles Leadership is considered as the art of motivating and leading a specific group of people to function in a certain optimal way, to achieve the set targets. A competent and able leader can actualize an apt working environment for the employees, according to the needs to the situation. Needs of the situation in the sense, in an organization the situations, targets and even the obstacles will not be the same. Each day organizations would need to set new goals, face new challenges and so initiate new processes. A leader consciously or unconsciously adapts any one of the leadership styles according to the processes or situations. Then with the adapted and relevant leadership style, the leader can adjust the employees to the new processes. Leaders cannot and should not exhibit same leadership style in all the situations. Different situations might necessitate different styles and so the leader like a person having a ‘positive multiple personality’ should adapt and exhibit different leadership styles. Some of the leadership styles that can be adapted by the leader are Autocratic leadership, Transactional leadership, Transformational leadership, Situational leadership and importantly Charismatic leadership. Each leadership style has certain pros and cons, which can ‘aid’ as well as create ‘roadblocks’ to the leader. Autocratic leadership is a type of leadership style in which the leader will exert high levels of influence, power and even pressure on the employees to get the work done. He/she will have maximum control over all of the employees and also over all the processes that happens inside an organization. Autocratic leaders will formulate strategies and take decisions on their own, without seeking or accepting any opinions from their subordinates, which could include even their next level management team. Apart from taking decisions unilaterally, they will also strongly impose those decisions on the employees and will push them to reach the goals with a short time frame, expecting quick results. They would not allow any dissenting and opposition on the part of the employees, having strong hold on the employees as well as the processes. Transactional leadership was first propounded by James MacGregor Burns in 1970’s building on the earlier leadership related works by Max Weber. Transactional leadership is a ‘toned down’ style of Autocratic leadership. Transactional leaders instead of forcing will ‘tune’ or even ‘buy’ the employees to obey him/her. That is, this style starts off under the condition that the employees will listen to the leader and obey him/her while undertaking the assigned work and importantly finish the work and achieve the goals within set timeline. For accomplishing the work within the set time, the leader needs to pay the employees extra rewards or could ‘punish’ the employees, if they do not meet the pre-determined standard and deadline. This type of preset transaction deal between the leader and the employees, gives the tag of Transactional leader. Transformational leadership, considered as an antithesis of Transactional leadership, was also formulated by James MacGregor Burns in late 1970s, when he introduced the Transformational leadership concepts as part of his research on political leaders. Transformational leader is one who will create a positive change in the functioning of the employees and thereby in the organization as well. He/she will positively ‘transform’ the employees to be focused, co-operative and productive. This way, Transformational leader will make the employees focus on the organizational goals, support each other, optimize their physical and mental abilities and energy. Transformational leaders tend to be a visionary and will have a clear time line to achieve the goals. Focusing on long-term goals and setting a relaxed deadline, they seek to achieve change and transform the organisation, sometimes missing short term targets. Transformational leaders are often charismatic and possess a collection of virtues and competences, including strong self-belief. (Avolio and Yammarino, 2002) Situational Leadership style was first proposed by Ken Blanchard and Paul Herschey in 1969. The main concept behind this leadership style is that leaders should adapt and adjust their leadership style, according to the ability and the dedication of their employees. Although, imposition of leader’s views as a form of common organizational culture is a good leadership style, it cannot be the norm all the times. In organizations new situations and new problems will keep on arising with the employees at the crux, necessitating different strategies from the leader, and importantly different and apt leadership styles. This process of leader selecting an apt leadership style and adapting into his/her functioning constitute Situational leadership. Giving importance to the employees, Situational leader will adapt goals and also set flexible timeline according to the employees’ abilities, sometimes compromising on the set goals. This way, Situational leaders will be able to unite all the employees as a team. Emotional intelligence is the core of effective or charismatic leadership. Charismatic leadership is defined as “a perception or attribution bestowed upon the leader solely by followers” (Koommoo-Welch, 2008, p.6). Charisma is can also be defined as simply the influence which a leader projects on their followers (Koomoo-Welch). Further, leader charisma is also categorised as a form of emotional expression in which leaders use emotions to influence employee moods and behaviours, rather than acting in a more business-oriented fashion (Humphrey, Pollack and Hawver, 2008). Leaders can be passive or active based on their emotions. Some leaders may rule by their emotions whereas some others may rule by their wisdom. Charismatic leaders come in the second category. Leadership is an art which requires lot of skills like temperament, patience and preparation. It is not possible that a short tempered person or a person with lack of control over his emotion may become a charismatic leader. Charismatic leaders will always lead people from the front. They will take full responsibility and never shy away from taking actions even under tremendous pressure. Whenever some problem occurs in the organization, the charismatic leader will try to solve it with the help of the employees rather than blaming the employees for that. All of these definitions point toward charisma as a leadership personality trait which, if used effectively and in the right organisation situation, can theoretically provide workers with higher levels of motivation and build a stronger organisational culture due to employee perceptions of leadership charm and magnetism. Leadership and Motivation As mentioned above, it is the duty of the leader to provide the employees an optimal company atmosphere or working environment. In that atmosphere only, employees will show optimum motivation. The mind of the worker is the crucial thing that will make an organization work. Biologically, it is mind of the worker, which will make the worker ‘work’. That is, only if the mind of the worker is filled with positive thought process, it will get motivated and make mental as well physical organs work for the benefit of the organization. The motivated mind will only ‘configure’ the mind as well as the physical body, to function in an optimum way or even ‘push’ in a maximum way to derive beneficial outputs for the workers as well as the organization. Motivation among the employees can be optimized at the outset itself, only if the leader or/and manager of the organization provides the employees a favourable organization’s atmosphere. But, sometimes the organization will not be able to provide a best working atmosphere due to various factors. This will surely bring down the level of motivation among the employees to bare minimum. With less motivation, the employees will be hard-pressed to use his/hers physical and mental part to work effectively for the organization. The important aspect is, the motivation levels of the employees have to be kept at optimal levels, so that the employees exhibit optimum productivity. Today’s business organisations face many different challenges from ensuring profit expectations are met to developing a human resources focus on developing and motivating workers through leadership behaviours and personality characteristics. During the course of performing a leadership role, whether senior level or junior level, it seems that motivating workers is on the front of the leader agenda in order to improve total organisational performance. There is much emphasis today on business leaders taking a more human resources-focused approach where the needs of employees are considered most important. This view tends to view the worker as a vital contributor to the business and leadership then provides the interventions necessary to build stronger organisational support and a more contented worker and job environment. This trend seems to put a great deal of emphasis on the importance of a leader’s role, and the role of their personality in creating stronger interpersonal relationships with subordinate staff members. Because motivation appears to be an important aspect to reaching long-term company goals, measuring whether charismatic leadership, over that of other business-like behaviours, can lead toward improved employee motivation and performance would be an important study for today’s business practitioners looking for a new model by which to better develop a stronger, more focused and more dedicated subordinate culture. There are so many different models of motivation provided by research studies that it would be impossible to list them all. However, since research continues to be ongoing in this domain, this is evidence that no definitive model of motivation can be applied to every organisational environment. This makes charismatic leadership an interesting research study topic as a potential tool for fostering improved organisational unity, better employee response to business needs, and the construction of a new model of leadership using charismatic behaviours to build positive employee perceptions of leadership competence. Aim and objectives The aim of this proposed study is to identify whether charismatic leadership actually serves to improve employee motivation and willingness to perform to company expectations. To find this out, this study maintains three specific objectives: 1. How do today’s business employees define charisma? 2. To what extent do today’s employees feel connection with more emotionally-expressive leaders over that of the business-like manager or leader? 3. Can charismatic leadership improve the self-esteem of business employees? These three objectives are intended to link charismatic leadership style and personality with employee perceptions in order to provide a new model of motivation through charismatic leadership or to confirm/refute the effectiveness of this type of leadership in the contemporary business organisation. Literature review Wieseke, Ahearne, Lam and Van Dick (2009) offer a fundamental business outcome which these authors identify as organisational identification (OI), involving the process by which leaders create a sense of employee unity with the organisation. OI involves the level to which employees feel connected and a sense of belonging within the business organisation. The authors identify that charismatic leadership plays an important part in developing positive organisational identification, where when the leader effectively matches charismatic behaviours with follower OI, the theoretical outcome is stronger business performance. Organisational identification would seem to be an important part of how employees build their connection with the organisation as well as the people and systems which support it. Further, the charismatic leader was defined as positively influential as well as emotionally-expressive. With this in mind, it would seem that charisma, as part of leadership behavioural focus, can improve organisational efficiency by changing the psychological attitudes in various follower groups. Why would organisational identification be an important outcome for leadership? If the employee finds that their role is more inclusive and that they feel functional within this job environment, it is likely that they are going to have more support for the organisation and its long-term strategic mission. Sidani (2007) offers results of a recent study which found that transformational leadership attributes, including charismatic leadership, improves self-esteem in follower employees. This study offers that charismatic leaders have a certain inspirational attribute which is directly correlated with measurable improvements in self-esteem. This is highly linked with organisational identification and the level to which employees feel they are being appropriately utilised as a contributor to meeting organisational goals. Improvements in self-esteem as an outcome of charismatic leadership would seem to support the idea that charisma, as a leadership philosophy, can potentially improve organisational efficiency by assisting workers in developing a positive perception of their importance within the business environment. Higher levels of self-esteem would seem to make a more well-rounded and contributing employee, therefore the evidence offers that charismatic leadership can improve total business productivity. A difficulty of charismatic leadership, proposed by Salacuse (2006), lies in the line between high levels of charisma and perceptions of egomania. The author identifies that leaders who maintain very high levels of charisma can actually create unintended employee perceptions of narcissism where it is perceived that leaders are actually “building their empires to serve their personal interests” rather than focus on organisational profitability (Salacuse, 2006, p.28). What does this mean to this study? Salacuse is attempting to illustrate that charismatic leaders can create a form of interpersonal animosity against the leader if these charismatic behaviours project perceptions of egomania. This would seem to point out a need to use charisma appropriately, and without excess, to ensure that negative employee perceptions are not built, thus changing the organisational dynamic in the process. It is likely that if employees begin to perceive their leader, who is attempting to inject charisma into the organisational culture, as a person with an inflated ego, they will not be apt to follow their advice on business direction. If there are perceptions that the leader is attempting to use charm and magnetism to gain support for personal interests which do not have long-term gain for the employees themselves, they will likely lose trust in this leader and not be as cooperative in meeting organisational expectations for productivity and support. Because it has been identified that there is the potential for leadership behaviours and personality to have measurable impacts (either negative or positive) on employee attitudes, having just the right dose of charismatic leadership would seem to have the best results and avoid perceptions of egomania. One expert in business offers another drawback to charismatic leadership, pointing out that “charismatic leaders can actually get in the way of building an effective organisation” (Menkes, 2005, p.41). The author is offering that charismatic leaders, in their attempt to gain support from follower workers, forget about serving customers and the market environment in an effort to build personal support for the leader. This would seem to point out that whilst the manager is building stronger interpersonal relationships with internal employee groups, more important business tasks are not being considered as equally. This could create long-term problems with business efficiency and, perhaps, frustrate workers whose job roles have become more difficult by a leader who sacrifices productivity for relationship-building. Agle, Nagarajan, Sonnenfeld, and Srinivasan (2006) further offer a different view of charismatic leadership, citing results from a recent survey of 128 CEOs of major corporations. This study identified that stronger organisational performance was associated with positive perceptions of leader charisma. However, in certain business areas where organisational performance was high, there were no associations with leader charisma as being a cause for higher business performance. What does this mean? Prior to launching an organisational goal and seeing it through to its successful completion, workers seem to believe that high charisma is an important contributor to meeting high business efficiency. However, once a project has been completed and reassessed, leader charisma is not associated with employee perceptions as a tool which led to successful project completion. This would seem to point toward charismatic leadership as an employee-perceived value only during the course of project goal attainment, but is perceived as unimportant once a task is completed. Therefore, from a motivational perspective, charismatic leadership would seem to be able to help others get the job done effectively, but does not change employee attitudes over the long-term, thus potentially impact future organisational performance in certain project teams or groups. A recent study targeting managers in Sri Lanka discovered that charismatic leadership creates a unique outcome: the creation of excitement in workers (Jayakody, 2008). This viewpoint was included in this literature review as it appears to be the only research evidence where charisma is linked to elevated levels of excitement within the organisational culture. Is excitement similar to motivation? Does excitement have to be created within followers prior to being motivated to perform and does this excitement have to be created by a charismatic leader? Though this study only focused on Sri Lankan managers, if excitement is a potential outcome of charismatic leadership, this would point toward a positive change in culture which could theoretically drive higher levels of staff performance. Charismatic leadership was identified through the literature review as being both important to boosting employee motivation as well as being a potential detriment to meeting long-term organisational goals and the strengthening of interpersonal relationships if used excessively or in a manner by which employees begin to relate charisma with leader egomania. The aim of this project is to measure the extent to which employees are motivated through the involvement of leader charisma and to measure its impact on self-esteem development in follower employees. The next section describes the methodology for this proposed primary study. Research design When determining the most vital work groups to include in the study, it was decided that the responses of a sufficient mix of demographics and industries should be targeted. Because the nature of charisma and motivation could potentially impact various leadership or motivational models, it should be determined how different employee viewpoints, in different industries, vary in terms of the importance of leadership charisma for enhancing the organisational culture or improving overall business productivity. This research will take a qualitative approach to research, with the creation of two questionnaires which will be distributed to employees at different industries, and at different levels of the company. This research tool will be constructed using between 8-10 questions each, focusing on the objective criteria for this study including how charismatic leaders are able to instill self-esteem, how employees perceive the importance of charismatic leadership in the workplace, and perceptions of how vital emotional expression is for today’s business leaders. Because this study deals mostly with employee perceptions of different leadership qualities and behaviours, the qualitative questionnaire was determined to be the most valid tool. Qualitative research design, especially in somewhat open-ended questionnaires, can more thoroughly explore the human aspects of psychology than more statistical research instruments such as a closed-ended survey. The study, in order to gather a quality mix of different employee demographic responses, will target between 20 and 30 employees in three different industries. Assuming full expected participation levels, this will give the study a sample population of 60-90 respondents. The questionnaires will be distributed to these different employee groups via scheduled, in-house distribution at the different industries. After completion of the questionnaires, the researcher will return to each industry for collection of the instruments. The different industries targeted will depend on the participation and cooperation levels achieved through different discussions with each business leader or executive. However, to ensure a quality mix, a marketing-focused organisation, an industrial environment, and a retail environment will be included in the study. The specific business will be chosen when the study instruments have been constructed. This study will also utilise interviews, as part of the qualitative research approach, which will occur in all three industries. As with the questionnaires, these interview sessions will be scheduled and coordinated with different business leadership. Three employees, at differing levels of each industry, will be targeted, giving this portion of the study a sample group of nine respondents. The interview will inquire as to employee perceptions of charisma and how these aspects either are present or non-existent at each chosen business environment. Additionally, the interview will ask how leadership personality impacts self-esteem development in workers, in an attempt to uncover the psychological mechanisms which link leader behaviours to personal self-concept. After completion of the questionnaires and interviews, the data will be analysed in an effort to find linkages between charisma, the charismatic leader, and this type of transformational leader’s ability to create higher levels of motivation and self-esteem. Based on individual employee perceptions and responses, it will be determined whether charismatic leadership is actually a valid leader quality with proven positive outcomes or whether it is not considered overly-important in today’s business environments. If linkages are discovered, for example based on certain demographic groups, then this could potentially create a new model of motivation based on specific demographic group values. Alternatively, if certain industries find charisma more important in boosting self-esteem and motivation, analysis could lead to a new guideline for how to improve leadership in specific industries. The analysis portion of the study will be largely interpretative, with the researcher consulting with different academic literature to assist in analysis of responses from the questionnaires and interviews. If certain psychological trends, or social trends, are identified during analysis, examination of different secondary texts or research studies will assist in making determinations about aspects of human behaviour or personality which may not be part of the researcher’s knowledge base. Additionally, the researcher will be drawing on their personal skills and aptitudes in business and apply these understandings during the presentation and discussion of the data achieved through the study. Once the data has been analysed, trends identified in certain demographics or industries, if existent, will be graphed or plotted on an appropriate chart or diagram showing these linkages. Thus, the method by which data is represented will depend largely on the individual or group responses returned by the targeted sample groups. Timescale The majority of the time involved in this study will be in the physical distribution of questionnaires and conducting the interviews at multiple industries, as it will require coordinating these efforts in a way that is mutually-beneficial to the business leadership and the researcher. The interviews may have to be postponed or rescheduled due to unforeseen situations or other research efforts delayed due to industry approval or disapproval for the study. Below is the anticipated timeline for completion of each stage of research: Unless there are problems achieving the necessary permissions and authority to conduct interviews and distribute questionnaires, this research study should require 12-14 weeks to complete, with final submission on August 20, 2009. Resources and access to study population The procurement of different demographic sample groups was identified previously, however a contingency plan in the event of minimal cooperation with different business leaders will be to conduct the research in a public environment, such as a store or industry front. Part of this contingency would involve approaching potential respondents, with the first question asking whether the citizen is employed. If they satisfy this criterion, then each respondent would be invited to discuss their views of charisma and the charismatic leader in a more elongated questionnaire. This contingency is only in the event that gaining multiple industry approvals cannot be secured. The resources involved in the study design do not impose budget restrictions as there is no need for equipment or other physical tools during the research. The questionnaires will be designed on regular A4 paper which is within the researcher’s ability to procure without budget issues. Ethical considerations Guaranteeing that respondents’ identities are kept private is one major ethical consideration of this proposed study. Because individual interview responses will be on the more intimate level with their organisation and its leadership, there should be no method by which the reader can identify each individual or their specific business. The promise of privacy will also likely enhance the reliability of the study, because the different sample groups will be more apt to provide answers which are more honest. Another ethical consideration involves the view of the business leadership and the presence of a researcher within the organisation. During the interviews at each industry, the researcher will be required to be within each industry for several hours, thus maintaining professionalism, professional courtesy and avoidance of involvement in regular business activities must be on the researcher agenda. Other than performing the research, all other activities within the business should be restricted to only observations which can be included into the interpretative analysis portion of the study. Charismatic leadership and Motivation at workplace Motivation is the set of forces that initiates, directs and makes people persist in their attempt to accomplish a goal. Motivation is an essential thing for every human action. If the person is not motivated properly in his action or profession he will finish his works mechanically without any purpose. Leadership support plays an important role in motivating an employee to perform well. Charismatic leaders inspire their followers in many ways. Motivation is accepted as the driving force behind every human action and organizational principles; whether it is traditional or new, also give much importance to motivation in a business setup. Human actions are primarily for certain goals and anything which helps them to achieve these goals will motivate them. Traditional methods like the rewards and punishments are not enough at present and the employees are thinking something beyond that because of the changing culture, social norms and life styles. Increasing Motivation develops Emotional Intelligence One of the important aspects of emotional intelligence is the increased level of motivation. That is, only if the motivation of an individual reaches good levels, he/she will have good emotional intelligence. So, a motivated individual will only be called as emotionally intelligent. If a business wants to be more profitable and successful, the best course of action should be to ‘bet’ on its employees by making emotionally intelligent as well as a motivated lot. “While intelligence and technical skills are certainly important for success, it has been shown that emotional intelligence is twice as important in achieving excellent performance for jobs at all levels of an organization.” (Field, 2004). Among the many people or workers who function as part of the organization, Charismatic leader is the most crucial one, as they can quickly become emotional intelligent and importantly actualize that high EQ on their employees as well. If the leaders are emotionally intelligent, they will become optimally motivated. Then, they can pass on that intelligence to his/her workers, by treating them positively and thereby motivating them also. So, charismatic leaders will be emotionally intelligent, and as part of their leadership skills should motivate the workers, to make them emotionally intelligent as well. Bosses and charismatic leaders will have high EQ because they represent the organization to the public, and they interact with the highest number of people within and outside the organization and they set the tone for employee morale. (Murray) Charismatic leaders are the men/women in lead As charismatic leaders are the men/women in lead, they usually have a major impact on how the group of employees initially defines and sets as part of the company’s atmosphere. Typically, the leaders have strong assumptions about the nature of the world, the role that organizations play in that world, the characteristics that make up human nature and relationships, how truth is arrived at, and how to manage time and space. They will, therefore, be quite comfortable in imposing those views and personal cultures, on their partners and employees as part of effective company atmosphere. This initial stage imposition of founder’s assumptions, as a form of good company atmosphere is one of the good leadership traits. Because as the workers mind will be fresh in their new organizational setup and also as their mind will be willing to make a good beginning, the new company atmosphere could be easily adopted, accentuating their motivational level. Charismatic Leader will lead by example in the aspect of company’s atmosphere An effective leadership trait, that, exhibited in the initial stages of the creation of the company atmosphere is, the charismatic leader will live and work as an example for others to follow. That is, after creating the company atmosphere, he/she will be the strongest follower of that company atmosphere and the charismatic leaders will not waver from it themselves. This trait, one of the important for the leader to imbue, will motivate the workers to the maximum and make them perform effectively. Also, setting personal examples only can allow the leader to point out the faults in his workers and correct them, thereby integrating them to the company atmosphere in a more effective manner. When the organization attains some success or great success, as it accomplishes its primary tasks, the leader’s assumptions or the company atmosphere will be incorporated or embedded in a more effective manner. That is, the success of the charismatic leader’s assumptions will enable the employees to embed it into their working as part of company atmosphere. The embedding of those assumptions, can, then be thought of more as a process of socializing new members or acculturating them to the company atmosphere. This embedding of company atmosphere cannot be done in a single day, it is a slow process with each value and rules taking their own time to be absorbed, at the same time heightening the motivation level. But the process can be quickened when good success is achieved by charismatic leaders. That is, the success that results due to a certain company atmosphere will strengthen that company atmosphere in the organization. So, the role of charismatic leader is to hold on to the company atmosphere and make it work, so the workers have no other choice but to follow it. Common, feasible and effective company atmosphere to improve motivation levels In an organization, the employees like the five different fingers in one’s hand will be different from one another having different characters, attitudes, education, background etc, etc…and the unison of these different humans under a single organization to reach a target is, and will always be a difficult proposition. As these different humans could only create a different company atmosphere, the success rate will be minimal. If a common, feasible and effective company atmosphere or working culture is ‘operationalised’, through out the company, the employees will work with high motivation, with the company or organization succeeding in all its ventures. The script for this success can be scripted by the charismatic leaders of the organization. One of the important first tasks of a charismatic leader in an organization (both in a new organization and in an existing organization) is the creation of an optimal company atmosphere. That is, the task of the leader is to create a strong company atmosphere, embed that atmosphere in the working group and environment, sustain it and also rectify it, when faults occur. So, apart from policy formulation and decision-making, it becomes all more important to look at the other side of the leader, in the creation of company atmosphere. Company’s atmosphere, focusing the employees and increase in motivation level Once a common, feasible and effective company atmosphere is created, different employees can be focused on a single goal and thereby increasing their motivation level. As any organization will be a hotbed of human activity, it could give rise to groups and subgroups, which will eventually share enough experience to create subcultures based on occupational, national, and uniquely historic experiences. Once such differentiation has taken place, the charismatic leaders will find ways of coordinating, aligning, or integrating the different subcultures into common culture by making them work in a common company atmosphere. So, motivation among the employees can be optimized at the outset itself, only if the l charismatic leader provides the employees a favorable company’s atmosphere and focuses on a single target. The trait of merging different humans and focusing all of them on a single goal is one trait, the charismatic leader will importantly have. So, building an effective organization is ultimately a matter of meshing the different subcultures and the leader will do this job, by encouraging the evolution of common atmosphere, common goals, common language, common procedures for solving problems, and thereby achieving maximum motivation. That is, when commonality in company atmosphere is achieved there will maximum motivation from the employees. This maximum or high motivation will automatically translate into the actualization of targets or goals Implementation of an effective Appraisal system to motivate and retain the employees When one thinks about an industry or an office or an organization, the ‘picture’, one gets is of infrastructure, machines, etc (in case of industries) and papers, computers, cabins, etc, (in case of offices). But, the crucial thing that the mind leaves out is the picture of a working employee. Employees only form the crucial part in the running of the organization. If these crucial employees are recruited optimally, then appraised optimally and finally rewarded optimally by the leader, the organization can achieve optimum success by retaining the core group of employees. Employees can put an organization in an effective state in terms of production, sales, profits, etc. After recruiting the apt workers, charismatic leaders will appraise them aptly. Performance appraisal or employee appraisal is a method, in which the performance of an employee is evaluated, particularly in terms of productivity, time factor in productivity, quality of the work, etc. Based on this appraisal results only, employees will be given promotions, incentives and salary hikes (which will result in high motivation) - in case of positive results, training, coaching and mentored – in case of positive and negative results, and finally cut in salary, suspension or even dismissal in case of very negative results. So, an employees’ career and to an extent his/her survival hinges on these performance appraisals. Because of this cruciality, charismatic leaders will conduct it without any favoritism and bias. Objectivity in deciding who receives rewards and recognition motivates employees The key factor that could bring down the motivation of the employees and thereby cause exodus from the organization is appointing, promoting and importantly rewarding individuals who do not deserve it. If any organization, overriding tried and trusted individuals; give important posts, promotions and recognitions along with other rewards and incentives to individuals who might be family members, friends, and persons with negative influence on the leader etc, it will create negative effects. For example, if least experienced or least qualified persons in different sections of the organization are promoted and rewarded as part of the incentive program, it will lead to a lot of problems within the workforce, disturbing impact on the high performing workers, leading to loss of motivation. Equity theory of motivation states “that people have to believe that their pay is equitable with others. If they believe their compensation is not equitable, they become very de-motivated and their work performance suffers” (Stockley). Charismatic leaders will avoid this bias in the incentive program because he/she will know it clearly that it will create de-motivation and de-excellence among workers and will show the organization in poor light. Reward is another form of power which speaks of the ability of the charismatic leaders to reward a certain employee for his deeds but can lead to serious problems for the employee if there is a conflict between the two and hence the power of reward can take a back seat in this whole equation. Example of optimal reward power is when the charismatic leader gives a bonus or a raise to an employee and the employee happily accepts it with an open mind, and thereby forming a psychological connection with the leader. In many organizations, because of the ritual of awarding plum posts to the undeserving managers and employees, and shielding them when they committed mistakes, other members of the organization would band together in a kind of mutual protection ‘society’ that developed a culture of its own. They were more loyal to each other than to the organizations without any focus on the company’s goals, which will be a great challenge to the charismatic leaders. And in extreme cases and in cases of other options existing, the employees will leave the organization. So, implementing a logically and ethically correct incentive program is the key to retaining the employees and making them motivated and productive. Rewarding employees purely on merit will increase motivation Fulfilment of physical or psychological needs is important in motivating a person. Charismatic leaders often take immense care while dealing with the physical and mental wellness of the workers. Physical and mental needs must be fulfilled in order to motivate a worker. For example, recognition or praising words is a psychological need most of the workers wish to achieve whereas cash incentives are a physical need for fulfilling their commitments. Reward and punishments are the best way leaders often undertake to motivate the employees. Rewards can be intrinsic and extrinsic. Extrinsic reward is the one which is visible to others whereas the intrinsic reward may not be visible to others. For example, promotion is an extrinsic reward for outstanding performances which is visible to all. Optimum and unbiased incentive program or rewarding system will be part of any organization or performance management system because it can only motivate the employees by imbuing in their mind that their performance will surely be recognized and feted. It can only optimize the performance of the workers. “…build the psychological contract, in which employees feel valued by their employer, and the employer values (and is seen to value) employees’ contributions” (Cannell, 2009). But, if this rewarding system is biased, illogical, un-genuine as mentioned above, it could affect the performance. So, to keep the core group of good workers in a motivated state, charismatic leaders need to award the right individuals with correct inputs from the HRD. The motivation levels of the employees and thereby retention levels can be kept at optimal levels, only if the employees are rightly and ethically rewarded by the charismatic leaders. That is, allocation of rewards, incentives, promotions and also recognition to the deserving and apt employees by the charismatic leaders is an important strategy to keep the motivation and excellence at higher plane. “Provide appropriate financial incentives and rewards, and non-financial praise for the employees’ achievement” (Armstrong, 2004). That is, rewarding the deserving and ‘success achieved’ employees especially high-performing employees, will stick them to the organization, thereby increase their motivation, excellence and retention level. In an organization, the workers do their duties for personal motivations like money (salary), flexibility, career development, culture or the working environment, but their motivation and excellence will get a great boost if they receive additional financial rewards, promotions and recognitions. This perspective is fully supported by Herzberg theory. That is, according to Herzberg's two-factor theory, good wages are good motivational factor, which can accentuate the excellence level. If a goal is set and the rewards part of the job is revealed before hand by the charismatic leaders, then the workers will motivate themselves and will surely work in cohesion and importantly with excellence to achieve success. Also, rewards, promotions and recognitions to deserving workers will motivate others also, to reach that status. That is, the unrewarded employees will feel isolated or ignored, and so would put in more optimal work to reach the status or performance of the rewarded employees, thereby getting rewards for himself/herself. This way, with motivation flowing and retention optimized, charismatic leaders can quickly get across their main goals by appropriately linking rewards and punishments to the activities of the employees Interactive Company atmosphere promotes motivation In any organization, there will hierarchical structures, with the leaders and the employees separated both physically and mentally. This separation particularly the absence of mental interaction will also affect the motivation level of the employees. That is, if mental interaction is developed by the charismatic leaders and the management with the employees, it can increase motivation to high level. The mental interaction can be maximally held during the decision making and other process. That is, during the process of decision making, one of the approaches the charismatic leaders could try is, putting for discussion their thoughts, targets, strategies, plans, etc, goals among the workers, and involving them productively. This strategy will have unexpected at the same time favorable results, because one may never know from where, when and importantly from whom a great idea could come. “Don't tell people how to do things, tell them what to do and let them surprise you with their results” (Patton). So, involving and allowing co-workers to play a part in the decision-making process will give them great motivation to perform better. Charismatic leaders will always avoid prejudices, biases and personal interests while allocating duties to the subordinates. The equity theory at workplace states that, people will be motivated automatically if they are treated fairly and equally. Charismatic leaders always treat all the employees fairly in order to achieve maximum productivity from them. The employees will never develop a feeling that the leader is treating the employees differently based on the gender, culture, race, designation or intellectual level. Charismatic leaders will take extreme precautions while assigning jobs. The employees must feel that everybody treated on their merits and the manager has not done anything with prejudices or biases. Providing a perfect and comfortable physical working environment promotes motivation As discussed above, the organization and the leader will provide a company atmosphere which enables more interaction between the employees and the management. That is, charismatic leaders will provide a perfect and comfortable physical working environment that promotes interaction between the employees as part of its company atmosphere. For that, the best option the charismatic leaders will try is going for an open-office layout, which promotes motivation. That is, cubicles will be preferred instead of offices with doors. Because in an office set up where team work will have a prominent place, face to face interaction would bring in more ideas and motivation, than one calling other into a closed room and having a closed discussion. Also minimization of the use of status symbols such as private offices, special dining rooms for executives, and personal parking spaces will also be curbed down. This is one of the important needs because it will give even the lower staff, a motivation filled feeling that all are treated equal, irrespective of the salary, experience, etc. So, instead of special rooms, many conference rooms and attached kitchens will be setup to encourage people and interact comfortably. “…a firm understands its environment and fashions a response to that environment at the macro level” (Boyacigiller, Goodman, Phillips, 2003). This environment will make the workers stay, at office, an enjoyable experience at the same time encouraging experience. In above discussed physical environment, the workers mental thought process will function effectively and thereby increase the motivational level of the workers. Conclusions The organized human activity under the structure of organization has to be carried out with precision, for it to succeed. But, precision in organizing or planning cannot be done without the initiatives and the fullest co-operation of the motivated and hard working employees. The leaders of the organization only have to optimize the motivation level of the employees by formulating, adopting, actualizing and embedding an optimal company atmosphere. Then as part of that atmosphere, the allocation of rewards, incentives, promotions and importantly appreciation to the deserving and hard working employees will also increase the motivational levels. That is, awarding the deserving and ‘success achieved’ employees will stick them to the organization, and importantly will motivate them to give better results. So, if a goal is set and the motivation level is heightened, then the workers can work in cohesion to achieve success. So, higher the employees’ motivation level, higher will be the organization’s growth. And, if all the parts of an organization conduct this way, they can be fully utilized to have ubiquitous presence all over the world for the organization Leadership has a lot to do in order to motivate the subordinates. Leadership styles, approaches and traits can affect the performances of both the organization and the employees. A charismatic leadership is essential for an organization to grow properly. Only a charismatic leader might be able to account for the individual differences of the employees. The leader must act based on the situations in order to become more effective. It is not possible for a leader to stick with same strategies always. The leader will look for the wellbeing of the organization and the employees. A charismatic leader would be able to achieve a careful blending of the organizational needs and the employee wellness, both at the same time. The physical and mental needs of the employees will be addressed by the leader in order to build the essential rapport between the employee and the leader. Motivation is an important phenomena required to derive maximum out of an employee. Reward and punishments are some of the traditional methods undertaken by the traditional managers in order to motivate the employees. But because of the changing culture and tradition, new methods need to be devised for motivating the employees. Motivational factors are different for different employees and hence a standardization or generalization of motivation theories seems to be difficult. Social, political, economical, cultural and communal factors can affect the employees’ motivation for a better work. Because of the dissimilarities in the above aspects and individual differences, generalization of motivational theories is difficult. Even though there are some common elements like better pay, recognition, freedom at workplace, better work environments etc in the in the motivational factors, the degrees and extent up to which these factors affect each employee may be varied and hence generalization seems to be out of question. References Agle, B., Nagarajan, N., Sonnenfeld, J. and Srinivasan, D. 2006. Does CEO charisma matter? an empirical analysis of the relationships among organizational performance, environmental uncertainty, and top management team perceptions of CEO charisma. Academy of Management Journal. 49(1), p.161. Armstrong, M 2004, How to Be an Even Better Manager: A Complete A-Z of Proven Techniques, 6th Ed, Kogan Page, London. Avolio, B.J., Yammarino, F.J. 2002, Transformational and Charismatic leadership: The Road Ahead, Elsevier Science, Oxford, UK. 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