Hava Dayan and Chan Kwok-bun

What makes some lead while others follow? How do the great leaders keep their influence over the long term? These questions may be simple, but the answers have never been. Charisma holds important clues to the gaining and holding of power, yet it can easily be undervalued as mere personal charm.

Charismatic Leadership in Singapore offers conceptual, empirical, and philosophical lenses for clarifying the nuances of the concept of charisma and gauging its impact in both public and private spheres. Its authors, Dayan and Chan, provide the much- needed context, identifying how charisma manifests in social relationships with institutions, groups and individuals, and the social, economic, political, historical, and cultural factors that make charismatic leaders desired, valued, followed. The book draws upon the lives and careers of three extraordinary citizens of Singapore (Sister Prema, community activist; Kuo Pao Kun, dramatist, theatre director, and educator; and Tay Kheng Soon, architect and pioneer in green urban design) to demonstrate the social meanings of charisma and the qualities, applicable across cultures, times and settings, that keep leaders in their positions.

The book covers:

• Explaining charisma: macro, non-determinist, and constructivist views.
• Charisma in context: theory and research.
• Methodological issues in studying charismatic leadership.
• The charismatic enigma as seen through the lives of three visionary leaders.
• Structural constraints and alternative social/political/cultural perspectives.
• The agency of charismatic leadership in social construction and the transformation of meaning.

As public perceptions of leaders and leadership evolve, Charismatic Leadership in Singapore makes significant readingfor  leaders in business, government, and NGOs, as well as for sociologists, psychologists, business school professors, trainers, particularly those teaching or studying leadership, organizational and group behavior, social change, motivation and  action.