Routledge Charismatic Leadership: The role of charisma in the global financial crisis

As featured in the BBC Radio 4 series Charisma: Pinning down the Butterfly and the BBC online magazine article Did big personalities worsen the financial crash? available here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-34021088 Why is charisma so crucially important to today’s corporations? And how might its misuse have been responsible for bringing the world’s financial system crashing to its knees? Charismatic Leadership: The role of charisma in the global financial crisis provides a theory-driven and intuitively appealing analysis of the role that charisma played in the global financial crisis of 2008. It looks at how charismatic leadership can contribute to organizational effectiveness, but also considers the destructive potential of its darker side. It examines the role of charisma in fuelling investor irrationality, and the endogenous instability and boom-and-bust cycles that characterize the markets. This book unites both academic and practitioner-led approaches to produce a text that is at once stimulating and informative. Expert insights written by financial sector leaders in the ‘View from the Markets’ sections, alongside mini case studies and end-of-chapter questions, enable the reader to consolidate key theoretical points covered in each chapter. It will be of interest to advanced students and scholars in the fields of leadership and organizational studies, as well as professionals with a keen interest in this area. Review ‘Entertaining and highly informative, Zehndorfer shines an intriguing light on the drivers and accelerators of the recent global financial crisis, interweaving academic theory with a painstaking take on key events, figures and organisations. The role of charisma in the perpetuation of market boom-and-bust cycles tends to be overlooked, while this book brings to light its powerful amplifying effect on institutional actors in financial markets. This work provides great value to financial markets professionals and any individual wishing to gain further insight into the origins of the crisis past, and into precursors and certain tell-tale signs of future market dislocations. This book adds great value to the study of financial markets crises and the importance of charisma of key leaders in behavioural finance. A great read.’ - Andrey Panna, Portfolio Manager, Tenax Credit Opportunities Fund, Tenax Capital. ‘Zehndorfer's Charismatic Leadership is the first book of its kind that sought to deconstruct the role of charismatic leaders in fuelling the fires of market fragility and the cyclical boom-and-bust nature of the financial markets. A must read for any scholar or practitioner wishing to gain further insight into the powerful role of charisma in the origination and perpetuation of financial markets crises.’ - Thomas Pang, CEO, Keppel Telecommunications & Transportation Limited, Singapore ‘Dr Zehndorfer provides a more than useful explanation of the financial crisis at the end of the 2000’s. However, more importantly, regardless of industry or business, she explains how to assist in recognising the warning signs of the next crisis.’ - Paul Naysmith, Quality Management Author and Fellow of the Chartered Quality Institute About the Author Elesa Zehndorfer is currently the Research Officer for high-IQ society British Mensa and a Research Associate of the Bhubesi Pride Foundation. Formerly Secretary of the International Federation of American Football (2011–2015), Dr. Zehndorfer has held senior lectureships in both sports and business faculties, and has presented at a number of North American and European conferences. Author of Leadership: A Critical Introduction (Routledge, 2013), Dr. Zehndorfer obtained her PhD from the Institute of Sport & Leisure Policy at Loughborough University in 2006.