This timely, pathbreaking study of North Korea’s political history and culture sheds invaluable light on the country’s unique leadership continuity and succession. Leading scholars Heonik Kwon and Byung-Ho Chung begin by tracing Kim Il Sung’s rise to power during the Cold War. They show how his successor, his eldest son, Kim Jong Il, sponsored the production of revolutionary art to unleash a public political culture that would consolidate Kim’s charismatic power and his own hereditary authority. The result was the birth of a powerful modern theater state that sustains North Korean leaders’ sovereignty now to a third generation. In defiance of the instability to which so many revolutionary states eventually succumb, the durability of charismatic politics in North Korea defines its exceptional place in modern history. Kwon and Chung make an innovative contribution to comparative socialism and postsocialism as well as to the anthropology of the state. Their pioneering work is essential for all readers interested in understanding North Korea’s past and future, the destiny of charismatic power in modern politics, the role of art in enabling this power.

Dorothy Day died recently in New York City. With her death, the Catholic Worker Movement lost the last of its founders and leaders. In this insightful and well-documented study, Aronica answers the question whether and how the Movement has survived beyond the founders. Starting from the notion of charismatic leadership, the author converts the Catholic Worker Movement into a test case for the classical analysis of social organization. Through participant observation, Aronica uncovers and explains the system of power and authority, the process of incorporation and the services provided to the poor by the Catholic Worker Movement. The Movement's paper, the Catholic Worker, was used to help provide a typology of membership categories. The book is more than a study in the transformation of charismatic leadership; it is also a study of the place of radical social thought within American Catholicism. Aronica shows the problems that the church structure has with grass-roots activities. She also illustrates the difficulty that a grass-roots organization has in transforming itself into a functioning bureaucracy. The book adds a new organizational dimension to the growing number of books on social movements. It is well suited for an audience interested in the sociology of religion and for those concerned with a fruitful application of modern ethnographic research to classical frameworks.

Much of the writing on charisma focuses on specific traits associated with exceptional leaders, a practice that has broadened the concept of charisma to such an extent that it loses its distinctiveness – and therefore its utility. More particularly, the concept's relevance to the study of social movements has not moved beyond generalizations. The contributors to this volume renew the debate on charismatic leadership from a historical perspective and seek to illuminate the concept's relevance to the study of social movements. The case studies here include such leaders as Mahatma Gandhi; the architect of apartheid, Daniel F. Malan; the heroine of the Spanish Civil War, Dolores Ibarruri (la pasionaria); and Mao Zedong. These charismatic leaders were not just professional politicians or administrators, but sustained a strong symbiotic relationship with their followers, one that stimulated devotion to the leader and created a real group identity.

Through profiles of such entrepreneurs as Lee Iacocca, Steve Jobs and Ross Perot, the author defines and examines the qualities a charismatic leader possesses and shows the impact those qualities can have in corporate innovations.

As the leadership field continues to evolve, there are many reasons to be optimistic about the various theoretical and empirical contributions in better understanding leadership from a scholarly and scientific perspective. The Oxford Handbook of Leadership and Organizations brings together a collection of comprehensive, state-of-the-science reviews and perspectives on the most pressing historical and contemporary leadership issues - with a particular focus on theory and research - and looks to the future of the field. It provides a broad picture of the leadership field as well as detailed reviews and perspectives within the respective areas. Each chapter, authored by leading international authorities in the various leadership sub-disciplines, explores the history and background of leadership in organizations, examines important research issues in leadership from both quantitative and qualitative perspectives, and forges new directions in leadership research, practice, and education.

The author of Giants of Enterprise examines the evolving role of business leaders in the 21st century—with essential lessons from today’s trailblazers. In The Emergence of Charismatic Business Leadership, Harvard Business School Emeritus professor Richard S. Tedlow reveals how a handful of individuals have transformed modern-day leadership, making charisma essential to the role. He looks at leaders like Oprah Winfrey, Elon Musk, and Steve Jobs: three pioneers who found success by innovating their management style and using their charisma to champion their vision. Through Tedlow’s in-depth accounts of modern business history, we see how former outsiders attain power and influence, and how charismatic leadership enables the creation of revolutionary products like the battery electric vehicle and the smart phone. But Tedlow also considers the careers of people who used their charisma to mislead, such as Jeff Skilling of Enron and Elizabeth Holmes of Theranos. In this thorough examination, Tedlow shows how charisma, when combined with genuine character, can get you far.