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Charisma (Un)Bound

Emotive Leadership in Martha Stewart Living Magazine, 1990-2004

Boston College

Timothy J. Dowd

Emory University and Erasmus University Rotterdam

In this exploratory study, the authors bring together two areas of organizational research—positive organizational scholarship and institutional theory—to examine the discourse of charismatic leadership in the context of organizational change. The authors focus on the case of Martha Stewart and her emotional expressions in two columns she authored in her magazine, Martha Stewart Living. The content analysis revealed that the levels and ratio of leaders' positivity both correlates with and counters organizational change, blunting organizational decline and personal scandal or revealing a human, vulnerable side when times are better. The findings point to the utility of conjoining positive organizational scholarship and institutional theory: Whereas the former shows how charisma unbound can result in emotive leadership, the latter suggests that the bounding of charisma can easily occur in organizations.

Key Words: leadership • charisma • emotions • institutional theory • positive organizational scholarship

The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, Vol. 44, No. 1, 71-93 (2008)
DOI: 10.1177/0021886308314461


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