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Abstract
Successful leaders are required to ideally combine the charisma of an iconic role model, the strategic understanding of a general, the empathy of a loving mother as well as the dominance and strength of an alpha-male. We argue that this mix is rather to be found in a superhero than an organisational executive. In the present work, we compare the bright and dark sides of both on a conceptual basis and reveal three different ways of acquiring leadership skills: intuitive/born skills (Superman-Leader-Type), learned/trained (Batman-Leader-Type) and a mixture of both (He-Man-Leader-Type).
Finally, a concept is created which is based on the idea of a high level of leadership effectiveness resulting from the awareness of the dark side and an individual application of leadership dimensions. It can be concluded that transformational leaders can be seen as superheroes and vice versa. They do not obviously or necessarily have two different faces but have to organize a two-sided personality being careful not to succumb to the dark manifestation of leadership abilities.
Keywords: Intrinsic motivation, superheroes, transformational leadership style.
Introduction
"With great power there must also come - great responsibility!" (Amazing Fantasy #15, August 1962. Spider-Man story).
The aim of this paper is to reveal the bright and the dark side of transformational leadership. Leadership is always about responsibility. It is not always easy to cope with great responsibility - not for the "Amazing Spider-Man" and probably neither for today's managers.
Intrinsic motivation is highly important in every business.23 As a consequence, there is always a need to increase employees' (intrinsic) motivation. Leadership style has a great impact on intrinsic motivation.18 As a result, motivating employees is a big part of transformational leadership.53 Inspiring people is one effect of a (charismatic) transformational leadership style.53 But who can inspire people as well as transformational leaders? - Superheroes do.
The aim of this research is to reveal the bright and the dark side of transformational leadership. The goal is to investigate if it is possible to increase employees' intrinsic motivation by using transformational leaders' "superpowers". Therefore, a connection between transformational leaders and superheroes is investigated.
Executing this research is important because companies could benefit from a completely new view on transformational leadership. To ensure a focused research, the following research...