Heroes or Villains? Corruption and the Charismatic Leader

We extend current research about corporate corruption and charismatic leadership by developing a multidimensional model involving stakeholder pressures, environmental factors, charismatic leaders, and their followers. Specifically, we propose that stakeholder pressures place strong demands on leaders of organizations, increasing the motive for, and likelihood of, corrupt practices. Furthermore, opportunity for corruption increases due to specific environmental factors, and through charismatic leaders' ability to create façades and influence followers to participate in, enable, or hide wrongdoing. We examine the implications of the "dark side " of charismatic leadership, that is, a "villain" charismatic leader concept rather than focusing on the "heroic" capabilities often studied in leadership research, and answer the call for studies that incorporate situational context (e.g., environmental pressures) into leadership research (Conger, 1999).