Congratulations to our doctoral candidate Benjamin Horvath for the acceptance of the paper „Cognition and Confidence: How Structural Elements of Charismatic Rhetoric Affect Team Performance” at the 2017 Academy of Management Conference in Atlanta and, most of all, for the election of the paper as one of the Best Papers submitted to the Organizational Behavior Division of the Academy of Management (historically approx. 5% of more than 900 submissions) and the inclusion in the Best Paper Proceedings. Benjamin Horvath wrote the paper in co-authorship with Andreas König and Professor Nathan Hiller (Florida International University). The team gratefully thanks Alexander Derksen, Judith Endres, Nathanael Hammer, Josefa Lovrek, Dieter Schierer, Evelyn Schmid, Marina Schmid und Yannick Seppich for research assistance during this project.
Abstract
We investigate how a leaders’ tendency to use structural charismatic rhetoric – i.e., literary devices that have been categorized as being effective in creating the impression of charisma and greatness – influences team performance. We develop two dimensions of structural charismatic rhetoric: cognition-oriented charismatic rhetoric, which includes metaphorical communication and stories; and confidence-transmitting charismatic rhetoric, which encompasses hyperboles and the absence of filled pauses. We then incorporate theory on shared mental models and trust in leader to propose that teams led by leaders who often use structural charismatic rhetoric perform better than teams led by leaders who use structural charismatic rhetoric less frequently. Integrating threat-rigidity theory, we predict that the effect of leaders’ structural charismatic rhetoric is amplified when the team has recently performed below stakeholders’ expectations. We find support for our predictions when testing them using a large sample of communication events from 20 coaches and 553 matches in the highest professional soccer league in Germany, as well as data from the betting market. Our research is first to combine theory on leaders’ use of classical elements of speech with team research and provides a contextualized portrayal of charismatic rhetoric which could trigger fruitful conversations on charismatic leadership, teams, and context.