S. Vlad, R.V. Ciupa, and A.I. Nicu (Eds.): MEDITECH 2009, IFMBE Proceedings 26, pp. 77–80, 2009. www.springerlink.com Effectiveness of Charismatic Leadership in Romanian Hospitals Gh.A. Catana and D. Catana Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, Romania Abstract––In the present study the authors build a model of analyzing leadership effectiveness in hospitals, from charismatic leadership perspective (Value based leadership- VBL). The charismatic leadership behavior is measured through the direct followers’ perception on their leader’s vision, inspiration, self sacrifice, moral integrity, decisiveness and performance. Leadership effectiveness is measured through followers organizational commitment, work satisfaction and, respectively, work motivation. The study is an exploratory one (inquiry) on a sample of 11 top managers and 82 direct followers from 11 hospitals locate in Cluj County, an important medical center in Romania. The most important finding of the study is the positive correlation of charismatic behavior with leadership effectiveness. Keywords—charismatic leadership, leadership effectiveness. I. INTRODUCTION Even though a hospital performance critically depends on its leadership effectiveness, the hospital manager’s behavior and leadership effectiveness are two neglected subjects in Romanian medical literature. In international literature they are among the most attractive theoretical and empiric subjects. According to the findings of international GLOBE study (Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness) charismatic behavior is the most admired leadership styles in the world (House et. al 2004; Javidan et al. 2006). In GLOBE methodology, a charismatic leader has six basic cultural dimensions (styles): vision, inspiration, self sacrifice, moral integrity, decisiveness and performance. Of course, each style has a specific effectiveness and generates particular reactions from the leader’s followers. In GLOBE research, charismatic leadership effectiveness is a construct with three components: followers organizational commitment, motivation and, respectively, work satisfaction. In this context we expect to confirm a positive correlation between charismatic leadership and its effectiveness. II. THEORETICAL MODEL Charismatic Leadership (VBL) The hospitals in the sample have strong organizational cultures, history, habits, myths and heroes. These are relative stable assessment and representation criteria of hospital’s employees behaviors, believes and attitude (Lord, Brown 2001). Through communication, the charismatic manager induces in followers certain perceptions about his values, attitudes and behaviors. The manager role is to find the most appropriate means for instilling in the followers his values. If he succeeds, his values are internalized in the followers mind, pushing them to work beyond the call of duty . In the present study charismatic leadership (VBL) presumes: 1) instilling a challenging vision in executives (visionary=V); 2) intellectual stimulation of executives (I 1 ); 3) self sacrifice in implementing the vision (S); 4) integrity (I 2 ); 5) decisiveness in transposing the vision (D); 6) high performance orientation (P). So: VBL=V+I 1 + S+ I 2 + D+P. Leadership Effectiveness (LE) Leadership effectiveness is a very attractive topic in nowadays leadership literature. In the present study leadership effectiveness (LE) presumes: work motivation (M), work satisfaction (S) and organizational commitment (C). So: LE=M+S+C. Thus, the research focus is on the above mentioned components. Executives motivation. The charismatic manager motivates his followers to get outstanding results, beyond expectation. The followers have also, high motivational expectations from their leader (House, Shamir 1993). In having a strong motivational impact on followers, the leader should cooperate, generate certain psychological situations and make efforts to understand his actions motivational effects (Shamir, House, Arthur 1993). To activate his followers motivation the leader should master three types of mechanisms: affective (through which instills in followers positive emotional experiments); cognitive (through which communicates his vision) (Ilies, Wagner 2006); and volitional. Of course, the leader cannot infuse high motivations in all of his executives. This is why he needs personal (dyadic) relationship with each subordinate around each specific activity, taking into account each subordinate self and temperament. A hospital performance is not a sum of individual performances of medical and administrative staff. Individual performances might become synergic for the organizational performance only if the leader works on