Leadership Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 9

Leadership - Essay Example as observed that , transformational leaders who may happen to have narcissistic tendencies can apply a very powerful influence over followers, who may give them trust and respect (Stone, Russel and Patterson, 2003, p.4) as to manipulate the latter. Manipulating followers may actually be violating the latter’s very freedom as the act would amount to misleading them to choosing what is proper as free human beings. These followers may virtually submit their wills to their leaders. The possibility of this argument is due to the appeal to emotions which a key ingredient to practice transformational leadership. The source of the first criticism is the fact that there are allegedly people who were transformational leaders who led their people to destruction. Used as examples are the cases of Rev Jim Jones and Hitler. In the case of Jones, the leader caused massive Jonestown suicide after convincing his people of the value of his proposition no matter how evil it may be (Krans, B. 2007). Which could be more evil than taking one’s life by the instigation of a leader who is supposed to espouse and value life and on the greatest values on human being? The case of Hitler is too familiar to escape mentioning the same when it comes to leaders who could move their followers to attainment of objectives and goals of the group. Who could imagine that Hitler was able to have the command of his followers to exterminate millions of Jews as to offend the sensibility of human kind? Hitler and Himmler, his fanatical racist and ultimate bureaucrat what able to take control of anti-Jewish initiatives and Hitler was the ideological and political author of the Holocaust (Farmer, 2010). The reasoning behind the criticism is assumption that there is a tendency by the transformational leaders to take advantage of the emotions of the followers who may forget about the supremacy of reason because they have virtually submitted their beliefs and wills to their leader because of their