Depicting Israeli kibbutz leaders as charismatic despite oligarchic dominance

What is it about?

Mostly authors depicted leaders of kibbutz's three federations as charismatic although they were at first transformational leaders, i.e. innovators who lead radical organizational changes, and after 12-14 years at the helm became oligarchic conservatives for another three decades. The leaders helped this mistake by adopting charismatic leadership postures that convinced followers and students; innovative mid-levelers filled the leadership vacuum created by leaders’ dysfunctional conservatism, resuming economic success of the kibbutz movement while further abandoning its radicalism and its contribution to advancing Israel's social ideals.

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Photo by Joel Muniz on Unsplash

Photo by Joel Muniz on Unsplash

Why is it important?

Such major deluding of both almost all researchers and hundreds of thousands of kibbutz members and ex-members for a half of century have to warn social science students, political decision-makers and the public against concealment of such leaders' self-serving intentions, the negative nature of their leadership, the destructive direction they lead and the many low-moral loyalists who support them for various negative reasons. Worse still, their loyalists and believers continue suppressing critics who called the bluff and sought renovation of the original radical democratic and egalitarian culture of kibbutz after these leaders passed away.

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