On the leadership among Polish Roma

Natalia Gancarz

The article presents an initial attempt to provide basic information on the leadership among Polish Roma in the context of its two types: traditional and modern. The author intends to present the problem of leadership in the broader perspective of the conceptions of authority and leadership in general. The analysed data have been collected in the framework of the research project „Social and cultural aspects of the construction of leadership attitudes among Polish Roma” financed by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education (Competition No 37) and carried out at the Warsaw University. The two models of leadership are constructed with respect to particular features that are preferred within Roma communities. Traditional leadership is grounded in clearly defined qualities, skills and experience. That kind of leader is first of all expected to have practical knowledge about the daily as well as the festive functioning of local Roma communities. Modern leadership is represented by the leaders of Roma organizations. There is a significant difference between the two types of leadership: in the traditional model a person becomes legitimized prior to the actual functioning in the role of a leader while a modern leader must get legitimization through the activities for the community. Modern leaders represent progress and development while traditional ones guarantee constancy of moral principles and integrity of a group.