Romance of Leadership

An Anticonventional View

The romance of leadership (ROL) theory focuses on the tremendous investments that we as followers and observers, individually and collectively, have in the concept of leadership and explores the implications of those investments. This focus has led to a rather unconventional view of leadership: as an academic discipline, as an area of practice, and importantly, as a cultural phenomenon. Indeed, ROL theory sees the study and practice of leadership as culturally embedded, that is, relying on deeply held assumptions and core values that are broadly shared, although often not articulated. This theory was developed as a counterweight to conventional leadership theories. This anticonventional view is based on a “followercentric” definition of leadership and is grounded in a social constructionist tradition.

Follower-Centric Approaches

Leadership exists at the intersection of leaders, followers, and contexts. Nevertheless, the history of conventional leadership theory and practice has tended to be “leader-centric,” that is, focusing attention mostly on leaders—their personas and behaviors. In contrast, people can develop more follower-centric approaches by shifting the spotlight away from the figure of the leader, recognizing that the reactions of followers to their contexts will, at the end of the day, determine the success or failure of all leaders. ROL theory is consistent with a follower-centric approach but takes things to a more radical extreme. It suggests that new insights can be gained by focusing attention squarely on processes connected to followers and their contexts, independently of what leaders are actually doing. ROL theory asserts that the romanticized views that followers and observers have of leaders and leadership work to ultimately define what leadership is and where and when it exists.

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