Romance of leadership and evaluation of organizational failure

Abstract

PurposeUsing the lens of the romance of leadership, the authors aim to investigate how knowing the causes of negative outcomes affects the evaluation of those outcomes and the extent to which leaders are blamed.Design/methodology/approachThe authors used an experimental situation with three conditions of organizational failure, caused by leadership, employees, and unavoidable external factors, respectively. Participants were assigned to one of three conditions and then asked to evaluate the outcomes and the extent to which they blamed the leader.FindingsNegative outcomes attributed to leadership are not necessarily evaluated more harshly than outcomes attributed to other factors are. However, leaders are blamed more harshly when outcomes are attributed to internal factors, including leaders and employees, than to external factors. This tendency is even more evident when the victims of bad outcomes are customers.Research limitations/implicationsThe attributional process apparently differs between positive and negative outcomes.Practical implicationsLeaders are blamed for and occasionally expected to resign as a result of negative outcomes, despite not being actually responsible for those outcomes. Blame can be mitigated by developing good relations with the public or investors in advance and apologizing and explaining its actual causes carefully after the outcome occurs.Originality/valueThe cognitive shortcut known as the romance of leadership – the tendency of attributing results to leadership and evaluating those results according to the value attached to leadership – does not always play a role in people's evaluations of negative outcomes.