romance of leadership
the tendency for both organizational experts and laypeople to attribute organizational outcomes to a leader’s influence rather than to other interpersonal and situational factors, due in part to the romanticized, heroic conception of the role of leaders in businesses and organizations. [coined in 1985 by U.S. organizational psychologists James R. Meindl (1952–2004), Sanford B. Ehrlich, and Janet M. Dukerich]