Editing Leadership (section)

===Leaders entirely control group outcomes===
In [[Western culture]]s it is generally assumed that group leaders make all the difference when it comes to group influence and overall goal-attainment.{{citation needed|date=August 2023}} This view relates to reverence for leadership ''per se'' or for "heroic charismatic leadership" - a "cult of leadership" in the abstract (as distinct from the cult of a given leader/leadership-group or from some individual-oriented [[cult of personality]]).<ref>
{{cite book
 |last1                = Salaman
 |first1               = Graeme
 |editor-last1         = Storey
 |editor-first1        = John
 |year                 = 2003
 |chapter              = Competences of managers, competences of leaders
 |title                = Leadership in Organizations: Current issues and key trends
 |url                  = https://books.google.com/books?id=gFxMaFQz1ToC
 |location             = London
 |publisher            = Routledge
 |page                 = 76
 |isbn                 = 9781134388752
 |access-date          = 16 September 2024
 |quote                = [...] this [...] conception of leadership is entirely organizational, in the sense that it involves acknowledging the inherent problems and contradictions of organization and raising the prospect that these can be solved by heroic charismatic leadership. No wonder leadership is so attractive. [...] But the current cult of leadership reveals two particular ironies [...].
}}
</ref><ref>
{{cite book
 |last1                = Farmer
 |first1               = David John
 |author-link1         = David John Farmer
 |date                 = 18 December 2014
 |orig-date            = 2005
 |title                = To Kill the King: Post-Traditional Governance and Bureaucracy
 |url                  = https://books.google.com/books?id=XDLfBQAAQBAJ
 |edition              = reprint
 |location             = Abingdon
 |publisher            = Routledge
 |isbn                 = 9781317453550
 |access-date          = 16 September 2024
 |quote                = There is a systemic character in the urge for the cult of leadership, and it extends throughout governance. It is crystallized in the deference to leadership in public bureaucracy [...]. The [[leader principle]] pervades bureaucratic thinking, just as it pervades economic theory and practice, politics, and personal lives. [...] Practice as art should refuse the one-dimensionality of the thinking that regards the leadership cult as mere common sense.
}}
</ref><ref>
{{cite book
 |last1                = Owen
 |first1               = Jo
 |date                 = 3 October 2017
 |chapter              = Myth 4: Managers are leaders
 |title                = Myths of Leadership
 |url                  = https://books.google.com/books?id=ESA3DwAAQBAJ
 |series               = Business Myths
 |location             = London
 |publisher            = Kogan Page
 |page                 = 21
 |isbn                 = 9780749480752
 |access-date          = 16 September 2024
 |quote                = [...] the cult of leadership undervalues both leadership and management, and is a source of mismatched expectations. [...] much of what is deemed to be 'leadership' is not leadership at all: it is highly effective management.
}}
</ref>
This romanticized view of leadership—the tendency to overestimate the degree of control leaders have over their groups and their groups' outcomes—ignores the existence of many other factors that influence group dynamics.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Meindl | first1 = J. R. | last2 = Ehrlich | first2 = S. B. | last3 = Dukerich | first3 = J. M. | year = 1985 | title = The romance of leadership | journal = Administrative Science Quarterly | volume = 30 | issue = 1 | pages = 78–102 | doi= 10.2307/2392813| jstor = 2392813 }}</ref> For example, [[group cohesiveness|group cohesion]], [[organizational communication|communication patterns]], individual personality traits, group context, the nature or orientation of the work, as well as [[norm (social)|behavioral norms]] and established standards influence group functionality. For this reason, it is unwarranted to assume that all leaders are in complete control of their groups' achievements.