Level 5 Leaders and the Romance of Leadership Construct Sabrina Liccardo MA Dissertation (Psychology) University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg

2007 This research study examines two recent conceptualisations of leadership that have evolved from previous leadership research. They are the Level 5 leadership theory and the romance of leadership theory. These concepts have been chosen as they represent conflicting perspectives of leadership. The aim of this research study is to investigate whether a recent historical profile of publicity given to a prominent Level 5 leader lends itself to a romance of leadership interpretation. The present study addressed this aim by adopting a research methodology that is qualitative in nature and by utilising archival case history research and theory-based sampling. The two measuring instruments that were used are the items comprising the romance of leadership scale (RLS-C) and archival data. An exemplar of a Level 5 leader that has received ample press coverage, Bill Gates, was chosen. 201 articles from the following five sources and four years were collected and their content analysed: the Wall Street Journal, the Economist, Forbes, Fortune and Business Week in 1990, 1995, 1998 and 2006. The positive period included 1990 and 2006, and negative period 1995 and 1998. Once the 201 newspaper articles were randomly selected, the researcher analysed the content via 17 sub-categories. The eight sub-categories from the principles of Level 5 leadership were used as a criterion to find supportive evidence in the data for the Level 5 leadership theory. The researcher concurrently used the nine items from the RLS-C, which comprised nine subcategories as a criterion to find supportive evidence in the data for romance of leadership theory. This research study resulted in a follower-centric, non-traditional recognition of leadership as it provided clear support for the romance of leadership theory. In the positive period, subcategory 1 and 5 dominated. Four trends were extracted: Ability, Image, Philanthropy and Innovation, constituting altogether 82 percent of the total propositions. Ability was the most salient trend. In the negative period, sub-categories 1 and 5 dominated. Five trends were extracted: Power, Image, Ability, Innovation and Competition constituting altogether, 85 percent of the total propositions. Power and Image were the most salient trends. Conceptual and methodological reasons for the findings were offered, followed by a discussion of the limitations and some theoretical and practical implications. Finally, future considerations for research were suggested.