This article explores what happens when leaders and leadership becomes virtualized
through the mass media and proposes the Virtual Leader Construct (VLC) – a
non-human image of a leader who is purposefully created by an organization. Using
examples from the fast food industry it is proposed that there are three orders of
the VLC: VLC as an imitation of a former flesh-and-blood leader; VLC as a creative
re-representation of a former leader; and VLC as a fabricated leader with no direct
relation to an actual person. It is argued that VLCs can and do perform potent
transformation leadership functions for organizations – functions that are
further enabled the more they are virtualized.
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