THE CONSTRUCTION OF LEADERSHIP IMAGES IN THE POPULAR PRESS - THE CASE OF BURR,DONALD AND PEOPLE EXPRESS

To explore the social construction of the concept of leadership, we studied the rise and fall of Donald Burr and People Express, one of the most celebrated sagas of business management and entrepreneurial spirit of the last decade. We examined the image of Donald Burr projected for readers by the popular press throughout the changing fortunes of People Express. Content analyses of image descriptions and metaphors revealed that the image of Burr was reconstructed so as to account for the dramatic performance failure of the company, but in a way that also maintained consistency with previous constructions. Various forces that converge to affect image reconstructions are considered, and the implications for understanding press organizations, organizations in general, and leadership are discussed.