When a person is acting on behalf of a group, persuading the person doesn’t affect their stance, you’d need to either persuade the group as a whole or convince that person to do something other than acting on behalf of the group. So in this case the metaphorical hard-to-reach boss is socially real, not centrally made up.
When a person is acting on behalf of a group, persuading the person doesn’t affect their stance, you’d need to either persuade the group as a whole or convince that person to do something other than acting on behalf of the group. So in this case the metaphorical hard-to-reach boss is socially real, not centrally made up.