Paper Crown

Having fake or unusable power in an organization. Any orders are usually not followed and the leader is not respected by subordinates. The leader/manager may have power on paper but does not have the ability to influence others. Employees will often ignore their authority.

Refers to how a King that wears a gold crown has legitimate power under God. However instead the crown is fake and flimsy like paper. It can easily fall off or be destroyed.

John may have just gotten promoted but he's wearing a paper crown and it's about to get windy...
John only got promoted because he plays golf with the boss, I just ignore his emails.

The new boss just got hired from outside the company and is a complete moron. Ignore him and just keep doing things the way we were before.