Customer Reviews

Leaders and the Leadership Process: Readings, Self-Assessments, and Applications

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I used this book to teach an undergraduate course on leadership. The book was not my choice. The articles and research were edited in such a way that the reader really didn't feel that any of the theories were supported or substantiated by the data.

If it was the authors' intention to leave room for personal reflection and opinion, they succeeded. As for the assessments, the text, including the instructor's manual, provided little direction for interpretation.

I wish Pierce and Newstrom spent more time on and went into greater detail with the chapter introductions.

(2nd ed.) This book is a compendium of 44 articles on leadership, intended for higher education audiences, especially management students in college. The authors also include 19 self-assessment instruments for the reader. The book finishes with 11 case studies and "experiential" exercises (as opposed, I guess, to cognitive exercises?).

The topics are slanted toward social-psychological (roles, gender effects, group dynamics, leader behaviors, cross-cultural contexts, and so forth). As a result, the writings can be tediously "scientific." The book is very well referenced, but, as the authors state, it is not a review of the leadership literature.

The cover drawing is one of five people putting sails on a boat that is not in the water. I presume this is sort of a Magritte comment on leadership. I think it also is a comment on the patchwork tedium of the subject. And after all the sails are on, what does one know about leadership? And, is one a leader?