Leadership from an Operant Perspective (People and Organizations) [Hardcover]

Judith L. Komaki (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0415098734 | ISBN-13: 978-0415098731 | Publication Date: April 21, 1998

How can managers motivate their employees? After conducting detailed field studies of work groups in settings as diverse as insurance company offices and regatta sailboats, Judith Komaki has identified two key behaviours that seem to distinguish effective from ineffective managers; monitoring workers' performance and communicating consequences. Drawing on her research over the last ten years, Komaki combines behavioural and cognitive theories of leadership and puts forward a new model for the study of leadership from an operant perspective.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Komaki is the first to pinpoint the significance of monitoring and communicating, because her studies focus on leaders' ability to maintain high-quality worker output.
–Psychology Today

Product Details

• Hardcover: 296 pages
• Publisher: Routledge (April 21, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0415098734
• ISBN-13: 978-0415098731
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,296,048 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Seminal Text in Management, May 20, 2005

By 

Jerry Pounds - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Leadership from an Operant Perspective (People and Organizations) (Hardcover)

Judy Komaki has done something that has never been done before, she systematically observed leaders (managers and supervisors)at work. Komaki's controlled study reflects the rigor of her academic speciality - Applied Behavior Analysis.

She and her colleagues recorded the precise verbal responses of leaders and correlated those findings with the performance of their workgroups. She found that the most successful managers spent time talking with their subordinates about their performance and the work itself.

She catalogued their responses into positive, negative and neutral content and systematically counted the frequency of each. Her study tells you exactly how effective managers spend their time. It is the only controlled study of leadership. Most leadership books are theoritical and based on the experience of the author; they are speculative.

This is one of the most boring books in print, but that is because Komaki is trying to be precise and quantitative, not subjective and inferential. If the information in this book could get some publicity, it would change the way leadership is defined and developed in America. Alas, scholarly works must be translated to be assimilated, and it will be awhile before the significance of Komaki's findings become known.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Surprisingly practical academic book, December 10, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Leadership from an Operant Perspective (People and Organizations) (Hardcover)

An academic book that -- surprisingly (because it's academic) -- reveals an effective way to lead and get results, a way missed by many 'practical' books on the subject of leadership.

Komaki discusses a real-world key to make you a better manager -- well, probably. The book doesn't go about claiming things it can't back up with research. All it says is: effective leaders
do these. It doesn't follow that up with, 'therefore if you also do these you will be effective as well.' (You could get killed instead, who knows?).

Much of the book, practically its entirety, is about the research behind the findings, which are revealing and very interesting reading. As for the findings itself, they are summarised in just a couple of pages. It's not a huge list of things to do that you will never remember and couldn't do anyway (i.e.,You won't find it recommending stuff like: 'be dramatic!', or 'Top 10 steps to become an effective leader').

I won't reveal the findings; it's something you can start doing this Monday and everyday on. Easy, and in my experience, seems to be effective.

Yes, the book is academic (more so than the typical books from Harvard Business Review series), but the text is more lucid than books in that series. And definitely not dry. You may need to look up a couple of technical terms (e.g., 'operant') to fully understand the text, but that's easy to do.

One weakness is that it doesn't give much guidance on how to know if you are micro-managing your people (at least not to my recollection).