Customer Reviews

Leadership: Theory and Practice

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Now in it's fourth edition, this book is written to attempt to bridge the gap between the simplistic popular literature and the more abstract theoretical approaches. It does this with a layout approach I have not seen before. It uses two color printing throughout and usually the theory about a situation is printed on the white pages and then a case study is printed with a blue background. The case study directly relates to the problems addressed by the theory. There are no answers to the case studies as in real life there are often no answers. This gives the instructor ample room to open discussions and provide guidance.

The new edition of the book includes two new chapers:

Culture and Leadership - examines the latest research on culture, its dimensions, and ways in which culture affects the leadership process.

Women and Leadership - examines the styles of female and male leaders and their effectiveness, the causes of the glass ceiling and how it is being broken.

Finally, various changes have been made throughout the book to clarify some issues, expand on some others, include new research and so on.

Northouse writes engagingly and clearly and presents an excellent primer on managerial leadership. The book covers all the main elements needed to gain an understanding of the topic as well as the general progress of leadership theories and their application in a managerial context.

Each Chapter is dedicated to an approach starting with the Trait Approach in chapter 2 (after an introduction to leadership in chapter 1) and culminating with Contingency theory. All the chapters are organized in a consistent and logical manner starting with (1) a description of the theory; (2) how does it work; (3) its strengths; (4) weaknesses; (5) applications and then some (6) case studies. This makes Northouse's treatment very straightforward and combined with his writing style, both an enjoyable and educational read.

However, while this book is probably the best introduction to the topic, readers looking for more in-depth information or a more academic treatment would probably be better serve with Yukl's "Leadership in Organizations (7th Edition)."

Overall this book is very well done! Concise layout with good balance of theory and application. Pro/Con sections can be a bit ambiguous, but great reference and practice study book. Well done Northouse!

If you want to know about leadership theory then this book is for you. Not only does the book explain each theory it also provides real life case studies for you to enhance your knowledge. There are even some leadership surveys included that you can take to assist you in determining your leadership style. The organization of this book is excellent and it is easy to read. I highly recommend it.

This is a really good book both in terms of content & ease of reading. It discusses about variety of views on leadership. I would say this is a more practical book.
Case studies and personal leadership assessment questions/tests at end of each chapter helps reader to understand his/her position & how to apply those concepts for a given situation.

I purchased for a class, the reading is easy to understand and this new edition has a chapter related to culture and leadership that previous editions don't have which I found useful. Overall a good book worth reading.

This book is used for my Leadership course. It is not too dense, and each chapter follows the same, easy-to-use format. The case studies give more life to the theories presented in each chapter.

I bought this book as a text book for a leadership class. It is very handy, so far read the first 3 chapters. Gives very good and easy to read details on definition of leadership, ways of looking at leadership. Leadership as traits, leadership as skills, leadership as an interactive process, and more. Gives good comparison between leadership and management, covers commonalities. Has good concise case studies (with no answers - got to work with a mentor or instructor on that), some self-assessment tools, like leadership trait questionaire. Overall all it is a very good reference on the topic and also provides plenty of practical examples, case studies and tools to use right away, book is easy to read and follow, paper is not glossy hence very easy to read and does not reflect light, text is black / blue, well organized. Good buy for the buck !

I hated this book. It was part of the most boring class and the reading is extremely boring. It was pared, in my class, with nonsense quizzes that ask the most odd questions.

It is filled with lots of interesting information about leadership, I needed it for a graduate class and it is not too boring.