Customer Reviews

Leadership: Theory and Practice

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

 

 

There is much to like and to dislike about Northouse's book. Its main strengths are the breadth and currency of its survey of leadership theories and its simple and practical organization. On the other hand, Northouse privileges and effectively endorses certain theories over others; his rambling and gushing review of authentic leadership (the longest chapter he writes) reads like a T.V. commercial, while his treatment of the much more extensive research on leadership traits is relatively short and frequently dismissive. His bias, along with occasionally clunky prose and endless in-text APA citations, is inappropriate in an expensive text book such as this. Ironically, the two best chapters--that is to say, authoritative, broad and yet detailed, and more capably written--are not written by him, but by invited experts. One gets the strong feeling that the author has grown tired of many of the theories in his text. My recommendation to the publisher would be to keep the format but have each chapter written by an expert in the related field, and to conclude with an attempt to identify any common threads or crucial differences among the many theories. In summary, this is not a bad place to start for people interested in reading about leadership theory, but it is by no means the place to end.

I purchased this for a grad school course. The price was so much cheaper from Amazon, it fact the new book was less than the price of the campus bookstore used book. The book itself is very easy to read and the author provides definitions and explanations that are easy to remember and differentiate. There are lots of references used so the author provides a list of references at the end of each chapter. Having that is just an extra plus, also having a really good chapter summary helps too.

This is a well written textbook that I am using for a graduate course I teach called Leadership Perspectives and Practices. It is far superior to the book that I previously used in both format and style. Author Peter Northouse writes clearly and concisely in a book that provides a basic overview of all major leadership theories, as well as additional chapters on timely topics such as women and leadership, authentic leadership and culture and leadership.

Each chapter includes several short case studies that illustrate the principles covered, along with sections that point out the strengths and criticisms of each theoretical approach. The chapters are well sequenced and the book has an author index as well as a subject index.

I highly recommend this fifth edition of Leadership Theory and Practice for use as a text or for anyone who is seeking a book that provides a serious study of core leadership principles and their application.

I bought this book for one of my graduate courses, leadership theory. Every week I have to read two chapters of this book and I enjoy reading the book very much. The concepts are fluent and easy to follow. Each chapter introduces one leadership approach or theory and compare the strengths and criticisms of the theory. It also offers case studies and leadership instruments at the end of each chapter. Another great thing about this book is its easy language. English is my second language, but when I read this book I don't need to keep checking dictionary to understand the concepts. So, it makes my learning pleasant and save my reading time.

I teach a graduate leadership course and use this book along with my own, The 52nd Floor: Thinking Deeply About Leadership, in my course and it has worked out really, really well. The Northouse book provides a wealth of models that are explained extremely well, while my book provides short, quirky stories for reflection and discussion. This combo is great for students and makes my job easy.

This book is very dry and wordy. I purchased it for a leadership and mgmt course at my university. I was really excited to receive the book, only to be left disappointed. It just goes on and on about concepts and not so much about how to apply them.

A lot of what IS good in the book are things that one would know (common knowledge) so it's still good as maybe a reference book.

This is an excellent source for leadership training. The author presents his work in an academic, but easy to understand, manner. The examples and experiences highlighted are very relevant to today's learner.

This book was for a college course. Great material and theory. Delivered on time.

This textbook is repetitive and seems to be written for the sake of length. I noticed in more than one chapter that several paragraphs concluded similarly but had "different examples" given for the same conclusions.

This makes for long reading when trying to absorb information efficiently.

I purchased the electronic version of this textbook for a graduate class I am enrolled in. I like the ease of keeping my textbooks on my electronic device. However, I just began reading the book and found 3 typographical errors in the first 2 paragraphs. I find it highly irresponsible to be selling a book with these typos in it. I came back to the Amazon site and browsed through the regular textbook and these errors are not in the hard copy.

I would highly suggest that the author/publisher of this textbook review the electronic copy and make the necessary changes.