Product Description

Leadership scholars have made many inroads in understanding leadership. However, making sense of thousands of studies and hundreds of books is a difficult endeavour, which is why many still incorrectly think that leadership is an elusive phenomenon. The Nature of Leadership is the first concise and integrated volume that addresses current issues in leadership research, including emerging topics such as gender, culture, and ethics. More than ever before, leadership is seen as critical for the proper functioning of societies and social institutions. Written by a team of leading experts, this book will provide compelling answers to the most vexing questions surrounding leadership. (20050106)

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #702762 in Books
• Published on: 2004-02-19
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 448 pages

Review
“The Nature of Leadership is a masterful state-of-the-art-and-science compendium written to appeal to researchers, students, and practitioners of leadership. This book covers the leadership landscape with both breadth and depth of knowledge and practice possible only from real experts and their proteges. It will be off my bookshelf often, as I plan to use it regularly.” (Fran Yammarino 20051101)

"In The Nature of Leadership, Antonakis, Cianciolo, and Sternberg provide a thorough review of the state of leadership research.  I was impressed with the reviews of research methods, leadership assessment, the influence of context, and ethics.  It is a must read for those who teach leadership." (Robert Hooijberg )

"The Nature of Leadership will be useful to anyone with an interest in leadership.  Its relevance extends beyond business to other social sciences and humanities disciplines as well..." (CHOICE )

"All in all, the book will be of use to both the general reader and serious academics interested in the phenomena of leadership. What is commendable is the range of issues and perspectives that have been brought together and the interesting research leads pointed out all through." (IIM Bangalore )

"We have in this compendium of chapters a nice jumping-off point for another generation of research and practice. I will return to it often to guide future research efforts or, more importantly, to guide others in their thinking. This is not a topic that is going away, and part of our job as professionals in this field is to have a keen and critical eye twoard research on leadership effectiveness and what is useful, what is good practice, and when someone makes statements or conclusions that are not justified by the data. Each will find something worthwhile here. In fact, I will be surprised if something in here does not challenge your thinking on a topic by 90 degrees." (David W. Bracken, Senior Consultant )

About the Author
Robert J. Sternberg is currently the dean of the School of Arts and Sciences at Tufts University, where he is also professor of psychology. Prior to that, he was IBM Professor of Psychology and Education at Yale University. Sternberg received his PhD from Stanford and is the recipient of eight honorary doctorates. In addition, he has won more than two dozen awards for his work. He is a former president of the American Psychological Association and is the author of over 1100 books, articles, and book chapters.

John Antonakis is Professor of Organizational Behavior in the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration of the University of Lausanne, Switzerland. He received his Ph.D. from Walden University in Applied Management and Decision Sciences, specializing in leadership and psychometrics. He was a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Psychology at Yale University focusing on cognitive psychology and leadership. Professor Antonakis' expertise centers on predictors and outcomes of leadership, leadership development, the contextualized nature of leadership, strategic leadership, as well as on work design and motivation. Apart from scientific publications, Professor Antonakis has published two books: The Nature of Leadership (with Cianciolo & Sternberg), and Being There Even When You Are Not: Leading Through Strategy, Structures, and Systems (with Hooijberg, Hunt, Boal, & Lane).

Professor Antonakis teaches courses on Leadership, Organizational Behavior, and Research Methods. He is on the editorial board of The Leadership Quarterly, Leadership, and Human Relations. Antonakis is a member of Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, the Association for Psychological Science, and the European Association for Work and Industrial Psychology.

Anna T. Cianciolo received her PhD in engineering psychology from the Georgia Institute of Technology and her MA in cognitive and biological psychology from the University of Minnesota. She did two years of postdoctoral study at the Yale Center for the Psychology of Abilities, Competencies, and Expertise (PACE). She is currently senior research scientist at Global Information Systems Technology, Inc., in Champaign, Illinois. Her current research focuses on individual differences in intellectual capability and their role in knowledge acquisition and the development of skilled performance. She has studied the development and assessment of experience-based tacit knowledge for leadership in U.S. Army officers.

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Customer Reviews

Serious, but readalbe book on leadership
Once in a while you come across a book that seems to be an authoritative guide on the topic under investigation. This book is one of those. It might be bit of a heavy read at times (if not, I could not make the previous claim); however, the book is packed with useful information, which should be beneficial to lay and expert audiences. Some chapters will really make you think very deeply about, well, the "nature of leadership" :-)

I particularly liked the chapters on ethics, methods, traits, culture, and gender. The Bennis chapter (yip, Warren Bennis, author of Geeks and Geezers and On Becoming a Leader--real classics) is a great read. The chapter on information processing models was also really unique; deep, but interesting--I never realised how important it was to "get into the mind" of leaders and followers to truly understand leadership. It seems to be an area that is ignored by many authors (I have never read a book taking a cognitive psychology tack on leadership). In all, it is a solid book--I highly recommend it.