Leadership Perspectives: Knowledge into Action

Citation

Turnbull James, K. (2009), "Leadership Perspectives: Knowledge into Action", Human Resource Management International Digest, Vol. 17 No. 6. https://doi.org/10.1108/hrmid.2009.04417fae.001

Leadership Perspectives: Knowledge into Action

Article Type: Suggested reading From: Human Resource Management International Digest, Volume 17, Issue 6

Kim Turnbull James and , James Collins (Eds),Palgrave Macmillan, 2008

Leadership Perspectives: Knowledge into Action (Perspectives) examines how leadership is studied and practised in the modern world. It is one of two volumes containing some of the submissions to the 2006 International Studying Leadership Conference, held at the Cranfield School of Management, England. The other, Leadership Learning: Knowledge into Action, focuses on leadership development.

Perspectives challenges the notion that leadership study should be restricted to following an individual leader. Instead, it advances the view that leadership should be studied in the context of how it operates in various environments.

Martin Wood and Donna Ladkin suggest that culture and history define the context in which leadership operates. Peter Simpson and Clifford Hill similarly argue the need to apply historical perspective to modern contexts and advance the view that leadership is emergent.

Robert French discusses the impact of results-based leadership in an organization, and how this can compromise moral standards. His solution is a “friendship” model of leadership.

Kim Turnball James, Cliff Bowman and Richard Kwiatkowski consider the challenge of defining and operationalizing strategic leadership. They argue in favor of a “main idea” to permeate the organization and its culture, setting standards and guidelines for members. In similar vein, Martin Clarke and David Butcher support a democratic approach to leadership when leaders have to balance the diverse and often conflicting views of individuals and groups.

Su Maddock indicates that, despite research supporting the value of transformational leadership, public-sector leaders tend to embrace a more directive, transactional approach.

Mike Dunn examines female leadership styles in the British Army. He finds that women lead differently from men, and offers strategies that particularly suit the female leadership model.

Alan Bryman considers leadership in British higher-education institutions. He suggests that leaders are both sovereign and slave to context.

Jean Hartley and Clive Fletcher explore leaders’ diverse interests, both in and out of the role. The authors provide a political-awareness model that focuses more on leadership “of” than “in” an organization.

Simon Baddeley describes how both politicians and public managers socially construct leadership in local government.

Joe Jaina employs case studies to explore whether a more confident leader is likely to exert greater effect in an organization confronting adversity than a measurably effective leader.

Ruth Sealy and Val Singh argue that leaders cannot reach their full potential without role models, and identify an apparent lack of female role models for developing women as leaders. This is perpetuated in environments that remain male-dominant, such as MBA programs.

Jitse van Ameijde, Patrick Nelson, Jon Billsberry and Nathalie van Meurs investigate project teams and find the influence of both external and internal factors on team effectiveness. They present a model of distributed leadership.

The book contains a comprehensive index, but one shortcoming is that there is not an author index. The citations used in each chapter are referenced at the end of the chapter. In order to locate specific works, the reader must turn to each chapter’s bibliography. Despite this weakness, the book provides refreshing, unique and interesting windows on to various conceptualizations of leadership and their application.

Reviewed by Larry W. Hughes, University of Nebraska at Kearney, Kearney, Nebraska, USA.

A longer version of this review was originally published in Leadership & Organization Development Journal, Vol. 30 No. 3, 2009.