Leadership Classics

Citation

Timothy McMahon, J. (2011), "Leadership Classics", Human Resource Management International Digest, Vol. 19 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/hrmid.2011.04419daa.015

Leadership Classics

Article Type: Suggested reading From: Human Resource Management International Digest, Volume 19, Issue 4

J. Timothy McMahonWaveland Press2010,ISBN: 9781577666387

One of the most valuable tools for an aspiring or practicing academic, or a working manager, is a collection of key readings on the study and application of leadership. J. Timothy McMahon’s Leadership Classics is a recent compilation of 50 selected leadership articles that deserves a spot on the bookshelf of serious scholars of the study of leadership. Working managers will also benefit from having a copy of this volume within reach.

Although the title specifies “classics” the volume has, sprinkled throughout, more recent treatises on the various leadership topics. A more appropriate title might have been Leadership: Classic and Contemporary Readings.

A quick search of any academic database will reveal thousands of articles, studies, and dissertations about leaders and leadership and anyone reading this volume may question why certain works were not included. However, choices must be made and McMahon has done a commendable job in identifying the works with most impact to include in this book.

McMahon presents 50 key writings from the rock stars of leadership study – Locke, Bass, Stogdill, Mintzberg, McGregor – and others too numerous to mention here, but with equally valuable contributions. The articles are split into six categories: process and roles, traits, behaviors, situational, power and influence, and enhancing effectiveness.

At first glance, this categorization represents the typical progression of leadership study over the past 110 years. However, the articles in each section have been selected to maximize the categorical message.

The crowning achievement of this volume is the sixth section: enhancing leader effectiveness. While the other sections contain a healthy mix of seminal and more current comment, this final section is a collection of the top thinking and writing in recent history and includes reflections from Bossidy and Charan, Buckinham, Bennis, George and Covey, among others.

A useful preface is followed by a chronology of the originators of selected concepts of leadership. The chronology is especially useful as a review tool for academics who occasionally teach a section of leadership, or a chapter on leadership in another course. Each of the six sections is also prefaced, briefly. Each section concludes with a list of study questions and classroom or seminar activities.

McMahon has compiled compelling discussion questions and meaningful and workable activities easily adapted for classroom use. The only real shortcoming of this work is its lack of an index.

Leadership Classics is filled with rich seminal and current research and thought on the discipline of leadership and its value to the development and sustainability of contemporary workers and organizations.

Reviewed by Larry W. Hughes, assistant professor of business, Nebraska Wesleyan University, Nebraska, USA.

A longer version of this review was originally published in Leadership & Organization Development Journal, Vol. 31 No. 7, 2010.