Jeffery Harvey
For years, I'd have students come into my doctoral classes eager to cite Northouse. I had read scanned snippets of earlier versions, but I set about to read the latest version I could find cover to cover. From a content standpoint, it did not disappoint. Northouse provides an introduction to a range of leadership theories, and the consistent structure of the chapters, though a tad dry, is effective at giving readers comparative points for the theories/approaches included. The book was a dense read, but it was not a hard read. Each chapter took me about an hour, give or take just a few minutes.
The only chapter with which I'd quibble regarding content was the final one of team leadership (contributed by a guest author). I have studied shared and distributed leadership, and I found that chapter to be a bit limiting because of an over-reliance on process. I fully admit that the chapter focused on team leadership rather than shared or distributed leadership. Thus, the structure related to the work team context. Still, there were some passages that tried to integrate shared and distributed leadership into the team context, and I did not feel the author was as successful as she could have been.
The reason this book did not receive a five-star rating from me is its publishing. It's a Sage book, and I have always found Sage to be a quality publisher with solid editing. Yet, this edition was littered with typos and mistakes, ranging from missing spaces between words to obvious misspellings in section headings (e.g., "Inclusjve" instead of "Inclusive"). If this is the direction in which Sage is heading, it will soon find itself knocked off its pedestal as a quality publisher of leadership and management texts.
For years, I'd have students come into my doctoral classes eager to cite Northouse. I had read scanned snippets of earlier versions, but I set about to read the latest version I could find cover to cover. From a content standpoint, it did not disappoint. Northouse provides an introduction to a range of leadership theories, and the consistent structure of the chapters, though a tad dry, is effective at giving readers comparative points for the theories/approaches included. The book was a dense read, but it was not a hard read. Each chapter took me about an hour, give or take just a few minutes.
The only chapter with which I'd quibble regarding content was the final one of team leadership (contributed by a guest author). I have studied shared and distributed leadership, and I found that chapter to be a bit limiting because of an over-reliance on process. I fully admit that the chapter focused on team leadership rather than shared or distributed leadership. Thus, the structure related to the work team context. Still, there were some passages that tried to integrate shared and distributed leadership into the team context, and I did not feel the author was as successful as she could have been.
The reason this book did not receive a five-star rating from me is its publishing. It's a Sage book, and I have always found Sage to be a quality publisher with solid editing. Yet, this edition was littered with typos and mistakes, ranging from missing spaces between words to obvious misspellings in section headings (e.g., "Inclusjve" instead of "Inclusive"). If this is the direction in which Sage is heading, it will soon find itself knocked off its pedestal as a quality publisher of leadership and management texts.
Added to listOwnedwith 1 book.
As is becoming a late-2024/early-2025 theme for me, this book was a tough one to rate. Its title specifically references the nonprofit sector, yet there is very little in the text that is specific to nonprofits (beyond vague references to the importance of nonprofit work). I understand the authors have extensive nonprofit experience, and in that sense, I appreciate that they did not overreach.
In full disclosure, I used this book as one of several resources for a course I taught on nonprofit management. I meant it as the accessible resource, the one that students could keep at arms reach and open for direct, succinct, X-Y-Z advice. In that sense, this book functions wonderfully.
There is nothing in this book that is not covered ad nauseam in other management texts, and I would not even say there is anything here presented in a total unique way. I feel bad saying it, but there is nothing memorable about the book. It is a strange fit for Jossey-Bass. Their texts, in my experience, have been "practically theoretical," and by that, I mean that they have been theory heavy but have attempted to give readers ideas on how to implement said theory. This text, though, feels more like a split between practice and self-help. Green and Hauser disclose some theoretical underpinnings, but I found there to be minimal discussion of why these topics were of importance to the nonprofit (or any) manager.
I recognize that I have been hard on this book. When I used it in the aforementioned class, my students indicated overall satisfaction with it. They found it accessible and helpful to their development. That placement suggests to me a contextual consideration for selecting this title - it is a solid text for the aspiring, inexperienced manager (nonprofit or otherwise).
As is becoming a late-2024/early-2025 theme for me, this book was a tough one to rate. Its title specifically references the nonprofit sector, yet there is very little in the text that is specific to nonprofits (beyond vague references to the importance of nonprofit work). I understand the authors have extensive nonprofit experience, and in that sense, I appreciate that they did not overreach.
In full disclosure, I used this book as one of several resources for a course I taught on nonprofit management. I meant it as the accessible resource, the one that students could keep at arms reach and open for direct, succinct, X-Y-Z advice. In that sense, this book functions wonderfully.
There is nothing in this book that is not covered ad nauseam in other management texts, and I would not even say there is anything here presented in a total unique way. I feel bad saying it, but there is nothing memorable about the book. It is a strange fit for Jossey-Bass. Their texts, in my experience, have been "practically theoretical," and by that, I mean that they have been theory heavy but have attempted to give readers ideas on how to implement said theory. This text, though, feels more like a split between practice and self-help. Green and Hauser disclose some theoretical underpinnings, but I found there to be minimal discussion of why these topics were of importance to the nonprofit (or any) manager.
I recognize that I have been hard on this book. When I used it in the aforementioned class, my students indicated overall satisfaction with it. They found it accessible and helpful to their development. That placement suggests to me a contextual consideration for selecting this title - it is a solid text for the aspiring, inexperienced manager (nonprofit or otherwise).
This title was incredible difficult for me to rate, so I copped out and rated it down the middle.
Beerel is obviously well-versed in leadership studies, and she condenses extensive literature on all of the covered approaches and related topics into manageable and accessible chunks. Her writing is scholarly without being stuck on itself. I appreciated that she wrote energetically about topics like mindfulness, and I was pleased to see a diligent exploration of neuroscience within leadership studies, spiritual leadership, and transpersonal leadership. I learned numerous factoids and found myself digging further into the literature on several topics because of this text. These are all good things.
But it’s not all good things. The tone of the writing veers into the snarky far too much for my taste. There is a way to suggest a more critical view of certain approaches (like transformational or authentic leadership) without being flippant or near-insulting. I am not against scholars citing their own work in subsequent writings, but Beerel’s prior texts were foundational sources for much of the discussion. I understand she wrote the book during the coronavirus pandemic, but in my opinion, she overused the pandemic as a case too often. It would be an effective highlight here and there, but otherwise, she may have wanted to consider a “leadership in the time of COVID-19” book. Finally, the chapter on crisis leadership was limited and devoid of the depth that it has received in scholarly literature. These were the negatives that made the book tough for me to finish.
I would recommend this title for leadership students, but unless the students were graduate or doctoral with some prior background in leadership studies, I would hesitate to make it a text for a course.
This title was incredible difficult for me to rate, so I copped out and rated it down the middle.
Beerel is obviously well-versed in leadership studies, and she condenses extensive literature on all of the covered approaches and related topics into manageable and accessible chunks. Her writing is scholarly without being stuck on itself. I appreciated that she wrote energetically about topics like mindfulness, and I was pleased to see a diligent exploration of neuroscience within leadership studies, spiritual leadership, and transpersonal leadership. I learned numerous factoids and found myself digging further into the literature on several topics because of this text. These are all good things.
But it’s not all good things. The tone of the writing veers into the snarky far too much for my taste. There is a way to suggest a more critical view of certain approaches (like transformational or authentic leadership) without being flippant or near-insulting. I am not against scholars citing their own work in subsequent writings, but Beerel’s prior texts were foundational sources for much of the discussion. I understand she wrote the book during the coronavirus pandemic, but in my opinion, she overused the pandemic as a case too often. It would be an effective highlight here and there, but otherwise, she may have wanted to consider a “leadership in the time of COVID-19” book. Finally, the chapter on crisis leadership was limited and devoid of the depth that it has received in scholarly literature. These were the negatives that made the book tough for me to finish.
I would recommend this title for leadership students, but unless the students were graduate or doctoral with some prior background in leadership studies, I would hesitate to make it a text for a course.
