[.ca] LEADERSHIP (ISBN 076192566X)

Very Thoughtful:
I feel the text is easy to read. It hightlights the areas and explains them very well. It is understandable and does not skirt issues etc. I would recommend for a great text on leadership.

Much stronger on Theory than actual Practice.:
Despite its subtitle, "Leadership: Theory & Practice" emphasizes the former much more than the latter. Scholars of leadership looking for theoretical exegeses & interpretive typologies may find what they're seeking in Northouse's analysis. Leadership practitioners (or high school educators, like me) may find less useful grist for their mills here. I appreciated many of the instruments Northouse cites here for assessing different aspects of leadership. But I found little spark here to distinguish "Leadership" from the quotidian genre of introductory college textbooks.

For practical use by any aspiring or practicing leader:
Now in its third edition, Leadership Theory And Practice by Peter G. Northouse (Professor of Communication, Western Michigan University) examines the foremost leadership theories with particular attention as to how each approach can be directly applied to real-world situations and organizations. Exploring basic approaches (as well as theories such as the Contingency Theory, Path-Goal Theory, Leader-Member Exchange Theory), and then expanding beyond methodology to scrutinize such topics as leadership ethics and the barriers unique to women in (or who are seeking) leadership positions, Leadership Theory And Practice is very highly recommended -- whether for both academic study concerning leadership behavior and concrete, or for practical use by any aspiring or practicing leader in the business community today.

Crtical Evaluation of LEADERSHIP:
The author fails to recognize the relation of leaders to the structure of society (persons, families and bureaucracies) as well as all the general roles played within families (leader, manager, entrepreneur and apprentice). Leaders along with members of their families play all these roles with varying degrees of responsibility. While he does recognize that leaders exercise power, he goes on to highlite coercion which is only one and the least used of three tools of power and fails to identify the foundation of power.Finally his subtopics lack logic and his case studies are exercises in management and not leadership. This introduction to leadership has a very limited scope without an apparent logic.

A thorough overview:
Easy to read and well reserached college text.