| 50-5688 | HD57 | MARC | | Social & Behavioral Sciences Business, Management & Labor | | Kellerman, Barbara. The end of leadership. Harper Business, 2013 (c2012). 233p index; ISBN 9780062069160, $27.99. Reviewed in 2013jun CHOICE. | | Kellerman (Harvard Univ.) provides a well-written chronicle of the evolution and devolution of the leadership profession and a substantiated indictment of the leadership development industry. Building on two of her previous works, Followership (CH, Oct’08, 46-0996) and Bad Leadership (CH, Apr’05, 42-4743), she defines good leaders as those who are both ethical and effective. Kellerman identifies the historical, cultural, and technological changes that have resulted in a shift of power from leaders to followers. She details the significant changes in the social contract between leaders and followers by examining what has occurred in the US as well as globally. Documenting 1,500 definitions of leadership, approximately 40 theories of leadership, and an infinite number of academic and practitioner-based leadership development programs, she states that “there is scant evidence, objective evidence, to confirm that this massive, expensive, thirty-plus-year effort has paid off” and that the primary evaluation method is participant satisfaction, which is highly subjective at best. Kellerman concludes with recommendations for reinventing the industry; these include questioning underlying assumptions, expanding the notion of what constitutes a leadership curriculum, and gaining a better understanding of how change is created. A must read for upper-division undergraduate and graduate business students, their professors, and leadership development practitioners. Summing Up: Essential. Academic and professional collections. — M. J. Safferstone, University of Mary Washington |
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