The End of Leadership
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4.3 • 3 Ratings
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- $17.99
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- $17.99
Publisher Description
From one of the pioneers in the field of leadership studies comes a provocative reassessment of how people lead in the digital age: in The End of Leadership, Barbara Kellerman reveals a new way of thinking about leadership—and followership—in the twenty-first century. Building off of the strengths and insights of her work as a scholar and a teacher, Kellerman critically reexamines our most strongly-held assumptions about the role of leadership in driving success. Revealing which of our beliefs have become dangerously out-of-date thanks to advances in social media culture, she also calls into question the value of the so-called “leadership industry” itself. Asking whether leadership can truly be taught, Kellerman forces us to think critically and expansively about how to thrive as leaders in a global information age.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
According to Kellerman (Bad Leadership), lecturer in public leadership at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, the "leadership industry" (her term for purported "schools of leadership" run by governments, educational institutions, and private businesses) continues to flourish, but with no apparent increase in the quality or quantity of leadership. In a response that seems geared toward her industry colleagues, Kellerman argues that the leadership industry must make four changes: end "leader-centrism"; transcend the situational specifics that lead to myopia; subject itself to critical analysis; and change with changing times. This vague prescription concludes 200 pages that detail the increasing loss of centralized power in governments, business, and institutions and the corresponding decline in people's respect for and deference to leaders. The author argues that power has shifted from leaders to followers, and social media and the information age require more transparency and accountability from leaders. Kellerman also questions whether leadership can be taught, and, if so, whether corporate "leadership training" is what Plato or Machiavelli had in mind when envisioning the "Philosopher King" or "The Prince." What type of leader the modern age requires is an interesting question that Kellerman flirts with, but never directly addresses, almost as if the book itself were subject to the directionless malaise it describes.
