Introduction to Leadership: Concepts and Practice - Softcover

Northouse, Peter G.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1412916550 ISBN 13: 9781412916554

Publisher: SAGE Publications, Inc, 2009

Synopsis

Leadership is a popular topic. People want to know what accounts for good leadership and how to become good leaders. Despite this strong interest in leadership, few books clearly describe the complexities of practicing leadership. Introduction to Leadership: Concepts and Practice has been written to fi ll this void. Introduction to Leadership: Concepts and Practice is designed to help the reader understand how he or she can become a better leader. While the book is grounded in leadership theory, it describes the basics of leadership in an understandable and user-friendly way. Each chapter focuses on a fundamental aspect of leadership and discusses how it can be applied in real leadership situations. The text also features a full chapter and questionnaire on ethics, a particularly hot topic, and offers a unique chapter on dealing with outgroups. Perhaps the most notable features of this book are 3 interactive components included in every chapter which give the reader the means to explore leadership concepts and applications in his or her own life: Self-Assessment Questionnaire, a specially-designed tool that will help the reader determine his or her own leadership style and preferences; Observational Exercise, that guides the reader in examining behaviors of leaders from his or her life experiences; Refl ection and Action Worksheet, which stimulates the reader to refl ect upon his or her leadership style and identify actions to take to become more effective.

About this title

Review

"I found Northouse’s style of writing to be unambiguous, complex but wonderfully understandable. His writing style stoked the fires of my imagination regarding my own approach to leadership. It also made complex concepts in leadership understandable without sullying the integrity of the academic discipline of leadership or leadership praxis. The content of the book flows seamlessly and logically. Northouse’s book gets a strong recommendation from this reviewer. Introduction to Leadership: Concepts and Practices demonstrates Northouse’s depth and breadth of experience as an academician and consultant. He is patently passionate about communicating not only the essence of leadership but the manner in which thoughtful leadership can transform people, communities, and organizations."

(Journal of Leadership Studies 2010-12-01)

“I have followed Peter Northouse's work for years. He has written another excellent book, this time a perfect introductory book for the new student of leadership.” 
  (Carl Larson 2008-12-21)

"In Northouse’s most recent publication, Introduction to Leadership: Concepts and Practices, he continues his impressive ability to render leadership theories and concepts extremely accessible. Despite the fact that this book is much lighter on theory than Northouse’s previous work, it is nonetheless better than most resources I have used in the past in addressing the personal and organizational implications of leadership in a matter-of-fact, nuts-and bolts manner. The content of the book flows seamlessly and logically. Northouse’s book gets a strong recommendation from this reviewer. He is patently passionate about communicating not only the essence of leadership but the manner in which thoughtful leadership can transform people, communities, and organizations. In this latest publication, he has done exactly that."

(Jeffrey D. Yergler 2009-11-06)

"This textbook is a very useful introduction to the fundamental concepts and practices of leadership. The background theoretical inputs are short, snappy and relevant and designed to engage and inspire students towards further study...The interactive features are definitely the distinguishing factor of this textbook and allow readers to apply theoretical concepts to practice. With its use of questionnaires, reflective analyses, action planning worksheets and observational exercises, the textbook provides a valuable mechanism for transferring knowledge into practice." (David McGuire Journal of European Industrial Training 2009-08-09)

“For four editions and more than a decade, its concise, intelligent, insightful introduction to the study of leadership has made “Northouse” [Leadership: Theory and Practice, Fourth Edition, SAGE, ©2007] the go-to text for students and teachers. With this book, Peter Northouse has done the same for the practice of leadership.” 

(Richard A. Couto 2008-12-21)

"The theoretical concepts are brought to life through the readings and there's more"how to" info to actually become a better leader as opposed to just studying the theories, all of which have many, many gaps anyway. Moreover, with only 10 chapters and a CLU 11 week term, the flow of the book makes it easy to cover 1 chapter per week (no cramming)."

(Karen Hanen 2009-02-06)

"I have been looking for a good intro to Leadership [book] with class exercises―this is it!" (Richard Bell 2009-08-05)

"This text is critical, concise, theory based, and engages students with activities." (Lauren Williams 2009-09-11)

"Peter Northouse's Introduction to Leadership is an excellent text that I have used for freshman/sophomore levels classes. It contains most of the major topics from his more comprehensive Leadership: Theory and Practice but omits much of the more academic content that we love but freshman don't. It also has 3 excellent activities at the end of each chapter for self-reflection/ application on each topic, with abbreviated versions of many typical leadership assessments." (Frank Markow 2009-09-14)

About the Author

Peter G. Northouse (Ph.D., University of Denver) is Professor of Communication at Western Michigan University. For more than 20 years, he has taught leadership and organizational communication on both the undergraduate and graduate levels.  He is the author of Leadership: Theory and Practice, (3rd ed), 2003, SAGE Publications.  In addition to several book chapters, he has also published many articles in professional journals and is co-author of Health Communication: Strategies for Health Professionals, (3rd ed.), Prentice-Hall.  He serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Health Communication. His research interests include leadership ethics, transformational leadership, and conflict resolution.  He has worked as a consultant in a variety of areas, including leadership development, conflict management, cancer communication, and organizational communication.  He holds a doctorate in speech communication from the University of Denver, and a masters and bachelors degree in communication education from Michigan State University.

Edition details

• Publisher: SAGE Publications, Inc
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 1412916550
• ISBN 13: 9781412916554
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 224