New understandings of leadership

THE PURPOSE OF THIS BOOK is to provide, for those who carry responsibilities for training ment in business, educational, or social organizations, a relatively simple summary of recent thinking and research on the nature and meaning of leadership. To this end we have reviewed a large num ber of studies, which we have attempted to summarize in a way that will be helpful to the practitioner in the field.

We have made an effort to protect the integrity of the research upon which we report, to note the reservations and cautions of authors as they report on their data, and not, ourselves, to draw unwarranted conclusions from their reports, Inevitably, perhaps, in attempting to condense and make readily understandable com plex material such as that with which we are dealing in this book, one risks the danger of oversimplification or appearing more certain about the views one expresses than one would wish. We have attempted, as indicated, to avoid this pitfall and hope that, if nothing else, we have been able to show how complex the nature of leadership is and how foolish it is at this stage to be dogmatic in asserting one's views about it.

As stated, the book is intended for practitioners. It is not intended for social scientists or researchers who would wish to deal with the problem in a much more sophisticated way. We believe there is need for books of this kind-which attempt to translate the essence of philosophical and scientific thinking into functional terms that have meaning and applicability for the man who is engaged in prac tical or executive type of work.