{"id":39732,"date":"2024-12-02T13:59:38","date_gmt":"2024-12-02T21:59:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=39732"},"modified":"2024-12-02T13:59:38","modified_gmt":"2024-12-02T21:59:38","slug":"a-review-of-northouse-and-reflection-questions-from-oxford","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/a-review-of-northouse-and-reflection-questions-from-oxford\/","title":{"rendered":"A Review of Northouse and Reflection Questions from Oxford"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cLeadership is a process whereby an individual influences a group of individuals to achieve a common goal\u201d[1]<\/a>\u00a0 This is the definition that Peter Northouse gives after discussing the previous 120 years of defining leadership and concluding that leadership scholars really cannot \u201ccome up with a common definition for leadership.\u201d[2]<\/a>\u00a0 Northouse said his definition consists of the central components conceptualizing leadership.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Where does one start when writing a post about a textbook on leadership? When I wrote this last month, I considered picking a theory or two, completing the leadership instrument and discussing my results. Instead, I decided to start by giving my personal review of the textbook and then reminding us of some reflections questions that were posed to us in Oxford last year.<\/p>\n

I have not given many reviews of the books we have read thus far in the program.\u00a0 As both a student and instructor I thought it might be appropriate to give a review of a textbook. \u00a0I found this book to be brilliant in both its content and its format.\u00a0 You can see Northouse\u2019s expertise in communication throughout the book. The formatting of this book was exceptional.\u00a0 Chapters begin by describing the theory in easy-to-understand language, including applicable models; Northouse then discusses how the theory works, including settings and situations for which the theory is ideal.\u00a0 For example, \u201cServant leadership works best when leaders are altruistic and have a strong motivation and deep-seated interest in helping others. In addition, for successful servant leadership to occur, it is important that followers are open and receptive to servant leaders who want to empower them and help them grow.\u201d[3]<\/a>\u00a0 Northouse then discusses strengths and criticism of each theory, allowing readers to consider the presence or lack of empirical and other evidence that exists for each theory. \u00a0Next, the application section goes beyond how it works and describes how to put it into practice for example in the Path-Goal Theory chapter Northouse writes \u201cFor instance the theory suggests that leaders should be directive when tasks are complex and that leaders should give support when tasks are dull.\u201d[4]<\/a>\u00a0 Having taught communications for over thirty years, Northouse knows the importance of how to structure various forms of communication (i.e. this textbook) to keep the audience\u2019s interest.[5]<\/a> These various sections alone are ideal in helping people understand the various models of leadership and determine whether it might be the best style for them and\/or their organization. However, Northouse adds icing on the cake.\u00a0 Chapters contain case studies involving real people from a variety of different occupational sectors and questions to encourage critical thinking about the case study\u2019s application to the leadership theory.\u00a0 Each chapter contains a Leadership Instrument for readers to take to determine how they fit within that chapter\u2019s theory.\u00a0 Finally, each concludes with a short summary, ideal for doing an inspectional reading of the various theories.\u00a0 Besides traditional leadership models, Northouse dives into other related areas, such as followers, gender, and ethics describing how they impact leadership.\u00a0 I really appreciated his chapter on followership.\u00a0 Before reading this book, I did not give much thought to the various types of followers and how that impacts a person\u2019s ability to lead. I appreciate what Northouse wrote. \u201cUntil more research is done on the intricacies of followership, our understanding of leadership will be incomplete.\u201d[6]<\/a>\u00a0 Overall, if I were picking a textbook on leadership for my students to read, I would have no issues with adopting this as a course text.<\/p>\n

In his chapter on Leadership ethics, Northouse discusses \u201cThe Darkside of Leadership.\u201d[7]<\/a>\u00a0 Northouse discusses, Padilla, Hogan and Kaiser\u2019s \u201cThe Toxic Triangle,\u201d that includes destructive leaders, susceptible followers including conformers and colluders, and conducive environments.[8]<\/a>\u00a0 As soon as I saw the diagram, I immediately thought about Jo Nelson\u2019s \u201cLeadership Derailment\u201d lecture given in Oxford where she referenced the toxic triangle[9]<\/a>.\u00a0 I took out my notes and reviewed her lecture. Some memorable quotes from her lecture include \u201cLeadership is hard,\u201d leadership \u201ccan be extremely lonely.\u201d\u00a0 \u201ctwo-thirds of managers are insufferable.\u201d[10]<\/a> Just as Northouse\u2019s chapters end with leadership questionnaires or inventories, Nelson ended her talk with a series of reflection questions that I thought would be worthwhile to revisit.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Are there wrong beliefs I have that may be impacting how I lead?<\/li>\n
  2. How am I at my best and my worst?<\/li>\n
  3. What are my triggers?<\/li>\n
  4. When do I feel like I am not being the leader I know I can be or perhaps displaying unhelpful behaviors, such as tiredness, criticism, boredom?<\/li>\n
  5. What do I do when I am feeling the pressure?<\/li>\n
  6. How can I stay healthy in my leadership?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Being a first-year student, Oxford was a little overwhelming; I wrote these questions down, but honestly, forgot about them. However, these are some great questions and while I don\u2019t necessarily have the space to answer each of them right now, I do believe that they are questions that we should take time to process. I also believe that this program has provided us resources to help us answer each of these through the various books that we have read and the lectures we have listened to over the past three semesters. This would include, but definitely not limited to, Bobby Duffy\u2019s Why We\u2019re Wrong About Nearly <\/em>Everything, Edwin Friedman\u2019s A Failure of Nerve<\/em>, Simon Walker\u2019s The Undefended Leader<\/em>, and Carol Dweck\u2019s \u00a0Mindset<\/em>. My hope is that I can make time to fully process and answer these questions.<\/p>\n

    [1]<\/a> Peter. G. Northouse, Leadership: Theory & Practice 9th<\/sup> Edition<\/em>, (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2022), 6<\/p>\n

    [2]<\/a> Northouse, 5.<\/p>\n

    [3]<\/a> Northouse, 267.<\/p>\n

    [4]<\/a> Northouse, 144.<\/p>\n

    [5]<\/a> Northouse, xxii.<\/p>\n

    [6]<\/a> Northouse, 393.<\/p>\n

    [7]<\/a> Northouse, 431-433.<\/p>\n

    [8]<\/a> Northouse, 432.<\/p>\n

    [9]<\/a> Jo Nelson, \u201cLeadership Derailment,\u201d (lecture, Portland Seminary, Oxford Town Hall, September 23, 2023).<\/p>\n

    [10]<\/a> Nelson, lecture.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    \u201cLeadership is a process whereby an individual influences a group of individuals to achieve a common goal\u201d[1]\u00a0 This is the definition that Peter Northouse gives after discussing the previous 120 years of defining leadership and concluding that leadership scholars really cannot \u201ccome up with a common definition for leadership.\u201d[2]\u00a0 Northouse said his definition consists of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":200,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2967,2258],"class_list":["post-39732","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dlgp03","tag-northouse","cohort-dlgp03"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39732","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/200"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39732"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39732\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39733,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39732\/revisions\/39733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}