{"id":6330,"date":"2015-11-05T04:41:36","date_gmt":"2015-11-05T12:41:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=6330"},"modified":"2015-11-07T04:03:45","modified_gmt":"2015-11-07T12:03:45","slug":"leadership-theoretical-or-practical","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/leadership-theoretical-or-practical\/","title":{"rendered":"Leadership: Theoretical or Practical"},"content":{"rendered":"

Introduction:<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

Handbook of Leadership Theory and Practice by Nitin Nohria and Rakesh Khurana is a collection of almost fifty contributing scholars on the subject of Leadership. Much is written mainstream and in popular culture on the subject of leadership. Thousands and even tens of thousands have been written on the subject and line both virtual and real shelves of the likes of Barnes and Nobel to Amazon. Yet very little is truly academic scholarship on the subject. That is the chasm that this book is attempting to bridge.<\/p>\n

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Summary:<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

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This book offers an academic, yet realistic perspective on the subject of leadership.<\/p>\n

In order to accomplish this task, the book moves beyond a layman\u2019s perspective and looks at the science of the leadership. All the contributors are highly educated, published and known in their areas of leadership expertise, yet they vary in their perspective of the practical verses theoretical. This difference is illustrated in that its contributors work in both pubic leadership business sectors as well as private academic sectors. For instance, Walter Freidman is a faculty member of Harvard Business School and reoccurring contributor and co-editor of Harvard Business Review (Harvard\u2019s journal on leadership) and touring lecturer on the subject, especially in it\u2019s historical implications in light of economics. Freidman approaches the subject in a more academic and theoretical perspective. The opposite contrast of contributors for this book is Joel M. Podolny. Although he holds a Ph.D. from Harvard, he illustrates the \u201cpractical\u201d dimension of leadership with holding employment in the business sector as an executive with Apple.<\/p>\n

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Analysis:<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

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As I read through the five sections of organized data on leadership, from leadership meaning and definition to its effect on relationship and reality, my analysis is that this \u201cdifference\u201d or \u201cbridging of the chasm\u201d between practical and theoretical is its genius. It does not choose a \u201cside\u201d between practical or theoretical, which are what most books on the subject do. Instead it allows each to prove the other. Of the almost 30,000 leadership books offered on leadership this this is in the small 10% that do both practical and theoretical. I liked that book addresses questions such as: “What kinds of leaders are these institutions [i.e. business, government, other spheres of public life] developing that have caused so much hardship for so many?\u201d “What is the vision or model of leadership that animates the curriculum and developmental models in these institutions?”; “If there is such a model, does it need to be revisited, reexamined, and revised in light of the widespread failures in leadership?”<\/p>\n

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I also liked that it address\u2019 the subject is not just a mechanism for \u201cgetting ahead.\u201d It is a responsibility. It makes the reader contemplate and formulate his or her own thoughts and ethics on the subject. In chapter 15, Jay Lorsch explains that leadership is based on \u201crelationship\u201d not achievement alone. The relationship is a connection between leader and follower, not merely based on employment but on alignment of values shared, two-way communication, and power shared. This results in healthy relationship, which begets healthy leadership, which produces results. Bottom line is important, but it is the root and not the fruit of leadership.<\/p>\n

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My favorite portion of the book was section four, especially chapter 16 on the CEO\u2019s responsibility to organizational success. This resonated with me, primarily because this is how I view my role organizationally as a Senior Pastor. I am the primary leader of the organization, thus the \u201cbuck\u201d stops with me. I agree with Porter and Nohria on the growing complexity of the role of CEO. It\u2019s indeed a job \u201crife with paradoxical opportunities and constraints.\u201d The demands are ever growing and \u201cendless\u201d. I most identify with the \u201cdiscomfort of being exposed, vulnerable, and even overwhelmed.\u201d I have spent half of my professional life as a team member and the other as the primary leader (CEO). I found solace as team member because there was security in the \u201cfinal\u201d decision not being mine, but the team leader there are often lonely and unprotected decisions that leave me feeling very vulnerable and quite frankly uncomfortable.<\/p>\n

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I REALLY enjoyed this book. I am so glad that it was apart of our reading. Because of its subject matter and mix of theoretical meets practical it\u2019s my favorite.<\/p>\n

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Introduction: Handbook of Leadership Theory and Practice by Nitin Nohria and Rakesh Khurana is a collection of almost fifty contributing scholars on the subject of Leadership. Much is written mainstream and in popular culture on the subject of leadership. Thousands and even tens of thousands have been written on the subject and line both virtual […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":67,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","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":[726,727],"class_list":["post-6330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dminlpg6","tag-nohriakhurana","cohort-lgp6"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6330","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\/67"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6330"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6330\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6331,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6330\/revisions\/6331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}