Bad leadership : what it is, how it happens, why it matters

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Title:

Author:

Kellerman, Barbara.

ISBN:

9781591391661

Personal Author:

Kellerman, Barbara.

Publication Information:

Boston : Harvard Business School Press, 2004.

Physical Description:

xvi, 282 p. ; 24 cm.

Series:

Leadership for the common good

Series Title:

Leadership for the common good

Contents:

Introduction : webs of significance -- 1. Claiming the bad side -- 2. Reasons for being bad -- 3. Making meaning of being bad -- 4. Incompetent -- 5. Rigid -- 6. Intemperate -- 7. Callous -- 8. Corrupt -- 9. Insular -- 10. Evil -- 11. Costs and benefits -- 12. Comments and corrections.

Abstract:

"Bad Leadership argues that it's time to embrace a more honest, holistic view of leadership that acknowledges the dark side of human nature and its impact on leaders and followers alike. In a departure from conventional thinking, Barbara Kellerman contends that bad leadership is not an aberration, but a ubiquitous and insidious part of everyday life that must be carefully examined and better understood." "Kellerman identifies two fundamental categories of bad leadership - ineffective and unethical - and highlights the seven types of bad leadership that are the most prevalent: incompetent, rigid, intemperate, callous, corrupt, insular, and evil. Through absorbing examples of high-profile contemporary figures from business and politics, Kellerman helps us to understand how and why particular leaders went bad, how their followers aided and abetted the process, and what lessons these stories hold for how bad leadership can be stopped or slowed."--BOOK JACKET.

Subject Term:

Leadership.

Decision making.

Personality and occupation.

Leadership -- PSY.050.040.

Decision Making -- PSY.042.080.030.

Personality -- PSY.050.

United States (country of publication)

Electronic Access:

Table of contents http://www.loc.gov/catdir/toc/ecip0419/2004014041.html

Copies:

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Library	Material Type	Item Barcode	Shelf Number	Copy	Status
Searching... 1:IIEMSA	1:GEN-BOOK	33168020382384	658.4092 K29B 2004	1	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

How is Saddam Hussein like Tony Blair? Or Kenneth Lay like Lou Gerstner? Answer: They are, or were, leaders. Many would argue that tyrants, corrupt CEOs, and other abusers of power and authority are not leaders at all--at least not as the word is currently used. But, according to Barbara Kellerman, this assumption is dangerously naive. A provocative departure from conventional thinking, Bad Leadership compels us to see leadership in its entirety. Kellerman argues that the dark side of leadership--from rigidity and callousness to corruption and cruelty--is not an aberration. Rather, bad leadership is as ubiquitous as it is insidious--and so must be more carefully examined and better understood. Drawing on high-profile, contemporary examples--from Mary Meeker to David Koresh, Bill Clinton to Radovan Karadzic, Al Dunlap to Leona Helmsley--Kellerman explores seven primary types of bad leadership and dissects why and how leaders cross the line from good to bad. The book also illuminates the critical role of followers, revealing how they collaborate with, and sometimes even cause, bad leadership. Daring and counterintuitive, Bad Leadership makes clear that we need to face the dark side to become better leaders and followers ourselves. Barbara Kellerman is research director of the Center for Public Leadership and a lecturer in public policy at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.