The New Leadership Paradigm

[The book] provides guidance on how managers can use theory to influence themselves and others. . . . Achieves its purpose quite well. . . . Each chapter in the Sims and Lorenzi book provides practical guidelines for management behavior. --Administration in Social Work I began this book with considerable interest, an interest sustained throughout. . . . What makes this book especially valuable is that it deals with some of the most powerful psychological findings in the last 50 years. . . . There has not been a complete treatment of learning, reinforcement, social learning, and cognition available for the business and managerial audience. This book fills that gap admirably. . . . The continual use of situational vignettes makes the abstract theory concrete and useful. . . . The book′s usefulness is enhanced with the frequent use of charts and graphs and ′write bites,′ summary capsules sprinkled throughout the work. . . . There is much to be gained from a deep reading as many of the concepts have profound implications for management and management style. . . . This is an up-to-date and thorough work of solid scholarship which is a welcome addition to the management-practitioner literature and well worth the investment for those desiring a cogent and expansive interpretation of social learning and cognition as it applies to management. . . . It will be most beneficial for those wishing to develop corporate training programs or for managers themselves. --Academy of Management Executive It is written for a multifaceted readership including researchers, executives, undergraduates, and graduate students and college professors, and its discussion of social learning and cognition in organizations is, as the authors set out to achieve, ′theoretically sound and eminently practical.′ . . . Part II of the book, which contains five chapters, provides a thorough examination of reinforcement theory in organizations, followed by Part III which delivers a comprehensive discussion of goal setting. . . . Sims and Lorenzi provide excellent vignettes which enliven what otherwise could become a barrage of unfamiliar terms and vocabulary for the novice. Readers will appreciate the implications for day-to-day leadership that are included in several recommendations/tips at the conclusion, as well as the lengthy, but important, discussion of the ethics of influencing behavior. The end-of-chapter notes are valuable, up-to-date and comprehensive. . . . For readers weary of pop-management literature but not eager for academic tomes, and who at the same time seek a framework of sound theory around which to build their notions of empowerment and leadership, The New Leadership Paradigm is an excellent choice. --Review of Public Personnel Administration This is, without doubt, one of the most practical and informative books on leadership I have read. Perhaps it′s a latent scientific-practitioner inclination, but the most notable feature, in my view, is the excellent balance between theory and application provided by the authors. The book organizes theory and research into easily grasped and immediately applicable techniques for directing, motivating, and influencing subordinates. Short and well-placed vignettes depict believable managerial situations that clearly demonstrate the useful techniques and concepts. There is something in the book for everyone--practitioner, researcher, senior executive, beginning and advanced student of organization behavior. As the title indicates, this book offers a ′new paradigm′ of leadership. The approach is new in that the authors examine contemporary management practices and philosophies of high involvement, empowerment, and self-management within the context of four social learning and cognition theories. . . . Though a lot of popular books have appeared on the topic, I′ve not seen a clearer and more practical presentation of skills, techniques, and concepts for achieving employee involvement, self-management, and building high involvement organizations. This is an excellent book. For someone looking for a theoretically sound and pragmatic guidebook on leadership and performance management, this one is a good bet. I liked it for three reasons. First, the principles are sound. The techniques and strategies are well researched and have firm footings in the behavioral sciences. Second, the material is very well written. It is concise yet complete. It effectively organizes theoretical principles with practical application, resulting in a clear understanding of behavior and how to effectively and ethically influence it. In doing so the book should appeal to a very broad audience. It should easily serve the needs of the aspiring manager, senior executive, research scientist, and student of organizational behavior. Each chapter can stand alone providing the practitioner with sound tips and tools for managing more effectively or the researcher with a solid grounding in current theoretical principles and research. Finally, I like the philosophy of the book. The approach advocated replaces the outmoded practices of tight managerial control and assumes that people have the capability for self-control and self-management. The challenge put forth by the authors is for leaders to model self-management and encourage and reinforce self-management behavior of subordinates. The techniques for doing so are presented clearly and concisely in the book. . . . The book offers excellent insight, tools, and strategies for empowering people, promoting self-management, and building high involvement organizations. --Personnel Psychology This useful book . . . provide[s] an expertly conducted tour through the tangle of reinforcement and cognitive theories, neatly combine(s) them, and illustrate[s] with numerous examples how the unified theory can be applied. As a theoretical and practical guide to leadership theory and practice, Sims and LorenziR