Lessons in Leadership introduces and draws on a wide range of timely, practical and real‐world examples of best practice leadership from the Australian, European and North American public service. The book specifically focuses on the relationship between the different types of leadership including political and organisational leadership and describes best practice approaches adopted by public service. The authors explore existing theories of leadership such as visionary leadership and charismatic leadership in the public service sector. Overall; this book provides a summary of the traditions of general leadership and leadership styles that are pertinent in the contemporary public service.
Lessons in Leadership will be useful and of particular interest to students, academics, management practitioners and professionals in the public service, who wish to develop a broader and international understanding of leadership in the contemporary public service. Lessons in Leadership and in particular the authors work adds to the field of public administration, management and leadership research and practice.
Effective leadership is currently seen as critical to achieving service transformation across a wide range of public service around the world. Throughout the book, the authors, present individual cases such as the British National Health Service (NHS) and use each case to exemplify the different leadership styles according to the specific organisational context. For example as in the case of Centrelink, it highlights the importance of what is meant, in the modern world by leadership in the absence of a profit motive. The additions of real‐life and practical examples demonstrate the different approaches to leadership, and in my view is a major strength of the book.
Lessons in Leadership contains eight chapters. Chapter 1 provides a background on leadership and the history of the public services and sets out the major sections of the book with an analysis of the political and democratic context of leadership reform. Chapter 2 provides a review of the existing leadership literature and highlights the idea of visionary leadership and its difficult applicability to the public sector. Chapters 3 and 4 draw on case study material from around the world such as the New York City Police Department (NYPD) and the UK's NHS and gives a detailed analysis of the issues of leadership in political contexts. Chapter 5 uses the Brisbane city council as a case study, to demonstrate the enabler perspective of leadership. A further three case studies regarding successful adaptation of leadership theories to the organisation context is discussed in Chapter 6. These cases highlight the importance of the contribution of management leadership and that the success of the leader depends on the specific situation. The experiences of a specific public service learning organisation in North of England are covered in Chapter 7. Chapter 8 draws together all chapters concluding that leaders are important enablers in the public service, enabling organisational change and renewal.
This text delivers what it promises, namely, a solid theoretical and conceptual foundation for those teaching, working in or studying leadership management as it offers a diverse selection of practical examples and critical commentaries that provide a useful source of current examples and challenges leadership in Australia and around the globe. Lessons in Leadership is an interesting and thought provoking read particularly for managers, HR professionals and management students. The interesting and topical examples of NYPD and Centrelink are excellent. The reader is left not only empowered but with a roadmap of how to improve leadership within the public service.
Lessons in Leadership will improve the reader's knowledge and understanding of major themes and issues of leadership through the analysis of real life case studies.
Overall, Lessons in Leadership is a great read, its format is easy to read and the information easily digestible. I think the book is great value for money and would greatly recommend its purchase for managers, and HR practitioners and MBA students.
