Fact and Fantasy about Leadership

ÔThe author provides a thoughtfully explored, wide-ranging description of the literature, and concludes that followership deserves more attention than it has in the past. In focusing on followers as the chief producers of the phenomenon, the book is one of the few attempys to deviate from the common model of explaining leadership with reference to the leaderÕs characteristics and action. This creative and challenging book will be important to social psychologists, sociologists, managers, and political scientists.Õ Ð D. Sydiaha, Choice ÔFirmly grounded in psychological knowledge, based on detailed historical case studies, highly readable, and offering a multitude of examples from many leadership spheres, PopperÕs book offers a fresh and important perspective from which to understand the phenomenon of leadership. It is one of the very few attempts to deviate from the extant paradigm of explaining leadership with reference to the leaderÕs characteristics and actions and focus instead on the followers as the chief producers of the phenomenon. This perspective challenges some of the basic assumptions on which current practices of leader selection and training are based.Õ Ð Boas Shamir, Hebrew University, Israel Why are we attracted to leaders? Does this attraction have universal origins or is it culture-bound? Why and how are certain concepts and myths regarding leaders generated? Analysing the psychology of followers, this unique book explores these important questions. Micha Popper expertly offers new and surprising insights regarding the leadership phenomenon whilst providing relevant examples. This inspiring book posits that followers are the key to understanding the leadership phenomenon. It analyses leaderÐfollower dynamics in social and organizational settings and in politics which will strongly appeal to students of social psychology, sociology, management and political sciences. The book provides examples and in-depth analyses of Ôthe psychology of followership in everyday lifeÕ and will therefore prove invaluable for managers. A special emphasis is given to leaderÐfollower dynamics at various levels of organizational life.