[...]... was to explore new ideas about the psychology of leadership, an important and long-enduring research topic within the field of social psychology It was the opinion of the editors of this book and the conveners of the conference that the social psychological study of leadership had launched off into several new, interesting, and important directions It was also our belief that interest in the topic, within... and Brief's wise and thoughtful overview of the implications of these chapters for the question of when leadership matters and when it does not Their review of the ideas in this book challenge the common assumption in books about leadership that leadership is everything They note that some of the chapters imply that, in some 8 MESSICK AND KRAMER circumstances, leadership is rather unimportant But they... to claim that leadership never matters, and it is this question of "when" that becomes pivotal for them All in all, the chapters of this volume display part of a broad spectrum of novel and important approaches to the study of the psychology of leadership We hope that they are equally useful to those who are or would be leaders and to those who study the topic As the recent failures of leadership in... with these qualities ascend to positions of leadership, or that the position of power or influence creates these qualities in whomever accepts the role The arrow of causality could point in either or both directions In chapter 2, Michelle Bligh and James Meindl examine the thousands of books that are available on the topic of leadership They ask if there are some "natural" categories into which these... highly accessible and voraciously consumed collection of beliefs, ideas, and perspectives about leadership that contextualize and inform the leadership process Popular leadership books thus reflect the societal and cultural factors that shape the process of leadership, providing an ambience that orients both leaders and followers and conditions their actions and reactions to each other This research is also... psychological process and leadership as afforded by 1 2 MESSICK AND KRAMER organizational constraints and opportunities Our goal has not been to focus the chapters on a single approach to the study and conceptualization of leadership but rather to display the diversity of issues that surround the topic Leadership scholars have identified a host of approaches to the study of leadership What are the personal... the personas and characteristics of leaders themselves (Meindl, 1990) In the current study, we sought to address the following two questions: (a) What issues, perspectives, and characteristics are the primary focus of popular leadership books today, and (b) how do these themes and principles contextualize and influence leadership processes, specifically how leaders and followers interact? In sum, the. .. to treat them as objects and to ignore others' internal states, like emotions, values, preferences, and the like Through these mechanisms, if leading is the exercise of power, then that power tends to corrupt Finally, chapter 13 asks about the reputations and perceptions of leaders when they are dead as opposed to alive Allison and Eylon present research on the effects of a leader's legacy and reputation... (1995) review of the top 10 leadership books attempts to classify the books based first on overall management style, then on how well-regarded by the experts the books are, and finally by which of the "old masters" the book draws upon After all of these fail, Goodman turns to classifying the books based on readability and good taste, but comically concludes that none of the books fall into these categories... between the two sites might include any or all of the following sources of information: (a) the publisher's promotional information; (b) a brief synopsis of the book; (c) the table of contents; (d) the full text of one or more chapters; (e) text from the dust jacket and/ or back cover of the book; (f) the author's brief biography; (g) reviews from other authors or recognized authorities in the field; . psy- chology. It was the opinion of the editors of this book and the conveners of the conference that the social psychological study of leadership . Social and Financial Performance Messick/Kramer (Eds.) • The Psychology of Leadership: New Perspectives and Research Pearce • Organization and