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HOLLANDER, E. P. (2009) Inclusive Leadership: The Essential Leader-Follower Relationship New York: Routledge Pp. xix + 263. ISBN: 978-0-8058-6439-7
This book is the capstone of a distinguished 50-year career in the study of leadership. It is a unique volume that serves two purposes: first, as a summary and synthesis of inclusive leadership and the idiosyncrasy credit model of leadership and, second, as a very personal research biography, as Hollander details the stories behind his research program and his motivation for pursuing this work. Because this book is a comprehensive lookback at half of a century of research and theory, many of the chapters are drawn from the author's previous work. However, this is not simply a historical compilation of inclusive leadership's greatest hits. Some of the chapters are revised and rewritten, several are drawn from major addresses and presentations that heretofore have not seen print, and others are newly written for this volume. Commentary and introductory remarks precede the chapters.
The first three chapters introduce inclusive leadership and the idiosyncrasy credit model of leadership and place it in the context of classic and current leadership research. Written for this volume, the chapters provide a concise summary of Hollander's perspective and its relationship to other prevailing theories of leadership. These chapters highlight the important and distinguishing attribute of inclusive leadership: It is not about leaders. Nearly every other extant leadership theory is concerned with leader behavior and attributes, but in contrast, inclusive leadership is concerned with follower behavior. Inclusive leadership proceeds from a simple yet powerful observation: There are no leaders without followers. By extension, followers make the leader. However, this is not a linear one-way street. An inclusive leader does not lead as much by the legitimacy of authority...