Inclusive Leadership

The Series in Applied Psychology offers publications that emphasize research and its applications to important issues of human behavior in a variety of social settings. The objective is to bridge both academic and applied interests. This book, Inclusive Leadership: The Essential Leader-Follower Relationship, is an important addition to our series and represents a valuable contribution to the ever-expanding field of leadership research and its application in organizations. It represents a capstone work by Professor Edwin Hollander, one of the major figures in social psychology and in leadership research, in particular. During his stellar academic career, over a 50-year period, Ed Hollander has made lasting contributions to the field of leadership. His work has provided a strong theoretical and empirical foundation for guiding leadership development. This book offers a compendium of new chapters, together with chapters that include many of his key original papers, combined with reflective commentary. This approach gives the reader a depth of understanding of the topic and provides a demonstration of how a field develops over time in relation to a researcher's career goals, opportunities, and the status of the field at particular times in the history of the discipline. A notable feature of the book is its frankly autobiographical aspect. Ed Hollander has provided us with details about his evolution as a social psychologist, intrigued by the questions about effective leadership. The reader will get to know Ed Hollander as a person and to appreciate the network of professional, institutional, family, collegial, and social relationships , which shaped his career and influenced his research. In this sense, the book really lays out Hollander's rich research legacy with a Who's Who of the American and international community of intellectuals who were his teachers, peers, colleagues, and students. The book focuses on what Hollander termed " Inclusive Leadership, " which highlights the role of followers as a key to effective leadership. Leadership is seen as an interpersonal process that entails mutual relationships with shared goals and a common vision for the future. The characteristics of talented leaders are seen as very much the same as those of committed followers. The book identifies and integrates for us the key constructs that influence this relationship. Although these ideas have evolved over a long career, they are still fresh and pertinent. The new chapters integrate the material with up-to-date references and concepts that have developed as the field has emerged. Hollander …