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 | | Leadership: The Operant Model of Effective Supervision (People and Organizations) by Judith L. Komaki ISBN-10: 9780415098731 ISBN-10: 0-415-09873-4 ISBN-13: 9780415098731 ISBN-13: 978-0-415-09873-1 Hardcover 1998-04-21 Routledge Find Lowest Price |
Editorials | ||
Product Description In Leadership, Judith Komaki examines the working practices of those managers who were described by their colleagues as either good or bad at motivating others. The most effective manager actively observed their employees and discussed details of their work. Using this basic practice as a model, Leadership analyzes both the theory and the practical implications of monitoring employees' work in organizations and shows how such practice improves motivation. It will be of much interest to all occupational and organizational psychologists and managers. | ||
Reviews | ||
A Seminal Text in Management Judy Komaki has done something that has never been done before, she systematically observed leaders (managers and supervisors)at work. Komaki's controlled study reflects the rigor of her academic speciality - Applied Behavior Analysis. She and her colleagues recorded the precise verbal responses of leaders and correlated those findings with the performance of their workgroups. She found that the most successful managers spent time talking with their subordinates about their performance and the work itself. She catalogued their responses into positive, negative and neutral content and systematically counted the frequency of each. Her study tells you exactly how effective managers spend their time. It is the only controlled study of leadership. Most leadership books are theoritical and based on the experience of the author; they are speculative. This is one of the most boring books in print, but that is because Komaki is trying to be precise and quantitative, not subjective and inferential. If the information in this book could get some publicity, it would change the way leadership is defined and developed in America. Alas, scholarly works must be translated to be assimilated, and it will be awhile before the significance of Komaki's findings become known. | ||
Surprisingly practical academic book An academic book that -- surprisingly (because it's academic) -- reveals an effective way to lead and get results, a way missed by many 'practical' books on the subject of leadership. Komaki discusses a real-world key to make you a better manager -- well, probably. The book doesn't go about claiming things it can't back up with research. All it says is: effective leaders Much of the book, practically its entirety, is about the research behind the findings, which are revealing and very interesting reading. As for the findings itself, they are summarised in just a couple of pages. It's not a huge list of things to do that you will never remember and couldn't do anyway (i.e.,You won't find it recommending stuff like: 'be dramatic!', or 'Top 10 steps to become an effective leader'). I won't reveal the findings; it's something you can start doing this Monday and everyday on. Easy, and in my experience, seems to be effective. Yes, the book is academic (more so than the typical books from Harvard Business Review series), but the text is more lucid than books in that series. And definitely not dry. You may need to look up a couple of technical terms (e.g., 'operant') to fully understand the text, but that's easy to do. One weakness is that it doesn't give much guidance on how to know if you are micro-managing your people (at least not to my recollection). | ||