Leadership handbook of management and administration

James D Berkley

Leadership handbook of management and administration

Introduction

This book is one of a series of three works edited by James D. Berkley. Various church leaders give their input on a vast array of topics related to church management and administration. Had I known a reference work of this scope was available, I would have purchased it when initially published.

This work is divided into seven parts: personal management, transitions, leadership, paid-staff supervision, volunteer-staff supervision, management, and finances. Contributing authors include: Leith Anderson, Peter Drucker, Jack Hayford, Aubrey Malphurs, Joseph Stowell, and Chuck Swindoll. Each part of this volume is filled with words of wisdom from men and women who excel in their fields.

During the last several decades, researchers have become increasingly less accepting of the notion that leadership within organizations stems only from singular individuals (e.g., CEOs) in a top-down, hierarchical process. Alternatives to this view began to emerge and become popularized through the writings of. Berkley (2000), in his description of Theory Y, argued that most workers are inherently honest and intrinsically motivated to do what is right for the organization. As such, workers can be trusted to handle responsibilities that would otherwise be shouldered only by top management. Vroom & Yetton (1973) built on the work of McGregor (1960) to develop a model of how and when leaders should involve their followers in decision-making processes(Gecas, 1999).

Andrews (2006) described the importance of “servant leadership”, which involves understanding followers' needs and aspirations and helping them to fulfill their desires in ways that are ethical and socially responsible. Perhaps most importantly, he suggested that servant leaders could emerge from any level within an organization and are often not formally recognized as leaders—with their true value to the group frequently not being realized until they are gone, when the direction of the group has become noticeably less certain. To this end, Greenleaf spawned the idea that leaders need not be assigned, designated or even recognized in order to have great impact.

Andrews (2006) was the first to describe transformational leadership, defined as the process through which leaders appeal to the ideals and morals of their followers to inspire them to reach their highest levels of achievement and to take ownership in the goals of the group. His work further highlighted the importance for followers to become involved in shaping the goals of the group and becoming enriched in their work. Maslow (1943) expanded the work of Burns, further developing the concept of transformational leadership and placing its importance more squarely into the context of organizations. Lawler (1986) further built on this energy to fuel the movement toward high-involvement management, which sought to flatten the hierarchical structure within organizations and allow workers to have added input into the design of their work and the direction of the organization(Hallinger, 2002).

While these classic works have effectively espoused the importance of including followers in important decision-making processes, the focus of these theoretical frameworks remains on the juxtaposition of individual actors who are ...