University of Minnesota - UMN Executive Leadership Insights
The Future of Leadership
Book

The Future of Leadership

Today's Top Leadership Thinkers Speak to Tomorrow's Leaders

Warren Bennis, Gretchen M. Spreitzer and Thomas G. Cummings
Wiley, 2001
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Editorial Rating

8

Qualities

  • Innovative
  • Applicable

Recommendation

The Germans call it a festschrift - a book stemming from the celebration honoring a renowned scholar, in this case Warren Bennis. The luminaries (including Bennis himself) who gathered in May 2000 at the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business for this festschrift offer 19 thoughtful chapters on leadership issues. In fact, the consistent quality and creativity may pleasantly surprise you. The only exception is an imaginative, but shallow and self-absorbed clunker from Tom Peters.getAbstract.com recommends this thought-provoking collection to students and practitioners of the mysterious art of inspiring others to follow.

Summary

The Era of Human Capital by Edward E. Lawler III

The growth of knowledge has changed the nature of individual work. Today’s companies must seek new competitive advantages in human capital, organizational bandwidth or key core competencies. To achieve any of these three advantages, you must have the right people in the right positions effectively carrying out their duties. This will end the old hierarchical structure of most businesses. Even in the workplace, democracy is inevitable. Companies that spurn egalitarian approaches can’t attract the right talent, rarely produce the correct core competencies and cut their own organizational abilities. Today, a firm must offer a brand to potential employees.

The bureaucratic model of organizations - including job descriptions, organizational tables, reporting structures and office procedures - is built on the idea that jobs are the fundamental unit of business. This notion is doomed because it does not give proper emphasis to human capital. Instead, today’s organization should focus on its need for knowledge and skills. This becomes the essential molecule of the organization. The core description, then, becomes a description...

About the Authors

Warren Bennis created his own paradigm shift across the field of management science with the bestselling books, Leaders and On Becoming a Leader. Bennis was a protégé of famed Theory X/Theory Y guru Douglas McGregor. He has written 26 books, and is a distinguished professor at the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business. Gretchen M. Spreitzer is an assistant professor at the Marshall School. Thomas G. Cummings is executive director of the Leadership Institute, and associate editor of The Journal of Organizational Behavior.

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