Book Review: Dynamics of Leadership in Public Service: Theory and Practice
| Date | 01 March 2007 |
| Published date | 01 March 2007 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0734371X06298368 |
| Author | Charles W. Gossett |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Book Review
Administration
Volume 27 Number 1
March 2007 91-94
Van Wart, M. (2005). Dynamics of Leadership in Public
© 2007 Sage Publications
Service: Theory and Practice. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe.
http://roppa.sagepub.com
DOI: 10.1177/0734371X06298368
hosted at
http://online.sagepub.com
In the middle of the first chapter of his new book, Montgomery Van Wart identi-
fies one of the fundamental questions raised about leadership: “Are leaders born or
made?” (p. 18). Clearly, he believes that they can be made, or at least “made better,”
or else he would not have written this comprehensive textbook on leadership. He is
not alone in this belief. In July 2005, the Journal of Public Affairs Education (J-PAE)
had a symposium that included several articles describing various approaches to
incorporating leadership education into the curriculum. In the same volume, there is
a report on an informal survey from member schools of the National Association of
Schools of Public Affairs and Administration (NASPAA). The respondents indicated a
variety of approaches to teaching about leadership. These ranged from degree programs
in leadership to individual courses focusing on leadership skills to more limited cov-
erage as a unit in a general course about management (or, in at least one case, in a
public personnel management course). Regardless of the approach, there is clearly
enough interest in the topic that one can expect to see more books developed as text-
books to address the topic.
Van Wart essentially divides his book into two parts: The first nine chapters focus
on identifying the competencies of effective managers or leaders (the author delib-
erately chooses to use the terms interchangeably [p. 25]); the last five chapters are
more detailed reviews of theoretical and empirical research on leadership. The two
parts are quite different in style, with the early chapters reading more like the “how
to be a great leader” books one finds in the management section of a...
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