James MacGregor Burns
James MacGregor Burns ( b. August 3, 1918 ) is a presidential
biographer, authority on leadership studies, Woodrow Wilson Professor
(emeritus) of Political Science at Williams College, and scholar at the
James MacGregor Burns Academy of Leadership at the University of
Maryland, College Park. He received a Pulitzer Prize and National Book
Award in 1971 for his Roosevelt: Soldier of Freedom 1940-1945.
His key innovation in leadership theory was shifting away from studying
the traits of great men and transactional management to focus on the
interaction of leaders and led as collaborators working toward mutual
benefit. He is best known for contributions to the Transformational,
Aspirational and Visionary schools of leadership theory.
Excerpts from James MacGregor's book
Leadership:
* Leadership over human beings is exercised when persons with
certain motives and purposes mobilize, in competition or conflict with
others, institutional, political, psychological, and other resources so
as to arouse, engage, and satisfy the motives of followers... in order
to realize goals mutually held by both leaders and followers....
* Transformational leadership occurs when one or more persons engage
with others in such a way that leaders and followers raise one another
to higher levels of motivation and morality.
* That people can be lifted into their better selves is the secret
of transforming leadership and the moral and practical theme of this
work.
Books of James MacGregor Burns
* Roosevelt: Soldier of Freedom 1940-1945, published with Harcourt,
Brace, Jovanovich in 1970 (ISBN 0-15-602757-7).
* Transforming Leadership: The Pursuit of Happiness, published with
Atlantic Monthly Press in 2003 (ISBN 0-87113-866-2).
* Leadership, published with Harper Collins in 1978 (ISBN
0-06-010588-7).
* Roosevelt: The Lion and the Fox
* John Kennedy: A Political Profile
* Government by the People
James MacGregor Burns introduced a normative element: an effective
Burnsian leader will unite followers in a shared vision that will
improve an organization and society at large. Burns calls leadership
that delivers "true" value, integrity, and trust transformational
leadership. He distinguishes such leadership from "mere" transactional
leadership that builds power by doing whatever will get more followers.
[5] But problems arise in quantifying the transformational quality of
leadership - evaluation of that quality seems more difficult to quantify
than merely counting the followers that the straw man of transactional
leadership James MacGregor Burns has set as a primary standard for
effectiveness. Thus transformational leadership requires an evaluation
of quality, independent of the market demand that exhibits in the number
of followers.
James MacGregor Burns
Author of the critically acclaimed classic Leadership (1978) James
MacGregor Burns was born in 1918. He graduated with a degree in
political science from Harvard and then attended The London School of
Economics before embarking upon a remarkable career through both the
seas of politics and academia. Author and co-author of over 10 books on
leadership theory since the 1940s, former chair of the Berkshire Country
Commission Against Discrimination, former president of the American
Political Science Association, former president of the International
Society of Political Psychology, Democratic nominee for Congress (1958)
and lecturer for multiple institutions and think tanks, Burns remains a
hugely iconic and influential figure in the study of leadership in
American political life.
Burns� focus has been on visionary leadership, and the engaging of
hearts and minds of others. Burns suggests that leaders do not order,
but inspire! And as such he has been credited with the concept of
Transformational Leadership.
�Leadership over human beings is exercised when persons with certain
motives and purposes mobilize, in competition or conflict with others,
institutional, political, psychological, and other resources so as to
arouse, engage and satisfy the motives of followers� � James MacGregor
Burns
Burns is currently a senior scholar at both the James MacGregor Burns
Academy of Leadership at the University of Maryland and the Jepson
School of Leadership at the University of Richmond.
References
http://www.mangurus.com/sections/gurus/?article_id=james_macgregor_burns&selected_seq_num=9
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_MacGregor_Burns
http://boston.com/ae/books/articles/2007/12/26/profile_in_independence/
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