Leadership: A Managerial Perspective

Surendra Babu Talluri, Nishant Uppal

ISBN: 9789377060114

658 pages

Publication Year: 2026

For more information write to us at: acadmktg@wiley.com

Description

Leadership - A Managerial Perspective is a comprehensive textbook that introduces readers to the core ideas, frameworks, and practices of leadership from a management lens. The book is intended for students, faculty, executive learners, and practicing managers seeking a structured, application-oriented understanding of leadership in organizations. The book begins with the foundations of leadership, including its meaning, scope, typologies, and major theoretical approaches. It then examines leadership through the lenses of personality, projection, leader-follower relationships, attribution, impression management, and communication.

Building on this foundation, the book addresses leadership styles and approaches, including transformational, transactional, servant, charismatic, situational, and change-oriented leadership. It further extends the discussion to ethics, strategic leadership, power and politics, leadership development, and the emerging relationship between leadership and artificial intelligence.

A distinctive feature of the book is its pedagogical design. Each chapter is structured to support classroom teaching and active learning through learning objectives, cases, reflective exercises, and activity-based components. This makes the text suitable for undergraduate and postgraduate management programs, executive education, and practitioner development settings.

The book seeks to combine conceptual rigor with managerial usefulness. Rather than treating leadership as a purely inspirational or personality-driven phenomenon, it presents leadership as a complex managerial process shaped by context, relationships, communication, ethics, power, strategy, and technological change. In doing so, it aims to help readers understand not only what leadership is, but also how it can be practiced more thoughtfully and effectively.

About the Author

Surendra Babu Talluri is a faculty member in the Organizational Behavior and Human Resources Management area at the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore. His academic work spans organizational behavior, human resource management, and careers research, with a particular focus on career success, career sustainability, employability, career competencies, and contemporary career transitions. His research has been published in reputable international journals such as the Journal of Vocational Behavior, the Journal of Career Assessment, and Career Development International. He also consistently presents his research at leading academic forums such as the Academy of Management and the European Association of Work and Organizational Psychology. Before joining academia, he held senior executive roles at Coal India Limited, including serving as a regional HR head, and gained extensive experience in people management. He has also received the Outstanding Reviewer Award from the Careers Division of the Academy of Management and contributes to the scholarly community through editorial board and review roles in respected international journals.

Nishant Uppal is a faculty member in the Department of Human Resource Management at the Indian Institute of Management Lucknow. Prior to entering academia, he accumulated substantial industry experience in human resource management and training, including work with major organizations such as Aditya Birla Financial Services Group. His teaching and research interests include organizational culture, personality, job performance, organizational change management, diversity management, and training and development. In addition to his teaching and research, he has contributed to academic administration and institution-building through leadership roles, including serving as Chair of Management Development Programs and Area Chair in Human Resource Management. He has led and contributed to funded research projects, supervised doctoral scholars, reviewed for a range of respected journals, and worked extensively in executive education and consulting with corporate and public sector organizations. He is also the author and co-author of books on leadership, organizational behavior, training and development, and HR analytics.

Table of Contents

Book Review

SECTION 1 Introduction to the Concept of Leadership 1

Chapter 1 Introduction to Leadership 3

1.1 What is Leadership? 5

1.1.1 Leadership in Various Contexts 6

1.1.2 Role of Leaders 8

1.1.3 Characteristics of a Successful Leader 9

1.1.4 Undesirable Characteristics of a Leader 13

1.1.5 Leadership Techniques 13

1.1.6 Leadership versus Management 15

1.1.7 Leadership Philosophies 16

1.1.8 Gendered Inequalities in Leadership 19

1.1.9 Myths About Leadership 21

1.2 Indicators of Leader Effectiveness 22

1.2.1 Evaluating the Efficacy of Leadership 25

1.2.2 Components of Effective Leadership 26

1.2.3 Evaluation of Leadership 27

1.2.4 Techniques for Measuring Effective Leadership 29

1.2.5 Leadership Effectiveness and Performance 30

1.2.6 Significance of Measuring Leadership Efficacy 32

1.2.7 Exceptional Leaders Don’t Rely on Chance to Be Effective 35

1.2.8 Globalization, Diversity, and Leadership Effectiveness 37

1.3 Leadership: An Ever-Evolving Concept 37

1.3.1 Evolution of Leadership 40

Summary 42

Keywords 43

Multiple Choice Questions (MCQ) 43

Application-Based Questions 47

References 47