Transforming leadership studies: Bernard Bass' leadership and performance beyond expectations

Abstract

Bernie Bass provided me with an autographed copy of Leadership and Performance Beyond Expectations (LPBE) in the fall of 1985. I had just arrived at Binghamton and, as new colleagues, we were discussing common research interests to develop some joint projects. When I first read LPBE, I concluded that it was an interesting and important book. As I have reread LPBE over the years, for my research and now for this review, I have realized that my initial conclusion was a gross understatement. In a recent review of Bass and Stogdill’s Handbook of Leadership (Bass, 1990), the reviewers (Schriesheim, Scandura, Choto, & Gardiner, 1993) called it “a monumental work” and stated that “words are clearly insufficient to pay our debt to Bernie Bass for his many and continuing contributions to the field and for his continued contribution by way of the Handbook” (p. 108). I cannot help but believe that one of the many contributions Schriesheim et al. (1993) had in mind was LPBE, a monumental work in its own right. LPBE is monumental, not in terms of its size but in terms of its influence on a field of research. LPBE was a catalyst for research on the entire genre of leadership theories that we now call charismatic and transformational. Because LPBE was published eight years ago and is familiar to many of the readers of the Leadership Quarterly, I will keep the traditional chapter-by-chapter review brief. I wish to concentrate in this review more fully on the historical significance of LPBE and what has transpired since this seminal book was published.