Leadership for Development: What Globalization Demands of Leaders Fighting for Change

Although the extraordinary leadership that stimulated European recovery efforts in the late 1940s and early 1950s is now widely celebrated as a model for international development assistance, the role of leadership in development is too often taken for granted. Rondinelli and Heffron argue persuasively that leadership is the hallmark of almost every successful effort at international development since the late 1940s, and that its absence is the underlying cause of most development failures. Leadership for Development examines fundamental issues: the tools leaders use to achieve development goals; how culture and interdependence among governments and organizations affects leadership styles; where leaders get their advice from – experts, non-experts, academic or non-academic elites – and if it matters; whether transformational or transactional leadership styles are more effective; and the lessons that can be drawn from examining the traits of successful leaders. Focusing largely on the P