The book is published by the James MacGregor Burns Academy of Leadership at the University of Maryland and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. We believe that leadership is a process that is ultimately concerned with fostering change. Accordingly, leadership is a purposive process which is inherently value-based. Leadership is inherently value-based. All people are potential leaders.
Leadership is a group process.
Value considerations thus underlie virtually every educational decision, including criteria for admissions, course requirements, pedagogical techniques, assessment procedures, resource allocation and governance procedures, and hiring and personnel policies. The real issue is which values should govern these decisions. The challenge for leadership development in higher education is thus to maximize the number of faculty, students, administrators, and staff who become committed and effective agents of positive social change. Higher education offers many opportunities for the formation of leadership groups involving faculty, students, and staff through its schools, colleges, departments, committees, and various administrative service units. At the outset we want to emphasize that the conception of effective leadership presented here is only one of many possible approaches.