Concepts in Leadership Ambassador Kamal TA: Jacek Hurkala Leadership and the Quest for Integrity By: Joseph L. Badaracco Jr. & Richard R. Ellsworth Leadership and the Quest for Integrity Analytical Book Summary Overview Moving into the final phase of the first part of this course the class finished its 3rd book by Badaracco and Ellsworth called Leadership and the Quest for Integrity.  The Harvard Business School Press originally published the book in hardcover in 1989.  It mainly focuses on the aspects of managerial leadership in businesses but can apply to all aspects of leadership. Analytical Summary Managers need guidance in order to build a successful organization in which they are striving for.  This guidance is provided in this book.  The authors rise the question “What leads to outstanding performance as a manager?”  In order for this question to be answered, an overall understanding of leadership must arise.  Yes, leadership is a matter of charisma but standing behind only that statement is very inadequate and deceptive.  If this was the case then people should rest on a handful of men and women and not strive towards their preset goals and ambitions.  Most managers who achieve extraordinary success do so through their ways of resolving situations and their experience and not only through their charisma.  The authors argue that managers are more likely to succeed by approaching dilemmas with certain prejudices-preconceived biases handled in specific ways.  The justification is a quest for integrity.  A quest based on moral, philosophical and practical values striving to fit together in a leaders daily life and goals. The book differentiates the three types of leadership: Political, Directive and Values-driven leadership.  Each philosophy promotes certain values and beliefs and managers contrast their own beliefs with the given ones.  Also to better understand these philosophies, the authors offer the five most important dilemmas that managers face.  i.) Tension between flexibility and open mind ness to problems and clear approaches, ii.) Top-down Vs Bottom-up influence on decisions, iii.) Process Vs Substance iv.) Confrontation Vs Compromise and v.) Tangibles Vs Intangibles, long-term and short-term considerations. Shortcomings The authors’ examples are those of a perfect manager in an ideal world where everyone functions in a similar way.  The real world is mentioned quite a few times and examples on how to act in the real world are given but non-the less every aspect of the real world is not covered.  Thus limited qualities are given.  The greater part of the book is based on the beliefs of certain executives that were interviewed, those executives coming from large and well-known companies.  The issues are not always the same though and all companies have their different goals set, i.e. a company starting out now will have many more dilemmas and issues to deal with than a well established company.  But this does not seize this book from being useful and beneficial to managers and executives. Conclusion The quest for integrity is consistency between a manager’s beliefs, actions and aspirations for his or her organization.  The authors do a great job in explaining the three philosophies of leadership.  Prejudices are an effective way to approach dilemmas and also allow integrity to outcome alongside charisma, capability, excellence and aspirations.