Leadership B. S. – Jeffrey Pfeffer and leadership industry

Abstract

“Developing leadership” is a constant search for professionals interested on acting in a more assertively in the organizations they perform their roles. Leadership BS is another endeavor by Jeffrey Pfeffer that makes us think over the tenets which the leadership industry, as the author refers to it, imposes to us daily. In a work based on the urgent need to incorporate evidence to a practice that could cause financial damage and other harmful consequences to the society, Pfeffer easily succeed on demonstrating why, for instance, some behaviors which are assumed as role models are nothing but fairy tales that only exist on classrooms and courses which efficacy is doubtful – if efficacy is understood as educating better leaders. The author challenges his readers to rethink the way they act, by understanding how psychological processes such as confirmation bias and self-deceiving reshape the wished format of leadership, which is taught, but nor practiced.