Credibility: How Leaders Gain and Lose It, Why People Demand It

Behavioral savants Kouzes and Posner ( The Leadership Challenge ) here provide philosophical and practical guidance for business executives at a time when computers, consultants, coproduction and ever-growing employee empowerment leave less for managers to do. Unsurprisingly, the authors place honesty, competence and a talent to inspire (``a set of values that can be learned'') at the core of effective leadership. From a penetrating survey of business methods and employee attitudes worldwide, Kouzes and Posner pinpoint future trends--e.g., more authority for customer contact personnel--in a logical, integrated and symbiotic organizational plan to replace a now-outdated omnipotent-boss system. Unfortunately, a hucksterish title and an introductory essay on ``credibility'' do a disservice to this broad and serious work's potential readership. 50,000 first printing; Executive Program book club selection; author tour. (Sept.)