Open Source Leadership

Citation

Hughes, L.W. (2010), "Open Source Leadership", Leadership & Organization Development Journal, Vol. 31 No. 4, pp. 375-376. https://doi.org/10.1108/01437731011043393

The world's love affair with recent revolutionary changes and emergent technologies has focused primarily on the human‐computer relationship as well as the role of technology as a moderating or invasive influence. However, a new thought process has arisen that more closely tackles the new world of interaction between humans not only via the technology itself, but the more pervasive and perhaps explanatory attitude toward the environment it enables. Open Source Leadership is a forerunner of this new school of thought. What Web 2.0 (Schuen, 2008) did for strategy, in this regard, Open Source Leadership does for the process of leading.

The book contains a novel approach to understanding leadership in an age of Wikipedia, Facebook, and other similar user‐generated domains. Three composite leaders exemplify the lessons in this book. The composites were constructed from thorough interviews of a variety of leaders in the so‐called open‐source era of leadership.

Each year, many books are published about exciting and engaging topics, but oftentimes the delivery thoroughly robs all reader interest. However, Gadman and Cooper maintain the reader's interest beyond the timeliness of the topic and the implications for the social influence process of leadership. This collaboration is not the first book for either author and this is evident in the accessible and engaging style of the writing.

The format of Open Source Leadership is appropriate for this fledgling concept. Following an introduction, each of the eight chapters is headed with its primary topic. The book can be informally divided into three parts. The introduction and first two chapters define the open‐source environment and leadership. The book begins quickly as the authors provide a rapid, succinct, yet thorough, assessment of the open‐source environment and its complexities. Leadership is then addressed. The authors provide a continuum entitled Open Source Innovation in the environmental complexity and the need for knowledge creation are contrasted. This typology is mapped onto a third dimension of collaboration, indicating which model is appropriate given the criteria listed. The model is intuitive and works well to articulate the function of the open‐source model. The more mystic second division is a theoretical presentation of the nature of the open‐source environment. It contains a series of universal rules. While the second section is more ontological, it is not the less impactful for it. In essence, the philosophy of the open‐source leader is explored. The third section is the conclusion, and synthesis, of the concept.

The volume is well indexed and also contains a table of contents, a list of figures, and, toward the end, a bibliography. Interestingly, for a discussion of a contemporary phenomenon, many of the references appear to pre‐date the open source phenomenon itself. The challenge of any cutting‐edge work is the paucity of extant research to draw from. The figures are static and, for the most part, simply 2 × 2 typologies that are more easily described than depicted in graphic form. However, two figures in particular are particularly helpful to the understanding of the open‐source phenomenon and would not surprisingly find their way into textbooks related to the topic.

Open Source Leadership is Gadman and Cooper's timely contribution to the understanding of knowledge sharing and influence in contemporary leader‐follower relationship. The authors describe – with extant theory and rich examples – a field of study that will soon be as expansive and as complex as any major theoretical discussion within the academy. Gadman and Cooper pool their experience to provide a book that will serve as a useful supplement to a university level leadership or strategy course, or as helpful reading for managers at any level of any organization.