Leadership as a Service: A New Model for Higher Education in a New Century – A Book Review

Abstract

Leadership as service is a scholarly text written with the same scientific rigor, deductions and inferences as required for a scientific publication. The book is more than sets of theoretical abstractions, constructions and idealistic perspectives as there were a plethora of practical perspectives drawn from the author’s experience as an educator and president of a university along with those of practitioners in the private and public sectors. It is a master piece of poetry (using metaphors), insights into the issue of leadership at higher educational institutions and a balanced account of the science and art of leadership. Although the text is primarily around educational leadership, Farnsworth broadens the perspective to make it a discourse of issues in leadership, challenges in leadership to include higher educational institutions, effective leadership, historical features on leadership, and a justification for a new paradigm in educational leadership, particularly higher education. The book is a succinct analysis of educational leadership at higher educational institutions in the USA, while contextualizing the matter beyond that space to the world, including providing a rationale for servant-centered leadership in both private as well as public sector organizations.