See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/263133319

Making the Team: A Guide for Managers, 4th ed by Leigh

L. Thompson

Article  in  Personnel Psychology · September 2012

DOI: 10.1111/j.1744-6570.2012.01256_1.x

CITATIONS READS

0 10,763

1 author:

Shirley Ashauer
Maryville University
6 PUBLICATIONS   15 CITATIONS   

SEE PROFILE

Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects:

Scalable Growth Mindsets at the College Level: A Longitudinal Study View project

All content following this page was uploaded by Shirley Ashauer on 21 April 2018.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

 BOOK REVIEWS 705

Leigh L. Thompson. Making the Team: A Guide for Managers, 4th

ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2011, 344 pages, $104.44
softcover.
Reviewed by Shirley Ashauer, Assistant Professor of Organizational Lead-
ership and Psychology, Maryville University, St. Louis, Missouri.
Interested in a book on teams that provides practical advice for man-
agers on how to optimize team effectiveness and that is grounded in
empirical research? If so, Thompson’s 4th edition of Making the Team:
A Guide for Managers hits the mark. As a professor in an Organizational
Leadership program that emphasizes the integration of theory and prac-
tice, I find it is often challenging to find a book that addresses both well.
Thompson’s book, however, not only provides an excellent overview of
the what and why questions addressed in the team research but the how
questions as well. I recommend the book to both faculty looking for a
textbook for teams courses and to managers who wish to learn more about
how to optimize team effectiveness.
The aim of the book is to introduce managers and team members to
practical research on groups and teams. Each chapter provides an up-to-
date review of the current empirical research and takes a strong theory-
driven approach. In addition, the book supports experiential learning and
provides supplemental materials such as case exercises and simulations
to engage students in a deeper understanding of the concepts through
application and reflection. Modeling the very behaviors and thinking de-
scribed in the research on teams, Thompson notes that the book is the
team effort of people with whom she has collaborated—acknowledging
that the breadth of the book is enriched by the collective intelligence of
their diverse and broad talents.
The book is organized in three parts as follows: (a) the basics of team-
work, (b) internal dynamics, and (c) external dynamics. The appendix
includes practical guidelines such as managing meetings, tips for meet-
ing facilitators, a guide for creating effective study groups, and examples
from 360 performance evaluations. Chapters are well-organized and open
with up-to-date case examples, present theories and concepts in the re-
search, and conclude with practical tips and guidelines for applying the
concepts. Each chapter opens with a compelling example to illustrate the
concepts and to engage the reader, although some are extreme examples
(the attempt by al-Qaeda terrorists to blow up a Northwest Airlines flight)
that may lead some readers to say “yes but that isn’t a typical situation
and may not apply to me and my team.” Nevertheless, most readers will
find the illustrations, examples from real teams, and practical guidelines
informative and useful in their everyday practice. A review of each part
of the book follows.
706 PERSONNEL PSYCHOLOGY

Part I: The Basics of Teamwork

The author lays the groundwork for teams in Part I and provides a
nice balance of the empirical research on team effectiveness and practical
guidelines to put theory into practice. Chapter 1 sets the stage for the
central focus of the book on intact work teams as opposed to ad hoc,
short-term groups. Although the focus of the book is on work teams, this
chapter might have benefited from a brief overview of the small group
research to set the broader context for the body of research as it relates to
internal team dynamics.
Chapter 2 introduces a model of team performance and conditions
that need to be in place for teams to function effectively based on
Hackman’s (1987) research on the design of work teams. In addition to this
stream of research, one would have liked to have seen a broader overview
of the organizational systems research perspective in which teams are
embedded in a top-down organizational context and team behaviors are
also bottom-up phenomena that emerge from team interactions within the
team context (Kozlowski & Klein, 2000). This extensive base of research
would have provided readers with deeper insights on the more complex
nature of nested relationships in teams and organizations that impact team
effectiveness.
Chapter 3 examines the types of team pay and options that organiza-
tions have for rewarding teams and discusses the advantages and disad-
vantages of each method. Managers will find the latter part of Chapter
3 particularly helpful, with guidelines on how to design and implement
team recognition and rewards and helpful exhibits for designing legally de-
fensible appraisal systems, considerations in developing a 360 feedback
program, and a team diagnostic survey. Overall, despite some limited
coverage of organizational behavior and psychology research in Part I, I
found the chapters to be highly accessible to practicing managers and well
supported by empirical research.

Part II: Internal Dynamics

Part II provides an overview of team processes such as design and

development, communication, decision making, conflict, and creativity,
and the author provides practical guidelines for managers and team mem-
bers to improve such processes. Plenty of team surveys, assessments,
and illustrations with practical guidelines and tips are included in each
chapter to provide guidelines to managers on how to apply the research.
For example, Chapter 4 presents a helpful table that poses key questions
managers should ask when designing a team regarding tasks, people, and
processes. In Chapter 5, managers will find useful samples of team surveys
 BOOK REVIEWS 707

to assess relational and collective attachment styles, beliefs about groups,

workgroup emotional intelligence profiles, and team trust scales.
The author provides prescriptive advice in Chapter 6 on how team
members can improve communication and develop team intelligence, and
Chapter 7 discusses how to minimize the most pervasive biases that can
affect the quality of decision making. Readers will find these chapters
engaging and relevant to their work in building effective teams. How-
ever, what the chapters are missing is the broader coverage of research
on the temporal dynamics of work teams (Kozlowski, Gully, Nason, &
Smith, 1999; McGrath, 1990) and development processes for intact teams
(Kozlowski, Gully, Salas, & Cannon-Bowers, 1996; McGrath, 1990;
Morgan, Salas, & Glickman, 1993). In particular, Kozlowski and col-
leagues’ (1999) framework of team leadership and development provides
evidence-based principles and guidelines to train managers and teams that
would have been especially relevant information to include in this chapter.
Chapter 8 describes different styles and methods of conflict man-
agement and outlines principles for managing team conflict. Chapter 9
prescribes approaches to generate creative and innovative ideas such as
Janusian thinking and nominal or Delphi techniques. Although the over-
all coverage of content is good in these chapters, they might have been
enhanced with the addition of theory on managing organizational con-
flict (Rahim, 2002) and group research on constructive controversy and
cognitive perspective taking.

Part III: External Dynamics

Part III turns the reader’s attention to external dynamics and reflects
hot topics in contemporary organizations such as group social capital and
boundary spanning in Chapter 10, shared leadership and contingency de-
cision making in Chapter 11, team identity and intergroup relations in
Chapter 12, and virtual teams in Chapter 13. I found these chapters to be
particularly important and relevant for practicing managers as organiza-
tions experience tremendous change in their external environment with
globalization, technological advances, and team-based work structures. In
particular, research on e-leadership and virtual groups and the paradigm
shift of leadership to more collective and shared models will be infor-
mative to managers as traditional top-down models of leadership become
less appropriate in team-based work structures.

Summary

In sum, Making the Team: A Guide for Managers is an engaging book

that provides an up-to-date overview of the team research along with
708 PERSONNEL PSYCHOLOGY

practical guidelines for managers and team members who wish to optimize
team effectiveness. Although some of the coverage of the organizational
research on teams is limited, the overall content is strong and provides
an excellent overview of the current scholarship on teams. I highly rec-
ommend the book both to practicing managers and to faculty who teach
teams courses.

REFERENCE

Hackman JR. (1987). The design of work teams. In Lorsch J (Ed.), Handbook of organiza-
tional behavior (pp. 315–342). New York, NY: Prentice Hall.
Kozlowski SWJ, Gully SM, Nason ER, Smith EM. (1999). Developing adaptive teams:
A theory of compilation and performance across levels and time. In Ilgen DR,
Pulakos ED (Eds.), The changing nature of work performance: Implications for
staffing, personnel actions, and development (pp. 240–292). San Francisco, CA:
Jossey-Bass.
Kozlowski SWJ, Gully SM, Salas E, Cannon-Bowers JA. (1996). Team leadership and
development: Theory, principles, and guidelines for training leaders and teams. In
Beyerlein M, Johnson D, Beyerlein S (Eds.), Advances in interdisciplinary studies
of work teams: Team leadership (Vol. 3, pp. 251–289). Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.
Kozlowski SWJ, Klein KJ. (2000). A multilevel approach to theory and research in orga-
nizations: Contextual, temporal, and emergent processes. In Klein KJ, Kozolowski
SWJ (Eds.), Multilevel theory, research, and methods in organizations: Foundations,
extensions, and new directions (pp. 3–90). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
McGrath JE. (1990). Time matters in groups. In Galegher J, Krout R, Egido CC (Eds.),
Intellectual teamwork (pp. 23–61). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Morgan BB, Salas E, Glickman AS. (1993). An analysis of team evolution and maturation.
Journal of General Psychology, 120, 277–291.
Rahim MA. (2002). Toward a theory of managing organizational conflict. International
Journal of Conflict Management, 13, 206–235.

Dick Grote. How to Be Good at Performance Appraisal. Boston, MA:

Harvard Business Review Press, 2011, 217 pages, $19.95 hardcover.
Reviewed by Robert G. Jones, Missouri State University, Springfield, MO.
Managers often need the kind of help with performance appraisals
that Grote provides in this book. His considerable experience and expert
reputation alone would be enough to convince his intended audience
(supervisory personnel) of the value of his advice. But Grote still bases
much of his advice on scholarly evidence and relies on empirically and
theoretically meaningful distinctions. His experiences are used to illustrate
scholarly findings, as well as to fill in gaps where evidence drawn from
empirical research is incomplete.
The book is structured in 10 chapters. The first makes the “Why
to” case for a fresh look at performance appraisal practice. Parts of this
case are made in the sort of conventional, prescriptive, and authoritative
 BOOK REVIEWS 709

language that may appeal to some practitioner readers: “You’ve got to

tell the people who report to you what to do” (p. 2, emphasis added).
It becomes clear pretty quickly, though, that this language is leading to
educational substance with a more egalitarian and descriptive tone rather
than setting the tone for the book as a whole.
In the second chapter, Grote starts with brief cases against some of
the most prominent performance management fads. The remainder of the
chapter is dedicated to a very cogent and well-supported critique of goal
setting approaches. He frames this in terms of six “Bad ideas” derived from
goal setting. In addition to making pretty good cases for the inadequacy
of these approaches, Grote’s refreshing critique raises some very good
questions for further study. More central to the book, he helps the reader
think about what may actually help to make performance appraisal work
better.
The remaining chapters provide step-by-step “How to” advice about
the development and use of a performance appraisal system. It starts
with things that look a lot like job analysis and criterion development
methods, then leads into the processes surrounding both daily and formal
appraisal-based feedback. The consistent themes throughout these chap-
ters make it clear that Grote has done his scholarly homework. These
themes include (a) separation of behaviors from results and the problem
of actual objectivity (behavioral information) versus perceived objectivity
(numerical information); (b) the important function of appraisal as a way
to clarify work role expectations, in addition to its use as a motivational
and skill-development tool; (c) working with a flawed system to accom-
plish desired ends; and (d) the possible importance of preparing people
prior to providing feedback and decisions. The first three of these will
be familiar to appraisal scholars, but the fourth sparked some interest-
ing questions for future work. For example, in Chapters 8 and 9, Grote
argues that high performers deserve the chance to think through the ques-
tions to be discussed in appraisal review discussions, whereas poor per-
formers (a small minority of workers in Grote’s experience) will use
preparatory information as advanced warning in order to come up with
explanations, rather than confronting their performance issues more di-
rectly in the discussion. Thus, the theme of preparing people is used as a
“thinking point” or problematic rather than as a prescription for action.
Admittedly, the issues I found with the book were primarily in these
same chapters (8 and 9), where Grote relies on less research and more
experience to inform his advice about appraisal review discussions. Paging
back through this part of the book, I noticed more of my margin notes
saying things like “data?” and “evidence?” than in other parts of the book.
Nevertheless, given the quality of much of the rest of the book, and the
treatment of his thematic ideas in these chapters as working hypotheses,
710 PERSONNEL PSYCHOLOGY

I was more inclined to put his ideas to the test later than to reject them out
of hand as unsupported advice.
There was also an omission I think worth mentioning. Discussion
of the emotions often associated with performance appraisal and review
would have added value, in my view. Given substantial advances in our un-
derstanding of emotions in the workplace over the past couple of decades
(see Ashkanasy, Zerbe, & Hartel, 2002), there is some evidence to discuss
and perhaps some help available for managers dealing with emotional
episodes in performance appraisal reviews.
Still, I felt very forgiving as a reader because of the quality and cogency
of Grote’s writing. I found this book quite accessible and even enjoyable
to read. If I wanted to help a manager asking for advice about appraisal,
this book would be at the top of my suggested readings.

REFERENCE

Ashkanasy N, Zerbe W, Hartel C. (2002). Managing emotions in the workplace. NY: M.E.
Sharpe.

James G. Clawson. Balancing Your Life: Executive Lessons for Work,

Family and Self. Hackensack, NJ: World Scientific, 2010, 343 pages,
$35.00 softcover.
Reviewed by Ira J. Morrow, Associate Professor of Management, Lubin
School of Business, Pace University, New York, NY.
In this volume, the author presents case studies of individuals to pro-
vide readers with examples of how people try to juggle and balance their
various responsibilities. The individuals presented include a graduate stu-
dent interning in investment banking, a Japanese executive, a strategy
officer, a consultant, a company president, a divisional chief executive
officer, a tenured professor, a high-tech entrepreneur, and a police com-
missioner among others. Clawson indicates that his aim is “to show people
a more holistic view of executive lifestyles” (p. vii) and that this work has
been driven by his desire “to know how a person organized his or her
life to make success possible. . .When and how does one set boundaries,
(and). . .How do successful people. . .create life structures that support the
enormous energy and commitment needed to run large organizations?”
(p. vii). He states that through his consulting practice he has come to ap-
preciate “that the single most common challenge people everywhere face
was balancing work, family and personal life” (p. vii).
To place his cases into a conceptual framework, Clawson begins with
a chapter in which he briefly discusses the challenge of trying to balance
one’s life and introduces readers to a tool that he considers to be helpful
 BOOK REVIEWS 711

in this regard, the Personal Development Balance Wheel. The wheel is

subdivided into 12 equal pie pieces representing various aspects of life
(i.e. physical, intellectual, spiritual, material, professional, financial, emo-
tional, political, familial, marital, parental, and social) that we may wish
to balance. Four concentric circles are placed within the larger circle thus
creating five concentric circle levels. These are numbered starting from
the center of the innermost circle at a score of zero (“what we might
see in a new-born infant”), and then scores of 2, 4, 6, 8, and finally 10
(“which represents world-class development”), at each successive con-
centric circle level. People can then be asked, “Given your X years of
life, how far have you developed on each of these dimensions?” (p. 6).
Due to possible self-deception, the author suggests that we have people
who know us rate us on this instrument and that one could complete the
instrument annually to measure progress. The author appropriately does
not contend that we should aspire to have equal scores in all sectors of
the circle. Rather, we may indicate where on the wheel we would like to
score in each sector compared to the scores we give ourselves to identify
gaps that could drive further attention and action on an individual’s part.
This instrument is probably harmless and may in fact be of some utility to
readers who feel the need to utilize such tools to enhance self-assessment
and self-motivation.
The author also provides an informative chapter in which he offers an
overview of some of the major theories and models that have been offered
through the years (from around 1950 to 1979) on the issue of adult life
and career stages. The material covered here includes the work of Erik
Erikson, Roger Gould, Daniel Levinson, and Ed Schein among others, and
it is useful to have all of this interesting work summarized in one handy
chapter. Clawson justifiably argues that a common theme to emerge in
much of this literature is that people go through cyclical patterns, for
example, between periods of stability and transition, or between trial and
stable work periods, and that many of us have “a basic internal tension
between stability and variety” (p. 31). The author suggests that readers try
to see how the cases presented in the book “model (or don’t) the theoretical
perspectives” (p. 31). One of the weaknesses of the book, however, is that
the author does not attempt to integrate or interweave this chapter on
adult life and career stages with the cases that are presented; he leaves
this task entirely up to the reader. Instead, each case ends with a series of
rather lame “Questions For Reflection” with an occasional question such
as “What chapter of life is she in?” (p. 152) touching on the theme of life
stages.
The issue of assessing one’s life balance logically raises the broader
question of how one defines success. The author challenges us to think
about how we each define success for ourselves and appropriately
712 PERSONNEL PSYCHOLOGY

contends that this is an important question to ask ourselves, for once

we are clear about what we want, we are more likely to make it happen.
The goals that people aim for to achieve success will vary for each of
us but may include wealth, power, fame, craftsmanship, salvation, health,
family happiness, making a contribution to society, retirement, and reso-
nance, or in other words “how one feels” (p. 50). Each of these possible
goals is briefly examined, with the author offering at the conclusion of
each discussion a brief personal self-assessment type of question such
as in regard to craftsmanship, “The thing I enjoy doing most in life is:”
(p. 45), or, in regard to family happiness, “My ideal family time would
look like this:” (p. 48), or in regard to having power, “I would like to be
in control of things so that I could:” (p. 43). Unfortunately, aside from the
topics of wealth and power, the other goal areas are discussed here in a
very limited and superficial manner, and once again the material presented
in the context of defining success is not effectively integrated with the sub-
sequent cases. Instead, we are just presented with occasional questions
for reflection touching upon the theme of success, such as, “Would you
say that Mr. C was a ‘success?’ Why or why not?” (p. 254).
The author’s desire to study the issue of life balance by examining the
personal and work lives of accomplished people and the dedication that
must have been required to prepare the cases presented in this volume
are both commendable. However, I have to question the ultimate value of
these cases. Given that each person is unique in many important respects,
and that careers, as frequently shown in these cases, seem to develop as
a result of both planned and unforeseeable, almost random events, one
must wonder how much relevance or transferable wisdom can any one
of these cases, or even a collection of 13 cases have for us? Additional
concerns include the fact that some of the cases are quite dated (e.g., the
case of J. Woods tapers off in 1992) and that they often seem to omit the
most critical and interesting points. So for example, in regard to J. Woods,
we are suddenly informed that in 1986 she “was made president of Ohio
Bell Communications” (p. 272), but the author tells us nothing about what
she did to excel in her work in order to attain this big promotion. It is as
if it came out of the blue. Similarly, in regard to her husband, the case
states, “As it turned out, Jack also took a position at Ameritech Services”
(p. 274). How did that come about? The author does not say. In a book
about how people manage career changes, responsibilities, and success,
details like these would appear to be the main point and certainly nothing
to be glossed over.
A final “Concluding Comments” chapter is skimpy and did not effec-
tively tease out lessons to be gleaned from the cases. The author states
at the end, “My hope is that the stories here. . .will have helped you . . .to
find out more about who you are and how you might structure your life”
 BOOK REVIEWS 713

(p. 343). My advice is to look elsewhere if you are trying to answer these
profound questions.

David Horsager. The Trust Edge: How Top Leaders Gain Faster
Results, Deeper Relationships, and a Stronger Bottom Line. Min-
neapolis: Summerside Press, 2011, 349 pages, $24.99 hardcover.
Reviewed by Jingsong Deng, Associate Professor, Business School, Sun
Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China.
As a business strategist, Horsager has written this practical book
for those who are seeking to develop trust in business, organization,
and personal life. Trust, as repeatedly stated throughout the book, “is
the currency of business and life” (p. 20). The goal of this book is to
“help individuals and organizations become trusted” (p. 4). In my view,
the author has met this goal by identifying and elucidating eight key
principles in establishing and maintaining trust, which he refers to as
“Eight Pillars of Trust.” Practitioner oriented and experience based, the
book is accessible and digestible even to specialist and nonspecialist read-
ers.
This book is another full-length contribution adding to the rapidly
growing literature on “trust.” In recent years the study on trust in organiza-
tions has claimed considerable attention from academics and practitioners.
Popular books teaching people how to gain professional success through
trust building include The Speed of Trust: The One Thing That Changes
Everything (Covey, 2008) and The Decision to Trust: How Leaders Cre-
ate High-Trust Organizations (Hurley, 2011). The book under review is a
well-written exploration of the dynamics of trust building. With fresh and
vivid examples throughout the book, it unveils how trust, as a distinctive
characteristic of top leaders and good companies, may result in greater
innovation and productivity.
The book consists of an introductory essay and 16 chapters, which are
thematically organized into five parts. Part I “The Case for Trust” clarifies
key terms such as trust and trust edge. Horsager draws on an interesting
metaphor to describe the traits of trust: It is like a forest, which takes a
long time to grow but easily gets burned down with a touch of carelessness
(p.10). He argues that trust is not a soft skill. On the contrary, its advantage
is concrete and critical, and its proper application will eventually impact
the bottom line. The author concludes this part by summing up 12 barriers
to overcome before moving on to explain the practical tools for building
trust.
Part II “The Eight Pillars of Trust” is the highlight of the book. The
way Horsager breaks down the abstract process of trust building into
tangible steps demonstrates his insightful understanding of its dynamics.
714 PERSONNEL PSYCHOLOGY

Each of the eight chapters in Part II deals with one of those foundational
pillars that are considered to be essential in building and maintaining
trust. The names of the pillars are easy to remember because they all
begin with the letter “C”: Clarity, Compassion, Character, Competency,
Commitment, Connection, Contribution, and Consistency. The author ex-
plains the pillars convincingly with anecdotes, cases, statistics, and well-
known quotations, from which readers may catch a gleam of how good
leaders like Warren Buffett and successful companies such as Google gain
their trust edge. Along with the in-depth discussion of the pillars’ con-
notations, each chapter also provides practical suggestions on how to put
those principles into use in daily interactions. For example, when explor-
ing Pillar Two Compassion, Horsager creatively proposes “four LAWS of
compassion” (p. 77) for conveying how much we care for others. LAWS
is the abbreviation of Listen, Appreciate, Wake up, and Serve Others. The
author elaborates the LAWS with concrete examples. To take Listening
for instance, I personally found it quite effective to adopt the tips like
“listen with your body” and “avoid answering the electronic interrupter”
for a compassionate listening (p. 80). Besides, the proposed 12 tips to
improve ways of appreciation are equally fresh and stimulating. Overall
speaking, the eight pillars are explained convincingly. Although the pil-
lars are introduced individually, the author recapitulates some of the main
points later in the concluding part by stressing the synergy of those pillars
in trust building.
Part III “Transforming Trust,” however, seems not as impressive as
the previous one. This part is composed of Chapter 12 “Extending Trust”
and Chapter 13 “Rebuilding Trust.” In Chapter 12, the author gives a
lengthy explanation on the benefits of extending trust to others, but the
treatment on ways to effectively extend trust struck me as oversimplified
and less explicit. In this part, Horsager takes a cautious tone and suggests
readers “start out with a little, and let things grow from there” (p. 245).
His only advice is to stay aware of the individuals’ previous violations
and give adequate support while delegating tasks, but readers need to
judge by themselves whether or not to take the risk of extending trust.
In my opinion, this chapter could take a step further towards a more
academic and scholarly orientation by exploring how to make use of the
more objective institutional and monitoring systems to help control the
possible risks involved in trust extending.
Chapter 13 is concerned with how to restore trust when it is already
broken. Fifteen tips are summed up as strategies to rebuild trust in an
organization. Some of them like “Empathetically listen to all involved,”
“Apologize sincerely” and “Move on” (pp. 262–263) are sufficiently suc-
cinct, but other suggestions such as “Act on a solution on restitution”
and “Make sure systems support rebuilding efforts” seem to need more
 BOOK REVIEWS 715

explicit illustrations to help practitioners better understand and conduct

those principles. In addition, this chapter would be more practical if it
could also touch on ways to guard against broken trust along with the list
of remedies.
Part IV, “Deep Trust in a Flat World,” deals with trust in globaliza-
tion and trust online. As for building trust globally, Horsager shares with
us success stories like IKEA as well as personal experiences such as
his visit to Japan. His main strategy to build trust globally is to “Mag-
nify the Trust Pillars” (p. 281) in cross-culture interactions. In terms
of trust involved in online communication, Horsager teaches us how
to gain trust in e-mail exchanges and website presentations. He gives
several suggestions on how to handle e-mails professionally in business
and 15 tips to make a company website look more trusted. Some of the
strategies like “Be a member of credible groups and show their logo,”
“Offer a generous return policy” seem commonplace but are quite es-
sential and practical in designing a professional and trustworthy website.
In the concluding Part V, “Courageous Trust,” the author provides some
concluding remarks by encouraging readers to act out the principles pro-
posed in the book so as to “build the pillars and gain the trust edge”
(p. 307).
The physical attributes of the book are remarkable as well. The names
of all the eight pillars are listed on odd pages throughout the book with the
particular pillar under discussion marked in red, which keeps reminding
the readers of the essence of the book, whichever part they are reading.
Each chapter begins with remarks and quotations summarizing its main
idea. Throughout the book, key sentences are bolded and strategies are
listed within separate boxes inserted into the main text. Chapters conclude
with thought-provoking questions. All those arrangements make the book
an engaging read.
Overall, this practitioner-oriented book has met its aim as a practical
guide to trust building in teams, organizations, and families. It sheds new
light on the fascinating process of becoming trustworthy and enables
the readers to engage with the issues raised up in the book. This book
will therefore be of strong appeal to those who are seeking professional
development through trust building.

REFERENCES

Covey S. (2008). The speed of trust: The one thing that changes everything. New York,
NY: Free Press.
Hurley RF. (2011). The decision to trust: How leaders create high-trust organizations. San
Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
716 PERSONNEL PSYCHOLOGY

Christopher Aberson. Applied Power Analysis for the Behavioral

Sciences. New York, NY, Routledge, 2010, 257 pages, $35.00 softcover.
Reviewed by Malcolm James Ree, Professor of Organizational Leadership,
Our Lady of the Lake University, San Antonio, Texas.
More frequently than not I am asked by students “How many subjects
do I need for this study?” Or, “Is this a big enough sample for this exper-
iment?” Of course the real question is how many subject participants are
you going to make me collect for my dissertation? These questions are
asked after they have taken two statistics courses and the students have
practiced examples of power analysis and estimating the number of sub-
jects necessary. Power analysis is something we all teach and apparently
evaporates like the morning dews and damps as the student scurries from
the final.
There should really be no great mystery about this. Power analysis
has been understood and advanced for more than 70 years. It should be
traced back to the Neyman Pearson Lemma (1933). Our current method
of testing null hypotheses is often called the Neyman-Pearson Synthesis.
Remember this was a contentious issue (Savage, 1961) with not all in
agreement with R. A. Fisher against it. Ultimately those in favor of the
Neyman Pearson null hypothesis testing won the day. This sets aside the
controversy between interval estimation and hull hypothesis testing.
The Aberson book differs from other power analysis books by pro-
viding a compact disk with SPSS script to compute power analysis infor-
mation. Unfortunately the disk was missing from my copy and I suspect
that it ran off to my clothing closet and morphed in a wire hanger as there
seems to be a supernumerary of them. Never fear the companion website
has all the SPSS script necessary! There is also a web page for comments
and updates. This is an excellent idea and the author has promised to
maintain it permanently. Very nice. Check it out.
Being that the book is paperback it is easy to carry and easy to read. It
is arranged in 11 chapters with an introductory chapter about why power
analysis is important and when in the research sequence it should be done.
“In fact, power analyses are only meaningful when conducted prior to the
data collection. In this manner it is useful to think of power analysis as part
of the hypothesis statement process” (p. ix). He does take up the question
of post hoc power estimation and notes it to be not particularly useful.
I might add that I have seen it serve to cloud interpretation. In Fisher’s
characterization it is a “post-mortem . . . to say what the experiment died
from” (Fisher, 1938, p. 17).
Chapters 2 through 9 provide detailed information, and the SPSS
script of course, for various statistical designs and test statistics. In-
cluded are linear models statistics such as ANOVA, ANCOVA, regression/
 BOOK REVIEWS 717

correlation, and t-tests. The ANOVA and ANCOVA chapters include

mixed models, within-subjects, between subjects, and covariance. The
final two chapters are devoted to confidence intervals and “Additional
Issues and Resources.”
Early on Professor Aberson (Humboldt State University in California)
defines power succinctly as “Power analysis addresses the ability to reject
the null hypothesis when it is false.” (p. 2). The definition is maintained
throughout the book.
One of the more interesting references in the text is to the Web Inter-
face for Statistics Education: WISE. See it at wise.cgu.edu. In the early
part of the book the author addresses errors, and I found just one that
is easily fixed. On page 111 the upper case of the  changes to ϕ in
the numbered equation. This should not throw anybody off. Finally the
following amusing quote is offered. Aberson asked a colleague if he had
conducted a power analysis. “He laughed and said ‘That stuff is for people
who don’t understand research design.’” What is the stuff for people who
don’t understand statistical power? I’m not laughing. I see the book as
useful in practice and for students in advanced classes as supplementary
reading and for overall knowledge of the importance of statistical power.

REFERENCES

Fisher RA. (1938). Presidential address, Indian statistical conference. Sankhya, 4, 14–17.
Neyman J, Pearson ES. (1933). On the problem of the most efficient tests of statisti-
cal hypotheses. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, 231,
289–337.
Savage L. (1961), “The foundations of statistics reconsidered”. In Neyman J (Ed.), Pro-
ceedings of the Fourth Symposium on Mathematical Statistics and Probability
(Vol. 1, pp. 575–86). Berkeley, CA: University of California.

Douglas Board. Choosing Leaders and Choosing to Lead: Science,

Politics and Intuition in Executive Selection. London, UK: Gower, 2012,
197 pages, $119.95 hardcover.
Reviewed by Ralph Mortensen, Chief Psychologist HR/OD, IPAT, Inc.,
Savoy, IL.
Board’s interesting, multifaceted, and sometimes dense book rests
on the very straightforward assertion in Chapter 1 that senior executive
selection is stuck. From that pithy observation, he takes us on a journey
from what we I-O psychologists believe about good selection processes,
to how senior executive work is different from other levels, on to explore
the roles of politics and intuition in selection, and finally, to a series
of practice recommendations for both executive candidates and decision
makers. Along the way, Board draws from academic psychology and
718 PERSONNEL PSYCHOLOGY

management literature, the media, philosophy, his stint working in the

UK Treasury, and his experience as an executive search consultant. But
he is more than merely a headhunter. Board recently returned to graduate
school and completed a doctorate in management. This book is drawn
from his dissertation, where he grappled with why executive selection
isn’t better. His writing is an amalgam of personal observations, laced
with more academic topics such as Karl Weick’s theory of sense making
(see Chapter 10) and examples in the public eye like Madonna’s failed
attempt to build a girls’ school in Malawi (Chapter 1). A reader won’t
always be sure in the moment exactly where he’s headed next, but the
journey is full of diverse references and examples.
In Chapter 2, Board’s review of our thinking about good selection
practice is very current and well presented. I didn’t encounter a false
note in any of his statements or references. He suggests in Chapter 3,
though, that, in spite of our progress, the boardroom is often off limits to
psychologists and to human resources at critical points in senior selection
decisions. The issue, as he sees it, is that the process must already be
working well if it identified the highly talented incumbents, isn’t it? That
assertion certainly fits with attitudes I’ve faced in more than 20 years of
conducting senior executive assessments. He also raises the very real issue
of getting adequate sample sizes for executive selection validity studies to
support our claims about measurement precision.
In Chapter 4, his description of the executive world fits with other
accounts such as Kotter’s (1982) classic observational study of general
managers. It’s risky, complicated work for which new incumbents can
rarely be fully equipped. In Chapters 5 and 6, Board directly tackles the
subject of organizational power and politics and how they can divert, if
not subvert, effective senior selection decisions. Interestingly, his premise
is that, like it or not, dysfunctionality is only one way to view these phe-
nomena. Instead, he suggests that they are inescapable. As a result, he
proposes that the existing power and political dynamics should be a basic
consideration for any assessor. This is a key point for psychologists. Cer-
tain topics may not be discussable with us in spite of our scientific bias
to put every subject on the table (Chapter 6). Positioned this way, it is
not surprising that we have a mixed track record in predicting executive
hiring decisions (Lowman, 2011). Clients may choose to withhold or un-
consciously avoid sharing some information with us such as the organiza-
tion’s true strengths and weaknesses or the shortcomings of a direct report.
My senior-level consulting has led me to a similar conclusion: Clients
may only share information that is helpful but that minimizes the risk to
them.
So far, so good (or bad). Now comes the greater departure: In Chapter 7
Board assembles the argument that expert intuition is highly different
 BOOK REVIEWS 719

from our widely held psychological view of intuition as erratic and

unreliable in general. He draws on the work of philosopher and computer
scientist brothers Dreyfus and Dreyfus (1986) and from French social
scientist Pierre Bourdieu (1988) to suggest that one learns by intuitive
immersion in activities that captivate us as well as by conscious delib-
eration. Bourdieu’s theory also indicates that experienced experts cannot
completely explain how they do what they do. In other words, executive
assessors develop decision rules after repeated, intense experiences that
aren’t always subject exclusively to active and rational analysis. So, a sea-
soned assessor, a headhunter, or a senior executive can’t always articulate
why he or she reaches some conclusions. This reminds me of the ongo-
ing and recent professional debates over the appropriate role of statistical
versus clinical judgment in individual psychological assessment (e.g.,
Jeanneret and Silzer, 2011). It points to the visible opinion divide between
our academic colleagues and those who focus on practice. It also fits my
executive assessment experience. Some judgments and recommendations
are hard to fully explain yet assessors truly trust them.
Chapter 8 expands these ideas with a discussion of the social context
of decisions. Board also delves into the distinction between the Cartesian
view of the purely rational individual thinker and viewing an individ-
ual as deeply embedded in a network of social forces. He argues that
pure objectivity is an admirable but unrealistic goal, whether scientist or
practitioner.
So, where does this lead us as I-O psychologists? After further in-
tegrating his ideas in Chapters 9 and 10, Board proposes in Chapter 11
that executive selection is too complex a subject to exclusively remain the
research object of psychology. He argues for cross-disciplinary studies to
more successfully crack open the boardroom door. In particular, he rec-
ommends that, instead of bemoaning the lack of classic validation studies
and exclusively focusing on measurement, researchers from various social
science disciplines should collect and examine actual narratives of senior
selection decisions as another, qualitative avenue to learn more about what
truly feeds into the ultimate decision. This multidisciplinary orientation
is a call that we often make but rarely heed.
For executives, Board outlines a practical approach (Chapter 11) for
decision makers. He recommends that they collectively review the odds
of candidate success or failure rather than trying to too quickly boil down
the decision to a “thumbs up” or “thumbs down” vote. Doing so is likely
to increase the level of dialogue about their assumptions and about the
management team’s “appetite for risk,” a handy concept borrowed from
the investment community. To me, the technique’s deceptive brevity and
simplicity is worth pondering after occasional experiences that left me
truly stumped about what drove some senior appointments. Risk is a more
720 PERSONNEL PSYCHOLOGY

familiar and comfortable topic for executives than competencies, skills,

or personal characteristics.
There is more in Board’s book than I can do justice to here. He also
offers “field notes” about recommended practices for both senior executive
candidates (Chapter 12) and for executive decision makers (Chapter 13).
These tips are very straightforward and direct, for example about how
to learn about the position and how to present one’s self as a candidate.
He covers how to prepare to conduct an interview and how to collect
useful references as well. His 18 years’ experience in the search business
shows through very clearly in this section. Because of the book’s academic
origins, Chapter 14 contains references, notes, and observations that those
who teach can study, too.
Overall, Douglas Board has delivered an unusual, wide-ranging, and
intriguing book for a reader up to the task. It’s not often that a reader runs
across references to Daniel Goleman, Wagnerian opera, and teens “surf-
ing” railroad trains in Soweto in a work about senior executive selection.

REFERENCES

Bourdieu P. (1998). Practical reason: On the theory of action. Cambridge, UK: Polity.
Dreyfus H, Dreyfus S. (1986). Mind over machine: The power of human intuition and
expertise in the era of the computer. New York, NY: Free Press.
Jeanneret R, Silzer R. (2011). Individual psychological assessment: A core competency for
industrial-organizational psychology. Industrial and Organizational Psychology, 4,
342–351.
Kotter J. (1982). What effective general managers really do. Harvard Business Review,
November-December.
Lowman R. (2011). The question of integration and criteria in individual psychological
assessment. Industrial and Organizational Psychology, 4, 317–321.
 BOOK REVIEWS 721

BOOKS AND MATERIALS RECEIVED∗

Schmitt Neal. The Oxford Handbook of Personnel Assessment and Selection. New York,
NY: Oxford University Press, 2012, 944 pages, $170.00 hardcover.
Ferris Gerald R., Treadway Darren C. Politics in Organizations: Theory and Research
Considerations. New York, NY: Routledge, 2012, 656 pages, $79.95 hardcover.
Shore Lynn M., Coyle-Shapiro, Jacqueline A-M. The Employee-Organization Relationship:
Applications for the 21st Century. New York, NY: Routledge (2012), 664 pages,
$84.95 hardcover.
Reilly P, Williams T. Global HR: Challenges Facing the Function. Burlington, VT: Gower,
2012, 228, 336 pages, $134.95 hardcover.

∗
The publications listed are either already scheduled for review and/or are included as a
new listing. Readers interested in reviewing for Personnel Psychology are invited to write
our Book Review Editors Dr. Lee Konczak at konczak@wustl.edu or Dr. David E. Smith
at david.smith@easiconsult.com —providing information about background and areas of
interest.
Copyright of Personnel Psychology is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or
emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission.
However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.

View publication stats