BOOK REVIEWS 429

S. Alexander Haslam, Stephen D. Reicher, and Michael J. Platow. The

New Psychology of Leadership: Identity, Influence and Power. New
York, NY: Psychology Press, 2011, 267 pages, $24.95 softcover.

Reviewed by Gary B. Brumback, Palm Coast, FL.

I hesitated to take on this book review. Do we really need another
theory of leadership? The last time I looked there were 12 of them (Nort-
house, 1997). Moreover, what America needs is not a “new psychology
of leadership” but a new breed of leadership. From my own research (e.g.,
Brumback, 2011) I have concluded that public and corporate leaders have
failed us for decades by corrupting each other and pursuing their own
self-interests rather than to promote the general welfare, a promise made
in the preamble to our Constitution.
But I set my reservations aside and launched into the forward by
George A. Akerlof. This may be my first time to comment on a forward
and its author. Akerlof is a Nobel Laureate in economics from Berkeley.
What he wrote I found interesting, and I was impressed that the book’s
authors, all academic psychologists, the first two in England, the third
in Australia, were able to get such a distinguished economist to write
the forward. How many of the rest of us have ever been able to do that?
Moreover, Akerlof praises the authors’ theory, saying it “seems so very
right that it may come as a surprise that this is not already the concept
of leadership everywhere—from psychology and economics textbooks
to airport bookstores” (p. xvi). After reading the book, I find I’m not
surprised and think Akerlof should stick to economics.
Note that the main title does not read “The new theory of leadership.” I
wonder if the authors are confidently thinking they’ve now got an indefen-
sible theory that needs no further testing and is ready for use in “advising
leaders” (p. xxiii). In waiting until the last (eighth) chapter to give that
advice, the authors explain that they “want to persuade the reader of the
credibility and coherence of” their theory (p. xxiii).
Just what is “new” about the “new psychology of leadership?” To an-
swer this question the authors ask us to read the first two chapters where
they contrast their “social identity” theory of leadership with the “old”
and “current” psychology. Although they do not totally reject the other
psychologies, they make it very clear that their theory is not something
like a personal identity theory (e.g., a personality-based theory). Rather,
they present a “social identity theory.” Their core concept of social iden-
tity, they say, is derived “from what has, over the last quarter century,
or so, become the dominant approach to the study of groups in social
psychology” (p. 45). On the surface anyway, that claim seems to be con-
tradicted by Akerlof’s claim that “social identity theory—is outside of the
430 PERSONNEL PSYCHOLOGY

mainstream [in psychology]” (p. xvi). But because he’s an economist, I’ll
take the three authors’ word for it.
I’m stalling on telling you just what the theory is because after wading
through Chapters 3 through 7, I really don’t quite know how to distill
what I read into less than a five-chapter review. The authors define social
identity as “an individual’s sense of internalized group membership” (p.
46). Throughout these five chapters, the authors present many constructs
in addition to that of social identity. I’ve lined them up here from the
book’s subject index: “artists of identity,” “categorization,” “depersonal-
ization,” “embedders of identity,” “entrepreneurs of identity,” “identity
leadership and identity makers,” “identity management,” “idiosyncrasy
credit,” “impermeability (and “permeability”) of group boundaries,” “im-
presarios of identity,” “positive distinctiveness,” “power over versus power
through leadership,” “prototypicality,” “recategorization,” “reflexive in-
fluence gradient,” “salience of categories,” “self-category,” and “self-
categorization.”
To their credit, the authors do yeomen work in coming up with many
experiments (thought and lab experiments), field studies, historical fig-
ures from ancient Greece forward, classical literature, classical theatre,
sports events, and even poetry that they believe support and/or illustrate
their constructs. For example, they turn a few times to the Bard, William
Shakespeare, as in the case of Macbeth, to illustrate supposedly the power-
over form of leadership in “the tragic decline of a ruler whose betrayal of
his group takes him from loyal and trusted son to despised and rejected
tyrant” (p. 63). I especially enjoyed reading the literary and real-to-life ex-
amples, whatever the strength they might add to the validity of their theory.
In the last chapter where their theory meets the road so to speak, the
authors begin by saying that “it is all very well to produce a theoretical
model that explains how leadership works—but what does this mean for
leaders on the ground?” (p. 198). Their answer is to offer the “3 Rs of
identity leadership: ‘reflecting by observing and listening to the group;
representing by ensuring that your actions reflect and advance the group’s
values; and realizing by delivering, and being seen to deliver, things that
matter to the group’ ” (p. 205).
How valid their theory really is in terms of content, construct, or cri-
terion validity I don’t know. I found, for example, no explicit hypotheses
with unchallengeable tests of them, but that is an unreasonable expectation
to have for a subject as broad and subjective as leadership. It’s fair, though,
to see what the authors expect of their theory. Near the end of the sec-
ond chapter, after reviewing the old and current psychology of leadership,
the authors list four key elements that any adequate theory of leader-
ship should include. The theory must (p. 43): (a) “Explain why different
contexts demand different forms of leadership.” (b) “Analyze the dynamic
 BOOK REVIEWS 431

interaction between leaders and followers.” (c) “Address the role of power
in the leadership process.” (d) “Include [and explain] a transformational
element.” It would have been helpful if the authors had summarized how
their constructs and evidence met these expectations or would have at
least titled their chapters by the key elements or tagged them with page
numbers where argumentation and evidence could be more easily exam-
ined vis-à-vis each element (I’m not about to do that for the authors and
you). The chapters’ titles seem to bear little similarity to these elements.
Moreover, I suppose the elements could have been identified after the the-
ory was built just as the slew of studies, anecdotes, and so on mentioned
could have been carefully selected while or after building the constructs.
I reject the authors’ assertion that “the psychology of leadership is
never about ‘I’—it is very much a ‘we’ thing” (p. xxi) and their “foun-
dational premise of our new psychology of leadership—[being]—that
without a shared sense of ‘us,’ neither leadership nor followership is pos-
sible” (p. 54). The psychopath Hitler, whom the authors cite frequently
for illustrative purposes, certainly depended on devout followers, but they
became devout because he was a masterful manipulator of them. And
for an iconoclast like me (I’ve been called one), I must also reject their
argument that the shared sense of us depends on a depersonalization of
the self. Both exemplary leaders and their followers, in my opinion, are
first guided by their own sense of right and wrong, which happens to be
mutually shared.
I predict that the authors’ new psychology of leadership will soon
become just another psychology of leadership. And if you collect theories
of leadership, here’s another one to add to your collection.

REFERENCES

Brumback GB. (2011). The devil’s marriage: Break up the corpocracy or leave democracy
in the lurch. Bloomington, IN: Author House.
Northouse PG. (1997). Leadership: Theory and practice. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Erika Hayes James and Lynn Perry Wooten. Leading Under Pressure:
From Surviving to Thriving Before, During and After a Crisis. New
York, NY: Routledge, 2010, $29.95 softcover.
Reviewed by Gerard Beenen, Assistant Professor of Management,
Mihaylo College of Business and Economics, California State University-
Fullerton.
In the midst of the fallout of the Great Recession and current polit-
ical gridlock in Washington, the need for understanding how to lead in
times of crisis is greater than ever. Leading Under Pressure offers helpful
432 PERSONNEL PSYCHOLOGY

frameworks and a comprehensive review of research that deepens our un-

derstanding of effective crisis leadership strategies and tactics. The book
is organized into four parts that (a) argue why crisis leadership is a distinct
form of leadership (The Modern Face of Leadership Under Pressure); (b)
elaborate on the individual-level (Becoming a Crisis Leader- Individual
Capabilities); (c) organizational-level crisis management skills and other
characteristics (Organizational Capabilities); and (d) argue why crises
offer leaders and organizations opportunities to adapt to change (From
Surviving to Thriving Under Pressure).
The authors do an especially good job of linking leadership competen-
cies to sequential phases of a crisis. Nonetheless, Leading Under Pressure
falls a bit short of its goal in a few ways. First, the authors could have
argued more convincingly that effective leadership does not necessarily
translate to effective crisis leadership. Second, though they invoke a lot of
theories, frameworks, and practical examples to make their case, some of
these are more peripheral to the subject matter than others. Finally, dis-
tinctions between individual, group, and organizational-level phenomena
become muddled at times, undermining the clarity of their arguments.
Section I defines crisis leadership and distinguishes it from the gen-
eral domain of leadership. Their definition of crisis leadership is overly
restrictive in its focus on “the firm” (p.17) thwarting its application
to government leaders who are sorely in need of insights from this
book (e.g., the Emergency Management Agency’s response to Hurricane
Katrina noted throughout the book). Qualitatively, they distinguish a “cri-
sis” from a routine “problem” as a central argument for why crisis lead-
ership is unique. Presumably, leaders solve routine problems, but crisis
leaders resolve crises. A crisis is defined as being more significant, more
rare (vs. frequent), affecting multiple (vs. few) stakeholders, and requiring
internal and external focus (vs. internal only; cf. p. 18). In other words, a
crisis is really a major problem. Yet, aren’t the most effective leaders adept
at solving both routine problems and major ones? Even the competencies
they identify as critical for crisis leadership in particular (e.g., perspective
taking, influence, resilience, risk taking; cf. below) seem just as applicable
to effective leadership in general.
Though crisis leadership is an important and timely topic, the au-
thors’ do a better job arguing for its unique challenges in their Section II
discussion on its ethical dimensions (Chapter 4), and their Section IV
discussion on how leaders can build an organization’s capacity for change
by framing crises as opportunities (Chapter 9). From this perspective, cri-
sis leadership is really about being able to anticipate and to both rapidly
and ethically respond to changes in an organization’s internal or external
environment. The most practical contribution of Section I is in setting
up five crisis management phases that are later linked (Chapter 3) to
 BOOK REVIEWS 433

specific leadership competencies (i.e., 1-signal detection [sensemaking,

perspective taking]; 2-preparation/prevention [influence, agility, creativ-
ity]; 3-containment/damage control [communicating, risk taking]; 4-
recovery [resilience]; 5-learning [learning orientation]) that informs the
rest of the book.
Another shortcoming with Leading Under Pressure is that some of
the content is peripheral to the topic at hand. For example, Chapter 4
provides an overview of decision biases and heuristics that reads more
like a decision-making chapter from an organizational behavior textbook.
Some of this material is only marginally relevant to the authors’ key points
and leads to an unneeded proliferation of concepts and theories. Given
that this book is intended “to help students and business leaders” (Preface,
p. xvi), a more focused treatment of crisis decision making would have
been more useful. Strengthening the emphasis on the ethical dimensions
of crisis decision making could have been one alternative way to address
this limitation (pp. 92–99). Another example is found in Chapter 6, which
focuses on the role of trust in organizations. The authors wander for seven
pages to define trust. But to the authors’ credit there also are a myriad of
relevant examples of actual firms’ experiences in leading (or bumbling)
through crises.
A third and less substantial criticism is an occasional lack of clar-
ity pertaining to the level at which individual, team, and organizational
phenomena are discussed. For instance, a chapter focused on team-level
leadership (Chapter 4) also addresses issues of organizational-level design
and leadership, whereas a chapter on organizational-level trust (Chapter 6)
elaborates on swift trust at the team-level (p. 144f). In addition, the chapter
on organizational learning occasionally strays into individual-level learn-
ing. This may be more of a problem for researchers interested in precise
constructs than for students and managers interested in crisis leadership
strategies and tactics.
In the end, Leading Under Pressure is a useful resource for teachers,
students, managers, and executives interested in deepening their under-
standing of the psychological and contextual dynamics of leading through
times of crisis. The book could have done more to convince this reviewer
that crisis leadership is unique by emphasizing its ethical dimensions and
its importance as a resource for managing change in earlier chapters. The
authors’ competency-based approach for leading through each phase of a
crisis (Chapter 3) offers an especially useful framework for professional
school courses that address leadership topics. Researchers may find less of
interest here, but they are not the primary target audience. Those looking
for a silver bullet on failsafe leadership styles during times of crisis will
need to look elsewhere. Unfortunately, that includes our elected officials
in Washington.
434 PERSONNEL PSYCHOLOGY

Arthur Gutman, Laura L. Koppes, and Stephen J. Vodanovich. EEO

law and Personnel Practices (3rd Edition). New York, NY: Taylor and
Francis Group, 2011, 564 pages, $59.95 softcover.
Reviewed by David E. Smith, Ph.D., President and CEO, EASI•Consult,
LLC, St. Louis, MO.
If you’re looking for light reading and a brief summary of EEO law,
this book is not for you. If you want a comprehensive, historical review
of the law and how it relates to personnel/human resources (HR) prac-
tices, you’ve found it. This is a must read for industrial-organizational
(I-O) psychologists, graduate students, HR professionals, and others who
plan to be engaged in HR practices. It is also a worthy reference for em-
ployment attorneys interested in partnering with their I-O psychologist
counterparts.
The book provides a foundation for how the judicial system and federal
agencies (e.g., EEOC and OFCCP) think and act when making decisions
in this area. The difficult challenge the authors took on with this book
was to provide a comprehensive coverage of 40 years of EEO law while
staying succinct. Did they succeed? You’ll have to judge for yourself.
At times, I felt the illustrious structure of the book provided me with
firm footing. At other times, I felt as though I was drowning in cryptic
knowledge. The book covers 40 years of EEO law and cites over 700 court
cases within 564 pages. Yes, more than 700 federal law cases are covered!
This definitely shows that the authors have a comprehensive knowledge of
case law. However, it leaves the reader with the challenge of determining
which of these cases have had the most influence on EEO law and human
resources practices.
This book is not for the casual reader. Although some of the many legal
terms used throughout the book are defined, others (commonly used in the
legal field) are thrown out with no effort to clarify them. If you are a cover-
to-cover reader, let the table of contents be your best friend. It provides a
visual picture of how the chapters are laid out. The table of contents is an
excellent roadmap to the most relevant issues in employment law and a
prelude to how user-friendly this book purports to be. The first chapter is
an introduction with the intention of overviewing the book, but it covers
too much detailed information within just 17 pages. After you’ve read
the book, I suggest that you go back and review the first chapter. It will
add twice as much value than your initial read. The remaining chapters
flow smoothly and are well-organized. After a chapter of reading, the
writing style becomes more consumable. The nine chapters in this book
(using a phrase from Jum Nunally, 1978) are “pregnant with information.”
The reader needs to assimilate the information and give birth to the full
meaning of the authors’ intent.
 BOOK REVIEWS 435

In addition to updating EEO law over the last 10 years, this third edition
includes a chapter on retaliation. This is an important addition because
retaliation is covered under all civil rights laws and constitutional amend-
ments. In addition, unlike most books on EEO law, this one appropriately
provides a cursory yet instructive coverage of the U.S. Constitution.
Similar to the second edition of EEO Law, the authors use six di-
mensions (for EEO Law, Title VII) to aid the reader in understanding the
different laws and the different roles agencies (i.e., EEOC, OFCCP), and
the Department of Justice play in regulating the statutes and regulations.
Each chapter is organized in this fashion. The dimensions include:

(a) Protected Classes (e.g., Race, Color)

(b) Covered Entities (e.g., Private, State, Federal)
(c) Covered Practices (e.g., Nondiscrimination and Religious
accommodations)
(d) Administrative Procedures (i.e., EEOC, DOJ)
(e) Remedies (i.e., Equitable relief, Capped relief)
(f) Judicial Scenarios (e.g., Disparate treatment, BFOQs, Religious
hardships)

There is a small degree of “give and take” to using this approach.

Structuring each chapter in this manner reduces, if not prohibits, the
opportunity to offer a clear chronological look at EEO law. I happen to
believe this is important for the reader to understand the true intent versus
the ultimate practice of each law or regulation. However, looking at EEO
law in a chronological structure would have been helpful. Following the
history of court room decisions and legislation seems, to me, to have value.
The authors address the timing of activities by providing a brief histor-
ical overview in Chapter 4 (Constitutional Claims); Chapter 5 (The Equal
Pay Act of 1963); Chapter 6 (Age Discrimination in Employment Act
of 1967); and Chapter 8 (The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990).
In Chapter 7 (Affirmative Action), they provide a section entitled “The
Evolution of EO 11246.” Unfortunately, this piecemeal approach results
in a somewhat disorienting look at history.
The authors use several tools as summary platforms that the reader will
find very helpful. Most of the chapters have a section on “Implications for
Practice.” This is reinforced by a table summarizing the same section. For
example, Chapter 2 (Major Title VII Judicial Scenarios) warns the reader
to “Examine all components of a selection system even if the ‘bottom-line’
is favorable.” All chapters are provided with a section on “Conclusion,”
“Key Summary Points,” “and “Discussion Questions.” Each of these is
a helpful tool for the reader. For classroom instructors, the “Discussion
Questions” sections are a goldmine.
436 PERSONNEL PSYCHOLOGY

Overall, the authors should be applauded for taking on the awesome

task of summarizing with great detail and commentating on 40 years of
EEO law. They provide the reader with a comprehensive and, for the
most part, user-friendly resource for professional and responsible human
resources practices and research. At the same time, the book provides
a foundation for how the judicial system thinks and acts when making
decisions.

REFERENCE
Nunally JC. (1978). Psychometric theory. (2nd ed.) New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

John P. Kotter and Lorne A. Whitehead. Buy-In: Saving Your Good Idea
from Getting Shot Down. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Review Press,
2010, 176 pages, $22.00 hardcover.
Reviewed by Vicki M. Staebler Tardino, Vice President of Organization
Development, Maritz, Fenton, MO.
People say you can’t judge a book by its cover. Well, perhaps they
haven’t yet seen Buy-In. If the title alone isn’t enough to draw your
attention, the anticipation of years of experience from leadership and
change expert John Kotter distilled into a succinct read on this topic
surely will. After all, who doesn’t want their idea to be the one that makes
it through the clutter? You have to admit, it’s an attractive concept. And
the authors deliver.
As the title declares, the focus of the book is on “saving good ideas
from being shot down” and, just as importantly, shoring up enough support
for their successful implementation. The authors present what they call
“crucial capabilities” that can be mastered and applied to any situation
where an idea needs to flourish (p. 7). These capabilities are based on a
“counterintuitive method of walking into the fray, showing respect for all,
and using clear and commonsense responses” (p. ix). As an organization
development practitioner, it’s hard to argue with these ingredients. It’s
important to note that the assumption throughout the book is that we are
dealing with good ideas from the start; the authors do not purport to cover
methods for generating or evaluating ideas.
The book begins with a tale of Centerville Library in which the pro-
tagonist (YOU!) is to present a proposal to a packed room including the
Citizens Advisory Committee and interested library customers, who col-
lectively have the power to approve or kill your plan. Chapter 1, “The
Death of a Good Plan,” provides background on the proposal and in-
troduces a colorful cast of characters, including Pompus Meani, Lookus
 BOOK REVIEWS 437

Smarti, and Bendi Windi, among others. As their names suggest, each
adversary demonstrates a unique strategy for injuring or defeating your
proposal. We come to learn the plan itself is persuasive, that it will provide
clear benefit to key stakeholders. And the reader experiences this “good
plan” dying an untimely death as the meeting at the library unfolds. Ar-
guably most readers could imagine—or have directly experienced—their
own idea suffering a similar fate and the thoughts and emotions that come
with it, even if they never stepped foot in a library.
In Chapter 2, “Saving the Day in Centerville, Part One,” you are given
a fresh start. This time you have a helper, your brother-in-law, Hank,
who agrees to facilitate the group discussion about your proposal during
the meeting. He also coaches you on the issues to anticipate and how to
respond. During the meeting, various antagonists are encouraged to speak
their mind. One-by-one attacks come and they are dealt with swiftly
and adeptly, with clear, no-nonsense responses, as prescribed by Hank’s
methodology. By Chapter 4, “Saving the Day in Centerville, Part Three,”
you are beginning to anticipate the “right” responses and joining Hank
in taking on your opponents, confidence and skills building all the while.
Ultimately, you’ve been equipped to protect and nurture good ideas—
you’ve earned your cape by getting your proposal accepted and learning
the lessons Hank teaches.
The remaining three chapters of the book provide a systemic analy-
sis of the meeting followed by an exposition of the different strategies,
attacks, and responses that are common when a new idea or plan is pre-
sented. Chapter 5, “Four Ways to Kill a Good Idea,” takes the reader
through the four basic strategies that Kotter and Whitehead suggest are
commonly used to defeat good ideas. These are (a) fear mongering, or
raising anxieties to prevent thoughtful consideration; (b) delay, or slowing
down discussion such that support cannot be achieved in time to make a
difference; (c) confusion, which involves raising concerns that muddy the
issue and prevent effective dialogue; and (d) ridicule, or strategies aimed at
damaging the person instead of the idea. Each type of attack is described
and linked back to the library story. The reader could easily stop after
this chapter and derive value, having experienced a failed attempt to get a
proposal accepted, a “do-over” that succeeds with Kotter and Whitehead’s
method, and having gained a basic understanding of the key dynamics at
play in each circumstance.
Chapter 6, “A Counterintuitive Strategy for Saving Your Good Idea,”
summarizes the key elements of the methodology employed in the success-
ful library meeting. It puts meat on the bones for the reader. The elements,
according to Kotter and Whitehead, work in concert to achieve buy-in by
capturing people’s attention and, while they are paying attention, winning
over their minds and hearts. A particularly useful feature in this chapter,
438 PERSONNEL PSYCHOLOGY

each element is displayed in bold text, with explanation following. The

reader can thumb through the pages and capture the main ideas quickly
or linger a little longer for the detail. For example, the first element is
“Don’t scheme to keep potential opponents, even the sneakiest attackers,
out of the discussion. Let them in. Let them shoot at you. Even encourage
them to shoot at you!” This is a provocative attention grabber—easy to
remember. It made me want to read on.
In Chapter 7, “Twenty-four Attacks and Twenty-four Responses,” the
authors showcase two dozen common attacks they have observed to de-
rail good ideas, and corresponding responses. This section is designed
for future reference or to be read in full for those who prefer a deeper
dive. The chapter organizes attacks and responses into three sections: (a)
We don’t need your idea, because the “problem” it “solves” doesn’t ex-
ist; (b) Okay, a problem exists, but your solution isn’t a good one; and
(c) Okay, a problem exists and our solution is a good one, but it will
never work here! The section headings leave no room for misinterpreta-
tion. For each of the 24 attacks and responses, a brief summary of each
is provided in bold, followed by elaboration. This chapter structure is
designed for maximum accessibility and practical use. I read every bit,
reflecting on how I’ve fared in similar circumstances and imagining how
things might have been different with Kotter and Whitehead’s wisdom in
play.
The final chapter, Chapter 8, “A Quick Reference Guide for Saving
Good Ideas,” is just that. It is six and a half pages intended to refresh and
jump start when you need it most. I was most pleased by the advice to
listen to feedback and incorporate any good suggestions into the proposal.
To this point, the methodology and examples seemed to focus on getting
the proposal pushed through without alteration, at least in the short run,
rather than improving its quality.
A bonus, the Appendix takes the methodology and embeds it in a
large-scale change context that Kotter has studied so much about. It is a
welcome extension for those of us who find ourselves coaching leaders or
leading large-scale change ourselves.
There are many positive attributes of this book, including the use
of allegory, simple and concise writing, the clear chapter headings and
organization, and practical reference material. The story of Centerville is
powerful in that we are given an opportunity to learn from failure and
success and we can see the different strategies come to life through vivid
personas. That said, I found myself wishing the authors used a more
interesting scenario. Although instructive, it was a bit lackluster, even
for those of us who love libraries. The character names and stereotypical
attributes do bring the concepts to life; at the same time one runs the risk
of mistaking common strategies for “difficult personalities.”
 BOOK REVIEWS 439

If there is one down side to the book, it relates to the issue of language
and framing. You know you are in a war: Your goal is to guard your
idea from being “shot down” by many forms of “verbal bullets” fired
by a variety of “attackers.” Or you may be “defusing bombs.” To the
extent one construes key stakeholders as the enemy and sees the goal as
saving their good idea from getting shot down, genuine understanding
and dialogue that could enhance the idea or build sustainable working
relationships seems considerably less likely. True, those outcomes are not
always desired.
The bottom line is Kotter and Whitehead do not disappoint. Overall, I
found the book to be interesting, approachable, fun, and full of practical
advice whether your idea faces potential adversaries in organizational life
or other domains. It’s the kind of book you can read quickly and start to
experiment now. Two thumbs up!

Tamara Erickson. What’s Next, Gen X? Keeping Up, Moving Ahead,

and Getting the Career You Want. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University
Press, 2010, 237 pages, $19.95 hardcover.
Reviewed by Theodore L. Hayes, Personnel Research Psychologist, U.S.
Office of Personnel Management, Washington, D.C.
Generational tensions arise when those who are younger have options
that those who are older did not. Probably sensing what was going to hap-
pen, Western monotheism and both Asian and Native American cultures
have divine injunctions at their foundations to honor one’s elders. But
literature and the arts have documented how hard that is. Consider that
whole Oedipus thing (“Yea with these hands all gory I pollute/The bed of
him I slew. Say, am I vile?” Oedipus the King, Sophocles, c. 429 BCE) and
ongoing intergenerational loathing and recrimination (“How sharper than
a serpent’s tooth it is to have a thankless child,” King Lear, Shakespeare,
1605; “If any question why we died/Tell them, because our fathers lied,”
My Boy Jack, R. Kipling, 1915; “Things they do look awful c-c-cold/Hope
I die before I get old,” My Generation, The Who, 1965). George Bernard
Shaw did not actually write “Youth is wasted on the young,” but it fits the
trend line. What’s the state of play now?
We don’t get an answer to that question from Erickson’s What’s Next,
Gen X? The Harvard University Press imprint and the concept of “Gen-
eration X” (a.k.a. Gen X) as its focus lend both prestige and tang to
an otherwise uneven business book that could have appropriately but pro-
saically been retitled Career Development For Dummies Between the Ages
of 29 and 43 (or 48) as of 2009.
It is as difficult for demographers to discuss individual psychology
as it is for psychologists to discuss population demographics. Erickson
440 PERSONNEL PSYCHOLOGY

attempts to cast her sociology at both levels. Unfortunately, her macro

approach meshes poorly with her career development advice. “Gen X”
is marketing category terminology that describes the people within its
purview about as well as “IQ” describes intelligence or the “Big Five” de-
scribes personality or a well-known pseudo-Jungian typology describes
anything. Gen X is a period of recent time during which there was a
drop-off in the birth rate following the marvelously fecund post-World
War II “baby boom,” which seems to have ended sometime between 1961
and 1965 (reasonable people disagree), but before the birth reverberation
between about 1980 and 1995—the group known as “Gen Y” or “Mil-
lennials.” In the marketing demographic approach that Erickson adopts,
each generation is demarcated both by common historical events and the
headcount of similarly aged peers:

Of course, the commonalities are far from the whole story. Each one of you
also had unique teen experiences, depending on the country you were living
in, your family’s socioeconomic background, your parents’ philosophies,
and a host of other factors. But the prominent events you share are what give
your generation its defining characteristics (p. 4, emphases in the original).

Much of the book’s demographic-level material uses this fortune

cookie imperative voice that is meant to educate “us” as to what de-
fines “us” as a generation. The defining leitmotifs of Gen X, according
to Erickson (pp. 63ff), include self-reliance, accumulating money, being
good parents, having friends, and a desire for balanced work/personal life.
Erickson does not consider whether this would be true of those from any
generation who have new jobs, college or car loans or their first mortgage,
children to feed and socialize, and so forth; how does the Gen X ap-
proach differ from that of other generations? Erickson frequently alludes
to mainstream media surveys and publications on Gen X in support of
her mainstream market contentions about the distinguishing and defining
nature of Gen X. This displays a certain lack of curiosity in what infor-
mation may be available in such U.S.-based resources as the National
Longitudinal Survey of Youth, the General Social Survey, journals by/for
professional demographers, or even the annual Federal Employee View-
point Survey. The media-says-Gen X-is-like-this approach runs into the
well-oiled trap of confusing temporal correlation with sufficient causation
and also denies the capacity of individuals to learn and grow. It is con-
sistent with the “turning cycles of human history” theory espoused more
fulsomely and engagingly by epochal writers such as Strauss and Howe
(e.g., Strauss & Howe, 1991, 2007) that Erickson persistently repackages
(with attribution) in this book.
Because there is so much diversity within a given generation due to
demographic factors beyond birth cohort, such as gender or ethnicity
 BOOK REVIEWS 441

or country of origin, how reasonable is it to propose career advice at

the “generation” level? No consideration is provided. The most obvious
target audience for What’s Next? includes well-educated urban-dwelling
Web-savvy NPR listeners who buy into the marketing niche approach.
Erickson tendentiously inserts text box comments as a way to buttress her
thesis, a tedious habit, but this “research” conflates “all Gen X” with the
very small proportion of commentators on her blog. (In contrast, at least
Deal’s 2007 book on generational differences among leadership retreat
participants had some data.) In short, this book is inadequate as a work of
demographic-level analysis.
Erickson improves when she focuses on specifics of career develop-
ment advice for those who happen to be somewhere between several years
out of college to midcareer professionals. That this advice starts on page
75 requires a modicum of sustained attention on a medium-length airplane
flight. Although she repackages such roasted chestnuts as “The most suc-
cessful people make decisions because they think the immediate choice is
inherently valuable, regardless of where it may or may not lead . . . . They
understand what most career guides don’t: career satisfaction comes from
following your heart” (p. 76), her shift in tone from imperative to collegial
works well.
What should Gen X do next at work? “My overarching advice is to
find a type of work and a place of work that suits you” (p. 79, emphases in
original) by doing some reflection upon what engages you. This reflection
builds on her previous career development thinking (Erickson & Gratton,
2007), and for what it is, this advice is reasonable if inscrutable.
Because one of Erickson’s strengths as an author is aggregation of
other people’s ideas, chapters on personal development, changing orga-
nizational models, and career options are not new but are conveniently
collated here and should provide those in the target audience some good
perspectives on career strategy. However, her thesis is hamstrung by her
tendency to aggregate and retell without analysis or reflection. She is en-
thusiastic, for example, because Gen X is an entrepreneurial generation.
But although she discusses some perils of becoming an entrepreneur, her
high-level approach avoids discussion of how difficult it really may be. In
contrast, Roth (2011) has much clearer-eyed advice. Erickson’s closing
chapter on Gen X leaders is good enough as these sorts of things go,
though again it is an aggregation and repackaging of several other books
on leadership (notably Watkins, 2003) and provides such soft-focus ad-
vice as “Your leadership will be about creating a context of adaptability
in the face of ambiguity to help organizations become more spontaneous
and reflexive” (p. 192).
There are three reasons why one would read this book. First, this is
the type of B-school pulp factoid gumbo that becomes the basis for what
442 PERSONNEL PSYCHOLOGY

managers “know.” Twenty percent of these books are really good, 80%
are not. The value of books such as What’s Next? is to help consultants
anticipate and reeducate the management corps. In addition, according
to the book’s page on Amazon.com, Erickson has authored comparable
books on Baby Boomers and Millennials and is apparently regarded as a
“Top 50 Thinker” by people who create such lists. Finally, human history
has at its core the tensions arising from generations rubbing against each
other, so gaining insight even from What’s Next? assists one in being
more articulate about human nature at work; as the French say, si jeunesse
savait, si vieillesse puvait (“if the young only knew, if the old only could,”
Estienne, late 1500s).

REFERENCES

Deal J. (2007). Retiring the generation gap: How employees young and old can find common
ground. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Erickson TJ, Gratton L. (2007). What it means to work here. Harvard Business Review, 85,
104–112.
Howe N, Strauss W. (2007). The next 20 years: How customer and workforce attitudes will
evolve. Harvard Business Review, 85, 41–52.
Roth C. (2011). The entrepreneur equation. Dallas, TX: BenBella.
Strauss W, Howe N. (1991). Generations: The history of America’s future, 1584 to 2069.
New York, NY: Quill.
Watkins M. (2003). The first 90 days: Critical success strategies for new leaders at all
levels. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
 BOOK REVIEWS 443

BOOKS AND MATERIALS RECEIVED∗

Ashwood, Elissa L., Pritchard, Robert D., and Weaver, Sallie J. Evidence-
Based Productivity Improvement: A Practical Guide to the Productivity
Measurement and Enhancement System (ProMES). New York, NY:
Routledge, 2012, 228 pages, $60.00 hard cover.
De Cremer, David, and Tenbrunsel, Ann E. Behavioral Business Ethics: Shap-
ing an Emerging Field. New York, NY: Routledge, 2012, 266 pages,
$59.95 hard cover.
King, Emily. Field Tested: Recruiting, Managing, and Retaining Veterans.
New York, NY: AMACOM, 2011, 187 pages, $29.95 hard cover.
Neale, Stephen, Spencer-Arnell, Lisa, and Wilson, Liz. Emotional Intelli-
gence Coaching: Improving Performance for Leaders, Coaches, and
the Individual. Philadelphia, PA: Kogan Page, 2011, 228 pages, $22.76
soft cover.

∗
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.