Research and Course Guides: Leadership: Background Info

Handbooks and Encyclopedias

Handbooks contain entries that summarize and define complex research and also highlights important scholars. Use handbooks to get background information, define theories, and find seminal scholars.

Handbooks are extremely helpful for learning about a topic quickly and deciding if you'd like to do more in-depth research or to gain broad knowledge of a topic quickly. Using a handbook when you are choosing your research topic can help you make a more informed choice.

The databases below look at multiple handbooks and academic encyclopedias at once:

Routledge Handbooks This link opens in a new window
Routledge Handbooks Online brings together the world’s leading scholars to provide a "cutting-edge" overview of classic and current research
Oxford Handbooks Online This link opens in a new window
Oxford Handbooks features review essays, written by leading experts, that evaluate the current thinking on a field or topic, and make an original argument about the future direction of the debate. UST currently subscribes to 7 subject collections.

Featured Encyclopedia

The SMS Blackwell Handbook of Organizational Capabilities by Constance E. Helfa
ISBN: 9781405103046
Blackwell (the publisher) states, "How do the resources and capabilities of organizations emerge, develop, and change over time? This Handbook brings together scholars of strategic management, economics, history, organizational theory, international business, and technology management in order to address this question."
Leadership in Nonprofit Organizations: A Reference Handbook by Kathryn A. Agard, ed

Websites

Free Management Library
Looking for a topic? This site has articles on leadership and leadership development, as well as other topics related to management. Rummage around in it for ideas for your paper or presentation.
National Education Policy Center
Wow! Is this a great website! Find in-depth policy briefs on cutting edge issues in education PLUS reviews of other policy briefs -- critiquing arguments, literature reviews for the briefs and research done. Good site for finding a topic and helping you think critically about the work you read.

Encyclopedias & Handbooks

Encyclopedia of Leadership by Goethals, Sorenson and MacGregor Burns
Call Number: HD57.7 .E53 2004
ISBN: 076192597X
Includes biographies and case studies. Includes articles on leadership styles and personal characteristics of leaders. The Reader's Guide at the front of the book is an excellent source for keywords.

Bibliography of important works on Leadership.
Handbook of Research on the Education of School Leaders by Michelle D. Young, et al.
Call Number: LB2831.82 .H36 2009
ISBN: 0805861572
The cover is really blue!
Encyclopedia of educational leadership and administration by Fenwick W. English, editor
Call Number: LB2805 .E527 2006
ISBN: 0761930876
Ideas and methods being discussed in the literature and used in classrooms and schools, including higher education. Includes biographies of the big thinkers in the field.
The Encyclopedia of Leadership: a practical guide to popular leadership theories and techniques by Herbert & Klatt
Call Number: HD57.7 .H54 2001
ISBN: 0071363084
Popular "tools" leaders use: what they are, how to use them. List of gurus and their tools.
Blackwell Encyclopedia of Mentoring by Tammy D. Allen and Lillian T. Eby
ISBN: 9781405133739
Relationships between leaders and their mentees. Passing on leadership to the next "generation" in an organization or movement. Extensive list of references lead you to your next step in research.