Research Guides: LEAD Graduate Certificate Resource Guide: Home

About

Leadership studies is a multi-disciplinary field of scholarship and practice, drawing from the social and political sciences, business administration, history, philosophy, and communication studies, as well as various applied practitioner domains, such as nursing, healthcare management, nonprofit management, and educational leadership in both k-12 and higher education. Put differently, the conversation on leadership is vast: nearly everyone has a stake in the theory and practice of leadership.

The LEAD certificate in the Office of Interdisciplinary Graduate and Professional Studies (IGPS) at UAB provides aspiring leaders and practitioners from any background or professional field with the essential tools and concepts for facilitating change and promoting leadership and leader development—wherever they are and wherever they want to go.

This research guide identifies foundational texts and scholarly journals that interested students might use to further their practice and scholarly investigation of leadership. Materials are organized based on the program coursework, namely: foundational theories of leadership, team building, ethical leadership practices, leader development, and organizational change.

These materials are starting points—the field is complex and vast, with differing, sometimes contradictory views on what leadership is and how to practice it. Enjoy.

The Leadership Quarterly
The Leadership Quarterly is a social-science journal dedicated to advancing our understanding of leadership as a phenomenon, how to study it, as well as its practical implications.
Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies
The purpose of JLOS is to publish research aimed at helping us understand and predict effective leadership – leadership of people, groups, and organizations. JLOS continuously renews and reinvigorates leadership scholarship, practice and policy by promoting forward thinking scholarship.
Leadership
Leadership is an international peer-reviewed journal that publishes the highest quality original research on leadership. Leadership is designed to provide an ongoing forum for academic researchers to exchange information, insights and knowledge on both theoretical development and empirical research on leadership.
Journal of Leadership Studies
The mission of the Journal of Leadership Studies is to publish leadership research and theoretical contributions that bridge scholarship and practice and that exemplify critical inquiry into contemporary issues and paradigms. We promote interdisciplinary and interorganizational theory and foster dialogue that transcends specific contexts by exploring the primacy of leadership's role.
Journal of Values-Based Leadership
JVBL strives to publish articles that are intellectually rigorous yet of practical use to leaders, teachers, and entrepreneurs and focuses on converging the practical, theoretical, and applicable ideas and experiences of scholars and practitioners.
Psychology of Leaders and Leadership
Explores how those in leadership positions can use the science of psychology to help themselves and their organizations perform more effectively. The journal is interested in psychological research findings and practical insights shared by those in leadership positions.
Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes
Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes publishes fundamental research in organizational behavior, organizational psychology, and human cognition, judgment, and decision-making. The journal features articles that present original empirical research, theory development, meta-analysis, and methodological advancements relevant to the substantive domains served by the journal.
Organization Science
Organization Science publishes fundamental research about organizations and their processes, structures, technologies, identities, forms, and people. Our research portfolio includes papers grounded in a range of fields and disciplines that include organizational behavior and theory, psychology, sociology, economics, political science, strategic management, information systems, innovation, entrepreneurship, and cognitive science.
Jourmal of Organizational Change Management
Journal of Organizational Change Management examines creative and alternative philosophies for understanding organizational change and development. It encourages the exploration of alternative paradigms navigating researchers and managers in their thinking and designing transformations of organizational realities.

International Leadership Association
The International Leadership Association is the professional home of a global community of leaders and leadership researchers, educators, and development specialists who believe that leadership is the key to a just and thriving future for all people.
Network of Leadership Scholars
The Network of Leadership Scholars provides a forum for people from varying backgrounds, disciplines, nationalities, and perspectives to interact and generate knowledge related to the field(s) of leadership.
Association of Leadership Educators
The Association of Leadership Educators is the intersection for teaching, learning, research, facilitation, and development of leadership education.