Many fellow scholars, colleagues, staff, and students helped in the planning of and data collection for this fourth edition of the Handbook of Leadership, beginning in 1989 at the Center for Leadership Studies (CLS), School of Management at Binghamton University (State University of New York). Leading scholars of leadership research such as Chet Schriesheim and Fred Fiedler, as well as Robert Wallace, former senior editor of Free Press, reviewed Bass and Stogdill’s third edition to suggest ways of improving the fourth edition, along with updating the literature. My faculty colleagues at CLS—Bruce Avolio, Fran Yammarino, David Waldman, and Leanne Atwater—also made useful suggestions and helped frame the decision to maintain and expand the single reference list. Over the 18 years during which the fourth edition was in preparation, I received useful feedback from readers. One example stands out: Native American readers pointed out that in the third edition, Native Americans were seen as a severely impoverished group, when in fact by the 1990s, they had overcome much adversity and were making important economic, educational, and cultural strides. The opening of gambling casinos on Native American lands became a major source of revenue and enabled extensive investments. Much had changed for the good in their lives. Google was another source of unpublished ethnic information.
Secretarial staff and students helped greatly in locating and copying articles and technical reports. Particularly important was CLS secretary Wendy Kramer.
When it came time to finish the final draft of the manuscript of the fourth edition. I was aided immensely by two CLS professors at Binghamton University, Kim Jaussi and Shelly Dionne and their Ph.D. students, Becky Jestice, Jung Hwan Kim, Betsy Carroll, and Mike Palanski, as well as my wife, who all put a great deal of energy into locating and completing fully and partly missing references. They were an important source of support in preparation of the final reference list.
Writing was expedited by my ability to work directly on the computer. It was a new experience trying to get the results to the publisher using the exacting format and instructions I was required to supply. But thanks to Ruth Bass, my wife of 61 years and a self-taught computer buff, it was possible to do this. I remain deeply grateful for her efforts in this regard as well as for her editorial suggestions for the text and her encouragement as the final manuscript unfolded. Without her assistance, the task would never have been completed.
Bernard M. Bass
St. Petersburg, Florida