Burns shifted the focus of leadership studies from the
traits and actions of great men to the interaction of leaders and their constituencies as collaborators working toward mutual benefit.[8] He was best known for his contributions to the
transactional,
transformational, aspirational, and visionary schools of
leadership theory.
Biography
Military service
After graduating from Williams College, Burns spent a year as an
intern in Washington for
Utah Congressman
Abe Murdock.[9] He spent a year at Harvard, then six months in
Colorado working for the
War Labor Board.[3]
Burns was
drafted to serve in the
Pacific theater as an enlisted U.S. Army combat historian,[3] and was awarded the
Bronze Star and four
Battle Stars. Throughout his military adventures, Burns noticed that when leadership was mentioned, it was in terms of the traits and qualities of
officers, but not soldiers.[2]
A liberal, in 1958 Burns was the unsuccessful Democratic nominee in
Massachusetts's 1st congressional district, meeting then-U.S. Senator
John F. Kennedy and helping him gain Protestant support to get re-elected, while Kennedy helped him gain Catholic support. Burns gained personal access that allowed him to write his biography of Kennedy, published in 1960, which calls JFK "casual as a cash register," "quiet, taut, efficient—sometimes, perhaps, even dull," and generally too cerebral and lacking in heart. This angered Kennedy's wife
Jackie, who said Burns "underestimated" him.[4]
Personal
Burns and his two brothers were raised by their mother, Mildred Burns, in Burlington, Massachusetts.[14] Burns graduated from
Lexington High School in
Massachusetts in 1935, and then received his Bachelor of Arts from Williams College and his Ph.D. from Harvard University.[15] He and his first wife, Janet Thompson, had four children, whom they raised in Williamstown after he joined the faculty at Williams College. In 1964, he met Joan Simpson Meyers, daughter of renowned paleontologist
George Gaylord Simpson, in New York City when she interviewed him for her best-selling book about President John Fitzgerald Kennedy; four years later Burns and Meyers were married at High Mowing, the family home in Williamstown, where they lived together for the next quarter century. At the end of his life, he lived with his collaborator and longtime companion, Professor Susan Dunn, and remained close friends with his first wife.[1]
As an admirer of a strong leader in the White House, Burns was critical of the U.S. governmental system of
checks and balances, which he viewed as an obstacle to progress in times of a divided or oppositional Congress. In The Deadlock of Democracy (1963) and Packing the Court: The Rise of Judicial Power and the Coming Crisis of the Supreme Court (2009) he called for systemic changes, arguing for term limits for Supreme Court justices, an end to midterm elections, and a population-based Senate.[16] Burns also advocated repeal of the
Twenty-second Amendment to the United States Constitution to allow effective U.S. presidents to serve three or more terms of office.[17]
Theory of leadership
Burns's Leadership (1978) founded the field of
leadership studies, introducing two types of leadership:
transactional leadership, in which leaders focus on the relationship between the leader and follower, and
transformational leadership, in which leaders focus on the beliefs, needs, and values of their followers.[18]
Excerpts:
Leadership over human beings is exercised when persons with certain motives and purposes mobilize, in competition or conflict with others, institutional, political, psychological, and other resources so as to arouse, engage, and satisfy the motives of followers... in order to realize goals mutually held by both leaders and followers....
Transformational leadership occurs when one or more persons engage with others in such a way that leaders and followers raise one another to higher levels of motivation and morality.
That people can be lifted into their better selves is the secret of transforming leadership and the moral and practical theme of this work.
James MacGregor Burns was interested in the pursuit of a general theory for leadership. According to Burns "others argue that we must construct a general theory of leadership in order that we grasp the role of individual leaders and their traits."[19] Beginning with the Kellogg Leadership Studies Project (KLSP), a 4-year (1994–1998) initiative, to meetings with over 25 scholars over the early stages, sought that general theory, that would encompass all of leadership. The group led by James MacGregor Burns, a leadership scholar, presidential biographer, and Pulitzer Prize winner, contributed much, but admittedly did not attain that goal.[20] A 3-year exploratory sequential mixed methods study by
Kenneth-Maxwell Nance provides support for Burn's earlier assertion, that leadership "is a moral undertaking" and formed a basis for leadership's grand theory.[21][22]
His work has influenced other transformational leadership theorists such as
Bernard Bass,
Bruce Avolio, and
Kenneth Leithwood[citation needed], and inspired Georgia Jones Sorenson[23] to found the Center for Political Leadership and Participation at the
University of Maryland, which Burns joined in 1993, causing the center to be renamed in his honor in 1997 as the James MacGregor Burns Academy of Leadership.[16]
Books
Congress on Trial: The Legislative Process and the Administrative State (
Harper, 1949).[24]
Government by the People (textbook) (1952; 20th ed. 2003),
Prentice-Hall.[25]
Roosevelt: The Lion and the Fox, 1882–1940 (first volume of two-volume set) (
Harcourt, Brace, 1956).[26] (1957 Woodrow Wilson Foundation award[27] and 1957 finalist
National Book Award[28])
^Burns, James Macgregor; Marvin Overby, L. (1990). Cobblestone Leadership: Majority Rule, Minority Power (Julian J Rothbaum Distinguished Lecture Series): James MacGregor Burns: 9780806123141: Amazon.com: Books.
ISBN0-8061-2314-1.
^Burns, James Macgregor; Burns, Stewart (1991). A People's Charter: The Pursuit of Rights in America: James MacGregor Burns, Stewart Burns: 9780394577630: Amazon.com: Books. Knopf.
ISBN0-394-57763-9.
^Burns, James Macgregor; Crotty, William J.; Duke, Lois Lovelace; Longley, Lawrence D. (June 7, 1992). The Democrats Must Lead: The Case for a Progressive Democratic Party. Avalon.
ISBN0-8133-1570-0.
^Burns, James Macgregor; Hermes; Sorenson, Georgia Jones; Gerber, Robin; Burns; Webster, Scott W. (1999). Dead Center: Clinton-Gore Leadership and the Perils of Moderation: James Macgregor Burns, Georgia Jones Sorenson: 9780684837789: Amazon.com: Books. Scribner.
ISBN0-684-83778-1.
^MacGregor, James; Burns, James Macgregor; Dunn, Susan (January 7, 2004). Amazon.com: George Washington (The American Presidents Series) (9780805069365): James MacGregor Burns, Susan Dunn, Arthur M. Schlesinger: Books. Macmillan.
ISBN0-8050-6936-4.
^Goethals, George R.; Sorenson, Georgia (March 19, 2004). Encyclopedia of Leadership 4 vol. set: George R. (EDT)/ Sorenson, Georgia Jones (EDT)/ Burns, James MacGregor (EDT) Goethals: 9780761925972: Amazon.com: Books.
ISBN0-7619-2597-X.