Essential Theories of Motivation and Leadership is the third in a series of books dealing with microlevel organizational behavior theories, spread unevenly over a twenty-five-year period. The predecessors were Theories of Organizational Behavior (1980), and Organizational Behavior: Foundations, Theories, and Analyses (2002).
All of these books presuppose some prior work in such fields as organizational behavior, management, and the like. Given an introduction of this kind, readers should find little in this book that overlaps with their prior learning. The reason for this is that basic courses typically take a content- or problem-centered approach. In contrast, this book takes a different tack, focusing on
the best theories in the field of micro-organizational behavior and the contributions these theories have made to understanding organizations. Dealing with these theories and the research on them requires not only some basic study in the area, but also an introduction to statistics. With this kind of preparation, readers should have no difficulty comprehending the material presented here, even though some of the theories are by their nature quite demanding.