Edwin P. Hollander (1927-2020)

Memorializes Edwin P. Hollander (1927-2020). Hollander was a major figure in the study of group and organizational leadership. He received his BS from Case Western Reserve University in 1948, his MS in psychometrics, working with Robert Thorndike in 1950, and his PhD in social psychology from Columbia University in 1952. After serving as a naval aviation psychologist during the Korean War, Ed began his academic career at Carnegie Mellon, initiating work on leadership that led to a 20-year research program at the State University of New York at Buffalo where he was also founding director of the doctoral program in social/organizational psychology and provost of social sciences. In 1989, he became the City University of New York Distinguished Professor of Psychology at Baruch College until his retirement in 1999. During his career, he had many visiting appointments, including the Tavistock Institute, Harvard, Oxford, the National Academy of Sciences, and Istanbul University. Hollander also served as president of the Eastern Psychological Association and American Psychological Association (APA) Division 1, APA's Board of Social and Ethical Responsibility for Psychology (BSERP), and on the Governing Council of the International Society of Political Psychology. He received a distinguished career award from the International Association of Applied Psychology, the International Leadership Association, the Network of Leadership Scholars, the New York Academy of Sciences, and the Center for Creative Leadership. His landmark books, including Leaders, Groups, and Influence (1964) and Leadership Dynamics (1978), positioned leadership as an influence process occurring at the nexus of leader, followers, and organizational context. Ed emphasized the importance of an engaged followership to the study of leadership, rather than focusing primarily on the leader. He is perhaps best known for the idiosyncrasy credit model, a framework that details how follower perceptions affect leader behavior. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).