Background
In the past several years, researchers have done a thorough research work in how they define leadership and leadership behavior. Leadership students and researchers have described many different types of leadership styles. The democratic and autocratic leadership styles are just two of the most prominent leadership styles that have been identified in leadership literatures.
In 1939, a group of researchers led by psychologist Kurt Lewin decided to identify the different types of leadership styles that exist in the modern world. This early study was very important and actually established the three major leadership styles (democratic, autocratic and lasseiz-faire) that are very common in today 's leadership literature. In Lewin 's study, school children were assigned to one of three groups. Autocratic, democratic, or lasseiz-faire leader led each group. The kids were told by each group leader to complete an arts and crafts project as various researchers observed the children 's behavior in response to each leader 's leadership styles. The result of the study show that children in democratic group were less productive than members of the authoritarian but their contributions were of a much higher quality. So, the main question is : Which of this leadership style is better according to various past researches? The answer is : It depends. Leadership style has changed from a very autocratic approach to a very creative participative approach. This
The first leadership style is "Autocratic" in which the leaders understand the strength of the authority and sees subordinates as important parts of a big machine. These leaders do not believe in opinion or suggestions.
Grojean, Resick & Diskson (2004) suggest that leaders are responsible for facilitating their follower’s to become capable and guide them to improving their capabilities and strengths. Differentiating between different leadership styles can be done in a number of ways. It was determined that the traditional styles of leaders include authoritian (autocratic), democratic, permissive (laissez-faire) and bureaucratic (Viinamäki, 2009).
Kurt Lewin, and a team of researchers, studied youth leaders. They studied youth leaders in activity groups. Based on those studies, it was concluded that there were three obvious and leading leadership styles. Kurt Lewin used the terms democratic, laissez-faire, and autocratic to describe the leadership styles. He also chose one that he thought was superior compared to the other two. The autocratic style is when a single person
Authoritarian leaders are the leaders who like to do all the group decisions on their own and tell other group members what to do and how to do it. This type of leadership is very beneficial when you are in need of a quick decision or faced with some type of crisis. This type of decision making can easily be abused and can often be viewed as being bossy and over controlling. Leaders who use this style may provoke dependence, criticism, dissatisfaction, and aggression from their group members (Forsyth, 1990). According to Gladding 2012, authoritarian leaders do not ask for consideration or suggestions from group members; instead, they structure and direct their groups according to their own wishes, purposes, and the information available to them. A task group could benefit more from an Authoritarian leader. Tasks groups focus on accomplishing specific goals. According to Gladding 1994, “with task groups, an
This research focuses on four leadership styles that have been used within the organization. These styles play apart in the success of objectives and tasks being accomplished.
Professional leadership comprises of mentoring, empowering and participating actively in organizations. The APN, as an effective leader should be able to collaborate with team members, mentored and be mentor and provide empowerment (Hamric, Hanson, Tracy, & O’Grady, 2014). Authoritarian, Democratic and Delegative are the three styles of leaderships. Authoritarian leaders focus on control and command , Democratic leaders focus on guidance and encouraging input, while Delegative leaders focus on independence with minimal or no guidance (About.com Psychology, n.d.).
With that in mind, leadership theory has identified four management styles--authoritarian, democratic, participatory, and laissez-faire. There is inherently nothing wrong with any of them; all have their place at any given time. But it's the communication aspect that is important when implementing any given method of leadership that makes an organization rise or fall, and determines if respect is retained or lost within the group. Stated another way, the problem does not lie in the styles themselves, but rather in the presentation.
Furthermore, there are different theories which give insights about why some leaders lead the way they do. One of these theories is the behavioral theory, it emphasized on what leaders do and their leadership styles. The behavioral theory explains three different types of leadership styles namely: autocratic, democratic, and laissez-faire. An autocratic leader makes plans, gives direction on how to execute them, and makes decisions for the group. These type of leaders are highly power control. They give little or no freedom to the members. Whatever they say is final. On the other hand, democratic leaders allow members to participate in the decision making. They seek opinions of the members. On the other hand, laissez-faire leaders allow members to do whatever they like. This type of leaders does very little planning or decision making thus fail to encourage others to do it (Weiss and Tappen, 2015 p.
In the reading by Daniel Goleman, the six different type of leadership are described, and defined. The writer states the different types are Coercive, Authoritative, Affiliative, Democratic, Pacesetting, and Coaching (Goleman, 2000). “Coercive leaders demand immediate compliance. Authoritative leaders mobilize people toward a vision. Affiliative leaders create emotional bonds, and harmony. Democratic leaders build consensus through participation. Pacesetting leaders expect excellence and self-direction, and coaching leaders develop people for the future,” (Goleman, 2000). The reading state out of the six, Authoritative leadership is the type which has the most positive effect on workers because in the realm of Emotional Intelligence it shows empathy, and self-confidence (Goleman, 2000). The other positive leadership styles are Affiliative, Democratic, and Coaching (Goleman, 2000). In all of these types, the common theme is empathy, and working together.
Out of these three Lewin found that the best style of leadership is Democratic, Autocratic leads to an upheaval where the Liaises-Faire approach creates unmotivated individuals who lack effort. (Lewin, LIippit and White, 1939).
All three style of leaderships are very crucial to change the individuals and the social systems within the organization. A perfect leader is one who carries all three styles. The style of an organization's leadership is reflected equally on the nature of that organization and its relations with the
Leadership can be defined as the ability to lead a group of people successfully in an organization. Hall, et al (2008) have mentioned that an effective leader has to be visionary, motivating and responsible in order to successfully run a business organization. In business the two key leadership styles, which are widely used in today’s corporate world are autocratic leadership and democratic leadership (Johnson, n.d.). Autocratic leadership may be explained as “a leadership style where the manager sets objectives, allocates tasks and insists on obedience” (Hall, et al 2008 p.g 401). Conversely, democratic leadership encourages “participation in decision making” (Hall, et al 2008 p.g 402). Whilst many people would consider autocratic
Question 1: The three types of group leadership styles are the Authoritarian, Democratic, and Liassez-Faire. The advantages of the Authoritarian leadership style are having more structure in a group settings and allowing the leader to have more control of the direction of the group. However, there are disadvantages of the leadership style, such as not allowing the members to freely interact among another. Additionally, the leadership style can intimidate members from continuing to attend group meetings. On the contrary, several cultures might be more comfortable with the leadership style.
In terms of leadership styles a wide variety exists for one to employ (Boykins, 2013). There isn’t firm consensus as to which styles prove to be the most effective. Different situations call for different approaches. In the article, Empirical Study of Leadership Styles, it discusses several leadership styles that I can relate to.
Murphy (2005) maintains that leaders are accountable for helping their follower’s to become efficient and support them to develop their strengths and abilities. Distinguishing and categorising between different leadership styles can be done in several ways, (Gopee and Galloway, 2009). In this essay traditional classification of authoritian (autocratic), democratic, permissive (laissez-faire) and bureaucratic styles of leaders will be discussed.