Kurt Lewin : Three Types Of Leadership In The Decision-Making Theory

Autocratic leadership, also known as authoritarian leadership is a leadership style characterized by individual control over all decisions and little input from group members. Autocratic leaders typically make choices based on their own ideas and judgments and rarely accept advice from followers. Autocratic leadership involves absolute, authoritarian control over a group. It can also be derived

The democratic leadership style provides for a happy medium between the autocratic and laissez-fair styles of leadership. In this scenario the leader attempts to provide direction to the group without overpowering or creating follower dependency on himself. This style of leadership is most likely to provide for satisfied and empowered followers. An example of this style of leadership can be seen in a workplace where employees feel empowered to work independently with clear and concise direction from leadership.

Democratic leadership style allows leaders and workers to work together efficiently in a group. It encourages good communication and promotes autonomy. When adequately utilized the democratic leadership style could be very people oriented, creates an excellent functional relationship between the leader and the staff, and allows a safe work climate (Merrill, 2015).

Autocratic leadership, is a style which is characterized by the individual control over all the decisions and little input from group members. These type of leaders rarely accept advice from followers. These type of leaders tend to be bossy and controlling. Failing to consult with other team members in such situations hurts the overall success of the group.

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 a democratic leadership style, the decision making process and overall responsibility among team members is shared. Decisions are made by the leader consulting each member of the team; therefore the outcome becomes a group effort. In the democratic leadership style, tasks are delegated to employees effectively, where the implementation is mostly in their hands. As opposed to the authoritarian leadership style, the democratic leader welcomes feedback from every team member. Team members are also encouraged to function as a

In the 1930’s Kurt Lewin argued three major styles of leadership Autocratic, Democratic and Laissez-fair (Manktelow, n.d.). Kurt’s simple but effective categorized leadership models provided a foundation to many different leadership theories. An Autocratic leader is one who makes decisions without the help or input of others. Because this leader doesn’t consult with the team, team members may feel as though their opinion doesn’t matter thus losing a team oriented atmosphere. This type of leadership may be seem as demoralizing and lead to high turn over rates and absenteeism (Manktelow, n.d.). Team members may feel unimportant and therefore take less ownership of team outcomes. A Democratic leadership style however is the almost the exact opposite of

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

Authoritarian group leaders are leaders who have complete authority, they are not required to consult with other members of the group in decision-making. I believe authoritarian group leaders are most compatible with the military, an organization ruled by a single party, cults and gangs. According to Gladding (2016), authoritarian group leaders see others members of the group as not having any motivation and rather lazy. Laisser-faire is different from all three style of leadership by not having a leader/facilitator(Gladding,2016).

The democratic leadership style consists of the leader, sharing the decision-making skills with the group associates by encouraging the benefits of the group members and by practicing social fairness. This stresses on group agreements to produce new ideas. Democratic happens when all managers, junior managers and employees are involved in the idea and the final decision process. Democratic style is the management style that Coca-Cola has adopted, which involves empowerment, and allows individuals and teams the responsibility of decision making, usually within a given framework. The authoritarian leadership style keeps strict, close control over its followers by keeping close regulation of the policies and procedures given to the followers.

Secondly, the democratic leadership style in my opinion is between authoritarian and laze fair. The group is directed by leader, but he/she allows members to speak freely and openly among another. Yet, there is some sort of structure. The advantage of this structure is the style allowing members to be encouraged to share their feeling and views. It is difficult for myself to find an advantage of the leadership style. Therefore, the one thing I believe could be a disadvantage would be an individual taking advantage of the limited freedom within the group.

Authoritarian leadership, also known as autocratic leadership. This leadership is over all control over all decisions with little to no input from the leaders group members. Authoritarians will make choices based upon their own judgements and ideas not allowing for any advice from any other persons. Benefits from this leadership are decisions being made quickly with out waiting the input of others. Projects or offices that require a strong leader would be looking for and authoritarian leadership style. Disadvantages to this style of leadership is that people in this position can be referred to as bossy , controlling and dictatorial (Cherry, 2015). These can lead to resentment from coworkers and group members.

Autocratic leadership somewhat resembles a dictatorship or an authoritarian structure. The leader has a high level of control making decisions without the input of others. This type of leadership is not very effective in most situations, what does work well during emergencies.

One of this style’s is the autocratic style, a style designed for leaders to teach others to follow by example; letting others knows what you expect from them by using a straight forward approach. Basically, they lay out the situation to others, and take full responsibility for their own and others actions; through the process of decision making. Though, most people would say that this style is not be any means the most positive, other would disagree since it seems to work quite well were leadership is concerned; especially at accomplishing the goals they set for the organization. However, for this to be beneficial in all aspects, one needs to have a wide range of choice

Autocratic leadership is a classical leadership style with the following characteristics: manager seeks to make as many decisions as possible, manager seeks to have the most authority and control in decision making, manager seeks to retain responsibility rather than utilise complete delegation , consultation with other colleagues in minimal and decision making becomes a solitary process managers are less concerned with investing their own leadership development, and prefer to simply work on the task at hand. Whereas Democratic Leadership is the leadership style that promotes the sharing of responsibility, the exercise of delegation and continual consultation. The style has the following characteristics: manager seeks consultation on all