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Participative leadership offers a host of benefits to an organisation willing to use it. By involving employees in company decisions you raise their awareness, encourage their contributions, and raise their morale. If this sounds like something you would like to bring to your workplace, then read on. This blog post shines a spotlight on participative leadership, exploring its nature, its strengths, and its potential weaknesses. After reading you’ll have a solid understanding of what participative leadership can offer. What is Participative Leadership?It’s useful to have a participative leadership definition in mind while reading about the topic, especially considering that there are differences of opinion. When we use the term, we are referring to a situation where subordinates are invited to participate in the decision-making process traditionally confined to the leadership. In one study, a large group of managers whose traits they thought best defined this leadership style. By nature, leadership styles are broad nets with consensus on what they entail being hard to come by. The five key traits of participative leadership were:
In short, employees are involved much more heavily in the organisational activities than they would be in other leadership styles, with greater efforts taken to keep them informed, and greater priority placed on their development. Participative and Democratic Leadership StylesYou may hear this style referred to as democratic, participative, or democratic/participative. Some theorists argue that the two styles are subtly different, but wider consensus agrees that they are the same. Both have firm foundations in mutual respect; both require effective collaboration between the leader and those being led. One difference you may see stated as distinguishing between the two is how decisions are ultimately made:
Other people refer to the above as - respectively - the consultation and joint decision-making styles of participative/democratic leadership. Our definition of participative leadership encompasses both of these decision making processes, with the organisation and situation determining which is used. The term “participative” has received more attention in management training circles in recent years, and as a result may be more common amongst younger leaders. For a more comprehensive rundown of the different leadership styles, check out our guide. The Benefits of Participative LeadershipAs we’ve seen, participative leadership seeks to involve subordinates in the decision making process, and to furnish them with the skills and information they need to make contributions required to arrive at said decisions. This approach has several benefits:
Get these ingredients right, and you lay the groundwork for a high-performance workplace. People enjoy working in environments where their participation is respected. It is a way to feel validated: to be shown that your presence, opinions, and contributions matter. We’ve written more about promoting teamwork in the workplace, too. You can read that here. When Does Participative Leadership Work Best?There are a few factors that help participative leadership to thrive: When your team are sufficiently informed about - and invested in - the inner workings of the organisation and its wider goals. The responsibility to keep informed falls on both parties: employees must express a willingness and ability to learn, but the information must be made readily available. The problem at hand must also be defined clearly enough that the route toward a solution can be at least imagined. If your team cannot comprehend the issue at hand, it is unlikely that they will be equipped to make meaningful contributions toward a solution. This perceived lack of ability can quickly unravel all of the benefits we outlined above:
While the above is a worst-case scenario that can be alleviated at every step, it shows the potential downfall of a participative leadership situation. It is prudent that a participative leader remain aware of these risks and take suitable steps to stop them from taking place. Participative leadership works best when this intersection between leaders and their team is nurtured, and where an ongoing back and forth between both sides exists. In ConclusionParticipative leadership can bring myriad benefits to an organisation. A leader who uses this style effectively will be able to involve their entire team in the running of the organisation. By crowdsourcing opinions and contributions, decision making becomes a collective endeavour that taps into the skills, ideas, and expertise of every member. Though there are risks to the deployment of participative leadership, these can be nipped in the bud by an effective leader. Awareness of the potential weaknesses of a leadership style are just as important as an understanding of its strengths. If you want to understand the benefits of different leadership styles - and the situations where a change might be warranted - check out our content exploring the pros and cons of changing yours. Which of the following did Fiedler develop to measure a leader's style?Fiedler believed that leadership style is fixed, and it can be measured using a scale he developed called Least-Preferred Co-Worker (LPC) Scale (see figure 1). The scale asks you to think about the person who you've least enjoyed working with.
Which one of the following leadership styles describes a leader who provides little direction or support?Delegative leaders offer little or no guidance to group members and leave the decision-making up to group members.
Which of the following types of leaders tends to Centralise authority?In Autocratic style of leadership the leader centralizes his authority and keeps decision making with himself and very limited participation by subordinates of the group.
Which leadership style is associated with a clan culture?The results of the present study have revealed that “clan culture” Clan culture differs significantly according to perceived leadership style by their employees is “servant and paternalistic leadership” model in the same organization.
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