Participative leadership theory

1. Participative Leadership
Theory
Shamir Kumar
HTM 491

2. What Do We Have Here?
What is Participative Leadership
How Participative Leadership Works
4 Types of Participative Decision Making
Pros and Cons
Application in the real world
Personal thoughts

3. What Is Participative Leadership
 Participative Leadership – Followers and staff are asked to
give input and thoughts to execute a decision.
 Used today by many companies and organizations as a
management style in which decisions are made with the most
likely amount of participation from those who are affected by
the decisions.
 Two forms of Participatory leadership:
 Representative Participation – Group of employees is involved in
organizational decision making.
 Participatory Management – Subordinates share a degree of joint
decision making with their immediate supervisors.

4. How Participative Leadership Works
 Participative leadership can be different
depending on organization, purpose and
situation but there are common patterns in all
types:
1. Leader always facilitates the conversation.
2. Leaders share any information and necessary
knowledge for decision-making.
3. Leaders encourage others to share their ideas.
4. Leader must take all information and solutions
by the team and synthesize.
5. The leader comes up with best solution based
on group information and communicates the
solution to the group.

5. 4 Types of Participative Decision
Making
 Participative leadership consist of one of the four types of
participative decision making.
1. Democratic (Participative) – Encourages participation of
all members but final decision is made by leader.
2. Collective – All decisions are taken by the group and
responsibility for the decisions also rest on entire group.
3. Autocratic – Possible solutions are brainstormed
collectively but leaders are responsible for final decision.
Different from democratic as autocratic is goal oriented
while democratic is people oriented.
4. Consensus – Leader gives up responsibility and control of
decision making to the group.

6. Pros and Cons
Pros
 People Feel Valued
 People Perform well even
when leaders are absent
 People are more committed
to achieving the goals and
objectives of the
organization.
 Increased group morale
 Decreased competitiveness
Cons
 Social pressure to conform
to group domination
 Decision-making may take a
lot of time
 High Costs
 Inefficiency
 Incompetence
 Indecisiveness

7. Application In The Real World
Used in many organizations
More free flowing structured companies use this
type of leadership. Can empower employees and
get the most out of them.
Not good for quick responses, but great for
creative environments.
Seen in professions such as: Social Workers,
Arbitrators, Group Therapists, and Facilitators
Some famous participative leaders are Bill Gates,
Jim Lentz, and John Stahl.

8. Personal Thoughts
Today’s society is all about equality and this type of
leadership can appeal to the millennial as they do not
want to be told what to do all the time.
If used right, can be very effective. I believe a mix of
the four decision making types depending on the
task at hand can be most effective because
participative leadership is not always the most
efficient.