Democratic Leadership
Democratic Leadership
Definition leaders build consensus through participation ie asking the employees for ideas and opinions in order to create a positive working environment as the employees now feel involved in the business and think themselves as an important cog in the business machine.
With the example of Sister Mary in the article, when told to close down the school she held meetings for 2months with staff and parents to find new plans to revive the financially decaying school, however when it was clear the school had to be closed, a plan was made to transfer students to other catholic schools with no objections or lawsuits.
When we compare Mary’s democratic stance to a priest who closed down another catholic school, who acted recklessly by closing down the school with immediate effect, not holding any meetings. Leading to multiple lawsuits by parents, negative press coverage by local newspapers and in all taking a year to resolve all disputes before the school could actually close.
Here sister Mary exemplifies the democratic style and its benefits. By the leader spending time to get parents and other teachers involved in producing different ideas in turn making them feel valued with a sense of responsibility, trust and unity, respect is gained, thus, leading to an increase in commitment and maintains a high level of moral.
Other Positives:
Democratic leaders give employees greater flexibility in setting their own goals and standards for evaluating success.
This can be effective if the leader himself is uncertain about the best direction to take and needs new ideas from his workers. Workers need to be intelligent and confident enough to voice their opinions. Which is why this type of leadership is best seen in the service sector.
Negatives.
Endless meetings where ideas are mulled over, consensus remain elusive and the only visible result is to have further meetings. Therefore this could actually do more harm as, the endless meetings and no clear
Definition leaders build consensus through participation ie asking the employees for ideas and opinions in order to create a positive working environment as the employees now feel involved in the business and think themselves as an important cog in the business machine.
With the example of Sister Mary in the article, when told to close down the school she held meetings for 2months with staff and parents to find new plans to revive the financially decaying school, however when it was clear the school had to be closed, a plan was made to transfer students to other catholic schools with no objections or lawsuits.
When we compare Mary’s democratic stance to a priest who closed down another catholic school, who acted recklessly by closing down the school with immediate effect, not holding any meetings. Leading to multiple lawsuits by parents, negative press coverage by local newspapers and in all taking a year to resolve all disputes before the school could actually close.
Here sister Mary exemplifies the democratic style and its benefits. By the leader spending time to get parents and other teachers involved in producing different ideas in turn making them feel valued with a sense of responsibility, trust and unity, respect is gained, thus, leading to an increase in commitment and maintains a high level of moral.
Other Positives:
Democratic leaders give employees greater flexibility in setting their own goals and standards for evaluating success.
This can be effective if the leader himself is uncertain about the best direction to take and needs new ideas from his workers. Workers need to be intelligent and confident enough to voice their opinions. Which is why this type of leadership is best seen in the service sector.
Negatives.
Endless meetings where ideas are mulled over, consensus remain elusive and the only visible result is to have further meetings. Therefore this could actually do more harm as, the endless meetings and no clear