Democratic leadership is one leadership type that can be seen in modern business organizations. It is also known as participative leadership or shared leadership. Democratic leadership style is a type of leadership that motivates the members of the group or subordinates to be more participative in the decision-making process in the organizational activities.
This is a leadership style that can be applied to the activities in any organization such as private organizations, government organizations, and schools. Under this management style, everyone who is participating in the business process is given a chance to participate and contribute to the decision-making process and exchange their experience and ideas freely with the team. Discussing the issues, changes, improvements and any other important point is highly encouraged to ensure free flow of ideas between the team members.
The democratic leader has the power of selecting who is in the group and who gets the opportunity to contribute to the process of decision-making. It is identified that this leadership style is one of the most effective methods as it works as a way of encouraging employees. Having the opportunity to participate in the decision-making process of the business improves the motivation and the efficiency of the employees.
Apart from that, it works as a way of using the employees’ work experience to increase the productivity of the business process. Employees have the best knowledge on the practical aspect of the business process as they get hands-on experience about the issues they have to face. This feedback from the employees can use to eliminate and minimize errors in the process and increase productivity.
Characteristics of Democratic Leadership
Below mentioned are the main characteristics of a democratic leader.
– Members of the group is encouraged to share their ideas, views, and opinions about the business activities
– Even though the group members are encouraged to express their ideas, the final decision is made by the leader. In most businesses, the leader collects the team member’s feedback and makes decisions based on the collected feedback.
– This leadership style helps to create more engaged and motivated employees. Employees often feel valued as their ideas and views are considered by the leadership of the organization.
– When obtaining team members’ ideas and views, creativity is encouraged by the leader, and a high level of creativity is rewarded.
It is identified that good democratic leadership holds specific leadership traits such as courage, intelligence, fairness to all, honesty, and competence. They inspire the team by valuing the trust and respect between the team members.
Democratic leaders usually make their business decisions based on morals and values. This quality tends to make the followers more inspired, motivated, and values in the group and encouraged to contribute more to the group. Since this leadership seeks diverse opinions and listens to the opinions of others, it has become a vastly popular leadership method to inspire employees of the business while increasing productivity.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Democratic Leadership
Advantages
Since the team members are encouraged to share their thoughts about the business process, this management style can generate better, practical, and productive ideas for the problems they are facing. The solutions can be innovative and creative.
Members of the group feel more involved and encouraged to be committed to the business activities as they tend to get scared about the end result of the business process.
Since the employees are motivated and the communication happens as a free flow under a democratic leadership style, increasing productivity can create a positive impact on the business profit.
Disadvantages
Even though the democratic leadership style is considered one of the most effective leadership styles, there are several cons that we can identify.
In a situation where the job role is not clear for the employee, lacking communication can lead to uncompleted projects. Since the final decision of the business activity is taken by the leader, not having enough instructions can lead to faults in the production process.
Apart from that, the team members may not have the necessary knowledge or experience to provide quality contributions to the decision-making process. This may lead to adverse business decisions.