Leadership in an Organization - Essay Example

The leadership style involves the cooperation of both the leader and their followers in making some decisions. Many leaders apply democratic leadership which is closely related to participative leadership in so far as leadership engagement and decision making are involved. There are several advantages associated with participative leadership, of which the key ones include the possibility of achieving fast growth through innovation and creativity, high motivation among followers, and ownership of the decision and work, which, in turn, leads to greater cooperation and higher chances of success The paper will discuss the participative leadership style focusing on its application, advantages and disadvantages.

The paper will further discuss the effects that good and bad leaders have on their subordinates before giving recommendations. Participative Leadership Participative leadership involves working together with team members in decision making. This, however, does not mean that the leader involves the team members in making all key decisions. Participative leadership is essential especially when creativity and complex problem solving are part of the mix. Participative leadership is founded on engagement and respect as noted by French, Israel, and As (1960).

The assumption made by participative leaders is that when people are involved in decision making, they get to understand the issues involved with respect to those who have to make the decisions. Yet again, the leadership style is founded on the assumption that people are more collaborative and less competitive when they work together to achieve joint objectives. Furthermore, when individuals work together in making decisions, they have greater social commitment to one another, which essentially raises their commitments to the decisions that are made.

The participative leadership style constructively focuses on exploiting the energy that resides in every human to human encounter (Martindale, 2011). The leadership style may be thought of as an advanced form of democratic leadership and is associated with high effectiveness considering that it builds community, embraces diversity, and establishes shared responsibility. Yet again, the leadership style heightens personal and collective learning which often results in effective growth and development.

Participatory leaders use interactions within the organization to create meaning, purpose and growth even as they transform the organization. As opposed to autocratic leadership, participative leadership involves all people in the decision making process including peers, superiors, subordinates and other stakeholders (Martindale, 2011). Given that leaders work in various environments with various demands, they engage in participative leadership at varying levels. While some leaders may be highly participative, others may be moderately or even less participative.

Some of the advantages of participative leadership are as follows. Participative leadership is essential in the motivation of employees (Stogdill, 1948). The motivation that comes with participative leadership is seen in respect of the fact that when employees are genuinely asked for advice by their superiors, they feel valued. Furthermore, when employees are involved in decision making, they feel honored and actually embrace the work that they do to a greater extent as they feel being part of it according to