The autocratic style of leadership has similar characteristics to Theory X, where leaders believe that workers need to be controlled and monitored to make sure they put in effort at work, which could also lead to the de-motivation of workers and thus resulting in the employees being less efficient in their work and impacting on the business in a negative way.
A more suitable choice of leadership may be a democratic leadership style. This is because workers are encouraged to be more involved in the business which may lead to better decisions being made. This means that because of the two way communication feature of a democratic style, this sort of leadership style may be better in a changing situation that demand new ways of thinking or fresh solutions which staff can input, which can be valuable for the businesses innovation as it may give the business and competitive advantage. Therefore due to the job enrichment being more likely to be achieved because of the delegation which workers are given, they are more likely to be working more efficiently and have a more productive workforce.
However, there are still possible places where an autocratic leadership style can be applied in today’s business world. This means that when change is required quickly, in a situation such as a crisis management which BA faced with terminal 5 at Heathrow, or in a recession which we are currently coming out of; an autocratic style of leadership may be needed as decisive action might be needed to limit damage to a business. Also as well as these changes, there are constant changes in technology which is vital to keep up with when they are in competition with other businesses as the latest technology usually gives a business a great competitive advantage. This means that fast decisions makes an autocratic style good as there is only one way communications which allows leaders to make all the decisions enabling quick change. Therefore, an autocratic style of leadership can sometimes give a business a competitive advantage as they are able to make quicker decisions than those businesses who take up other styles of leadership.
In Conclusion, there are other factors which depend on whether or not there is a place for autocratic leadership in today’s business world. This means that the type of leadership style which has been chosen is also dependent on the type of person the leader is and the culture of the business. This is because, if the organisation follows a person culture then they are more likely to have a democratic or laissez-faire style of leadership, because a person culture gives individuals the freedom to express themselves fully and make decisions for themselves. Also it is dependent on the situation that the business is in. This means that in a time of a crisis the business may change their leadership style to autocratic so that they are able to make changes quickly and limit the damage which could be caused to the business. Therefore, it doesn’t matter what style of leadership that a business has chosen and if it is an autocratic leadership style or not as it is more about being effective and choosing the right style of leadership to suit the situation the business is in.
