Essay: Autocratic leadership style vs democratic leadership style

There are many different leadership styles of management, but which ones are better for your company? There are major differences between an autocratic leadership style and a more democratic leadership style. An autocratic leader tends to make all the decision and tell the people under them what the decision was. The people who work under them have to follow the order with no discussion. A democratic leadership style is demonstrated as a leader who ultimately has the final say, but encourages the people who work below them to have a voice and communicate openly with them. Leadership styles are discussed all the time, but it is important to the workplace to have a good leader who people will respect and follow. Leading a company or any group of people comes with challenges, but determining what kind of leader gets the job done well, is an important aspect when striving to become a great leader. In the workplace people want to have a leader who does their job well, but is also someone who is approachable and listens. Democratic leaders tend to be people who are more pleasing to work with and get the job done, while autocratic leaders are more closed off and lack personal interaction skills with others. A democratic leadership style is more acceptable among people in the workplace than the autocratic leadership style.
An Autocratic leader is someone who “lacks insight about self and others, manipulates others to his own end, without considering their feelings, or making any show of treating them as people” (Rosenfeld and Plax, 1975). This type of leadership personality is someone who doesn’t take an interest in people and interaction with this person is hard. This person tends to only concern themselves with what the company needs and does not take into account the people who make up the company. “The authoritarian style of leadership, also know as an autocratic style, is characterized by the leader making decisions without consulting others, and takes a highly directive stance toward followers” (Hartwig, 2008). This style of leadership is where the leader makes all of the rules and everyone below them just has to deal with them.
In the democratic style of leadership, leaders are more open to including others in decision making and getting to know the people that work in their company. The democratic leader, “works toward the achievement of some goal with those he considers his equals, treating them as people, and always willing to share in both the rewards and punishments accrued” (Rosenfeld & Plax, 1975). This leader is a team player who works with their employees to achieve a goal and will benefit from the goal, but also they will deal with the consequences if they fail. This style also treats people as actual human beings by thinking of how decisions would affect their personal lives, not just how decisions affect the company as a whole.
In the movie, New In Town, Lucy Hill is the boss that comes in to take over the manufacturing plant. Coming from her upscale life in Miami, the style of leadership that she brought into the Minnesota small town, was not very affective at first. When she first arrived she had an autocratic leadership style and tried to force that on the people who worked there. At first she did not see people as real people with lives. She just saw them as things that she had to get rid of in order to restructure the plant. When she first arrived and made the list of people to terminate employment for, we see a clear example of autocratic leadership style. She tried telling Stu that he had to do change things in the plant, without even taking the time to get to know him or anything. So Stu’s reaction was not very cooperative. She was not working together with her employees, but just giving orders and not understanding the full impact of what she is actually doing to the plant and these people’s lives. She was not the only example of autocratic leadership, because her boss back in Miami also gave her orders without asking to see what it meant to her or how it would affect all of the workers lives. This leadership style was not very effective for Lucy’s boss and it was not effective for her either.
Things were not working out for Lucy and people were not working with her, because she did not take the time to get to know them and understand their point of view. Once Lucy began to get to know people in the town, such as Blanche and Ted on a personal level she began to realize that the people who work for the plant, are real people with families to support. Once she realized the way that she was leading was not getting anything done, she began to take on the democratic form of leadership. She then began to work with the people at the company. She took Blanche for more than just a secretary, and worked with her to develop her idea into something that would make lots of money and save the plant. She also began to work with Stu and make decisions about how to get the plant functional in order to make the product that they are trying to sell. As a democratic leader, Lucy worked with her employees to make decisions together to determine a way to save the company. She also did not just sit in her office and tell the blue collar workers on the plant floor what to do, but she got right in and worked with them. Even when it got hard, and a little messy, she was there to help in the process and work as a team to accomplish the goal.
Lucy is a prime example of 2 types of leadership roles and how someone can lead in one way, but transform to a style that works better. She started in an autocratic leadership style, but realized that was not working well and changed to a more democratic leadership style. As a professional communicator in today’s businesses, we have to determine which kind of leadership style works better. The democratic style was found to be the most effective form of leadership over the autocratic style (Lewin, Llippit, & White, 1939). A style of leadership that values people and creates teamwork environment will tend to work better than a demanding and boss centered style. When working in companies with many groups of people, leaders should be personable and willing to hear others ideas and work together toward a goal, because no one can accomplish that goal on their own.