Autocratic (authoritarian) leadership: advantages and disadvantages

One of the topics in which the Social psychology wave organizational psychology it is leadership, and in these subdisciplines of behavioral science much research has gone in that direction.

How does leadership affect our occupational health? And our performance? These are some of the questions that researchers have asked themselves and tried to answer.

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Psychology's interest in understanding leadership styles

The type of leadership exercised by supervisors will always have consequences on workers (or subordinates if we are not talking about the workplace). Usually, it is usually spoken of negative or positive leadership styles depending on the consequences on subordinates. For example, the transformational leadership style is considered positive because it takes into account the needs of workers and positively influences stress reduction.

However, it must be taken into account that the situation will determine whether a leadership style is good or bad, because depending on the type of tasks to be carried out, the profile of employees, etc., there will be certain advantages and disadvantages in that particular context, in that particular organization, to apply one style or another with success.

In this article let's review the most important characteristics of autocratic leadership and we are going to expose its advantages and disadvantages.

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Autocratic Leadership - What is it?

The autocratic leadership style is one of the most common in companies. It is characterized by being a unidirectional leadership style, in which the superiors are the ones who make the decisions and set the guidelines without the participation of the group. The leader brings together power and the employees obey his orders.

Outside of the workplace, autocratic leadership is the leadership used by dictators and for that reason it does not have a very good reputation. Authoritarian leadership has received much criticism for several factors:

• Historically, autocratic leadership has been associated with tyrants and dictators.

• Autocratic leadership has become a characteristic style for supervisors who lack skills, training and experience and, of course, are lacking at the level communicative.

• Today, worker expectations have changed and motivational leaders are better suited for environments with experienced staff.

• Some people are uncomfortable working for autocratic leaders because they think authoritarianism exists, despite from being an appropriate management style to training inexperienced personnel or implementing consistent quality control processes.

Despite the fact that other styles of leadership have become more popular in recent decades (for example, democratic leadership), the truth is that the autocratic style also has its advantages.

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Characteristics of the autocratic leader

Autocratic leaders have different characteristics that define them. They are as follows:

• They are clear on expectations what should be done and about what and how things should be done
• It is strongly oriented to command and control of employees
• It is one way. Superiors make decisions and subordinates follow orders without being able to show their opinion
• The leader centralizes all authority

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Advantage

Autocratic leadership is beneficial when used in situations where there is little time to make group decisions or the leader is the most experienced member of the group. Therefore, when it is necessary to make quick and decisive decisions, it is the best alternative. For example, in professions in which there are emergency situations: paramedics, military, police, firefighters, etc.

Likewise, autocratic leadership can be effective with employees who require close vigilance over their tasks, as This prevents them from relaxing, and improves performance, productivity and the speed with which they carry out their job

Disadvantages

Criticisms of this style of leadership are based on a series of disadvantages that are a consequence of the application of this type of leadership. The authoritarian leader does not take into account the opinion of workers and employees, because for him they are simply individuals who must obey his orders. Many employees may feel unappreciated and undervalued, leading to the decision to leave the company.

Studies have shown that some workers perform less with this type of leadership and that, as scientific data shows, it has a greater negative impact on stress (or burnout) and the well-being of workers, unlike other types of leadership such as transformational. It is not recommended for companies in which their intellectual capital is creativity.

Other leadership styles

Nowadays, many companies choose other styles of leadership, such as transformative or democratic, because authoritarian leadership limits the development of its workers. In addition, the expectations of workers have changed in recent decades, and workers are increasingly demanding. As has been commented but, the success or failure of a leadership style will be determined by the situation, and while a leadership style may be good for an organization, it may not be good for other.

The leadership styles most used in companies today, in addition to authoritarian leadership, are:

• Democratic leadership
• Laissez-faire leadership
• Transactional leadership
• Transformational leadership

• If you want to delve into these leadership styles, you can visit our article: "Types of Leadership: The 5 most common types of leader"