LEADERSHIP CHAP06PP

CHAPTER SIX
PARTICIPATIVE
LEADERSHIP
BEHAVIOR
© Prentice Hall 2006

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Learning Objectives
After reading this chapter, you should be able to
do the following:








Describe participative leadership behaviors and
provide examples of specific leader behaviors.
Explain why participative leadership can have
positive influences on follower behaviors.
Describe skills and abilities that are needed to be
an effective participative leader.
Describe the individual and organizational
benefits that can result from effective
participative leadership.

© Prentice Hall 2006

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Learning Objectives
After reading this chapter, you should be able to
do the following:








Identify characteristics of followers that make
participative leadership highly effective and
characteristics that make it ineffective.
Identify organizational and task characteristics that
make participative leadership highly effective and
characteristics that make it ineffective.
Describe how leaders can modify situations to increase
the effectiveness of their participative leadership.
Explain how leaders can modify followers’ work
situations to make followers less dependent on the
leader’s participative leadership.

© Prentice Hall 2006

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Participative Leadership
Participative leaders involve followers in the
decision processes. Participative leadership
includes describing a decision problem to a
group of followers and asking for their input
on the implications of various alternative
solutions already developed by the leader. It
also involves holding informal conversations
with individual followers to draw their ideas
out and listening carefully to understand and
incorporate their information into a decision
solution.
© Prentice Hall 2006

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Types of Participative
Leadership Behavior
Consulting
Consulting
with
with
groups
groups

Asking
Askingfor

for
opinions
opinionsabout
about
alternatives
alternatives

Consulting
Consulting
with
with
individuals
individuals

Participative
Leadership
Behaviors

Joint
Jointdecision
decision
making
makingwith
with
followers
followers

Obtaining
Obtaining
information

information
from
fromfollowers
followers

Delegation
Delegation

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Degrees of Participation

Autocratic
Decision

LOW

Consultation

Consensus/Group
Decision

Influence by Followers

Delegation

HIGH

Source: Adapted from Gary Yukl (1998) Leadership in Organizations.
Prentice-Hall, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey

© Prentice Hall 2006

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Real Leaders


Real leaders vary their use of different forms of
participation. Some leaders, for example, use
consensus decision making with only one or two
trusted followers; others prefer large group meetings
where all points of view are heard. Some leaders use
delegation only after carefully specifying guidelines
and limits to the decision option chosen and may
require that the final decision be subjected to the
leader’s approval before implementation. Other leaders
give followers complete freedom in arriving at and
implementing a solution. Most leaders use different
combinations of participation at different times,
adapting them to each situation and group of followers.

© Prentice Hall 2006

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Effective Delegation
TO DELEGATE EFFECTIVELY
DO

AVOID

•Understand your authority &
responsibility

•Lack of agreement on authority &
responsibility

•Clearly communicate performance
expectations

•Lack of understanding of group’s
objectives

•Make followers responsible for
results

•Involvement of followers not trained
to effectively perform

•Delegate challenging
responsibilities

•Showing a lack of confidence in
followers

•Show confidence in followers’
ability to perform

•Requiring “nothing less than
perfection”

•Reward accomplishment

•Making followers feel insecure

© Prentice Hall 2006

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Skills, Traits and Sources of Power for Effective
Participative Leadership

Listening
Listening
Skills
Skills

Self-Monitoring
Self-Monitoring
Skills
Skills

Conflict

Conflict
Management
Management
Skills
Skills

Skills, Traits & Sources
of Power for Effective
Participative Leadership

Expert
Expert
Power
Power

Assertiveness
Assertiveness
Skills
Skills

Legitimate
Legitimate
Power
Power

Resource/Connection
Resource/Connection
Power
Power

© Prentice Hall 2006

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Major Effects of Participative
Leadership
Follower Benefits

Group or Organizational
Benefits

• satisfaction with work and
leader
• increased performance
motivation
• less resistance to change
increased performance
improved development

•improved quality of decisions
•increased performance
•smoother implementation of
decisions
•less resistance to change

© Prentice Hall 2006

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Enhancers of Participative
Leadership Effectiveness

FOLLOWER
FOLLOWER
CHARACTERISTICS
CHARACTERISTICS
••Job
Jobcompetence
competence
••Needs
Needsfor
forindependence
independence
and
growth
and growth
••Internal
Internallocus
locusof
ofcontrol
control
••Expect
participation
Expect participation

SITUATIONAL
SITUATIONALFACTORS
FACTORS

THAT
ENHANCE
THAT ENHANCETHE
THE
EFFECTIVENESS
EFFECTIVENESSOF
OF
PARTICIPATIVE
PARTICIPATIVE
LEADERSHIP
LEADERSHIP

TASK
TASK
CHARACTERISTICS
CHARACTERISTICS
•Important
•Importanttask
task
•Requires
followers’
•Requires followers’
commitment
commitment
•Uncertainty
•Uncertainty

GROUP
GROUP&&LEADER
LEADER

CHARACTERISTICS
CHARACTERISTICS
••Group
Groupharmony
harmony
••Trust
Trustin
inleader
leader
••Good
leader
Good leaderskills
skillsin
inconflict
conflictmanagement
management

© Prentice Hall 2006

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Situational Factors That Neutralize
Effectiveness of Participative Leadership

Large
Largegroup
groupsize
size

Tasks
Tasksthat
thatare
are
highly
highlystructured
structured
or
orcomplex
complex

SITUATIONAL
SITUATIONALFACTORS
FACTORS
THAT
THATNEUTRALIZE
NEUTRALIZE
EFFECTIVENESS
EFFECTIVENESSOF
OF
PARTICIPATIVE
PARTICIPATIVELEADERSHIP
LEADERSHIP

Passive
Passivefollowers,
followers,authoritarian
authoritarian
followers,
followers,followers

followerswilling
willingto
toaccept
accept
autocratic
autocraticleadership
leadership
© Prentice Hall 2006

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Overcoming Factors that Neutralize
Effectiveness of Participative Leadership








Task redesign can be used to manipulate the structure
and complexity of followers’ tasks, and selection
procedures can help determine if specific personality
types are well matched with certain jobs.
When leaders face emergency decisions or those with
short time deadlines, participation is not effective. In
some cases, the leader may be able to extend deadlines
or learn of needed decisions sooner and thus provide

more time for participative leadership.
Large groups may be split into subgroups. These
subgroups can operate with some autonomy but will
allow the leader to involve members in useful
discussions of decision issues.
Charismatic leadership behaviors may be effective in
overcoming apathetic and passive behavior.
© Prentice Hall 2006

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Process Model of the
Participative Leadership Process
LEADER PARTICIPATIVENESS

SITUATIONAL FACTORS
INCREASING LEADER
EFFECTIVENESS
Enhancers
• Task importance
• Task requires followers
commitment
• Environmental uncertainty
• Leader’s conflict
management skills
• Group harmony
• Followers’ job competence
and information
• Followers’ need for

independence
• Followers’ internal locus of
control
• Expected participation
Substitutes
• Many formal rules and
procedures

• Drawing out & listening to followers
• Holding meetings to share decision problems &
gather input
• Consulting with followers on decisions
• Giving serious consideration to followers’ input
• Reaching consensus with followers & leaders as
equals
• Delegating decisions to capable followers

FOLLOWER/GROUP PSYCHOLOGICAL
REACTIONS
• Satisfaction of needs for competence, selfcontrol, independence, & personal growth
• Satisfaction with supervisor, work, &
organization
• Motivation & commitment to decisions

SITUATIONAL FACTORS
DECREASING LEADER
EFFECTIVENESS
Neutralizers
• Highly structured task
• Task complexity with

professional followers
• Large group size
• Short time deadlines
• Passive followers
• Authoritarian followers
• Followers willing to
accept autocratic
leadership

FOLLOWER BEHAVIORS AND
OUTCOMES
•
•
•
•

Increased performance & productivity
Quality of decisions
Development of followers’ potential
Time-consuming, expensive, possible resistance

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Applying the Model of Participative
Leadership
1. DIAGNOSING THE SITUATION
1. Are followers highly competent and knowledgeable; do they work on important tasks; is

their commitment essential to carry out the leader’s decisions?
2. Do followers value achievement, independence and self fulfillment; do they view
themselves as controlling their own lives; feel harmony and trust with the leader; and
expect to participate in decisions?
3. Is the leader effective in obtaining follower input and skilled at conflict management?
4. Is there much environmental uncertainty?
If “yes” to one or more of these questions, followers will expect and value participative
leadership

3. MODIFYING FOLLOWERS &
SITUATIONS
Leaders also act to:
• Increase formal rules and procedures which
prescribe how to deal with emergencies and
short time deadlines
• Redesign tasks to increase their importance &
followers’ independence
• Build group harmony
• Develop followers’ job competence and
knowledge
• Eliminate highly structured tasks & large
group
• Reassign followers who are passive,
authoritarian or desire autocratic leadership

2. PROVIDING DIRECTIVE LEADERSHIP
Leaders demonstrate participative behaviors with
followers by:
• Holding informal conversations with individual
followers to obtain information related to decisions

• Sharing decision problems with groups of followers to
solicit their ideas or suggested solutions
• Assigning a decision problem to followers who are
competent and desire to handle it
• Allowing “air time” for all followers who desire it when
discussing decision problems
• Inviting input and discussion on points of
disagreement regarding decision problems
• Explaining to followers why ideas or solutions are not
implemented

© Prentice Hall 2006

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