MAJOR LEADERSHIP STYLES OR TECHNIQUES

The three major leadership orientations are discussed here. Each has its own built-in advantages and
disadvantages, but each has also its values.

 AUTHORITARIAN LEADERSHIP. This implies a one-person leadership with decision-making imposed

by the leader upon the group members.

The autocratic leader has the following characteristics:

 Mainly seeks obedience from his group;

 Determines all policy by himself;
 Approaches each part of a decision one step at a time, thus, the future in never quite clear;
 May make personal remarks to individual faculty or staff members but remains part from the group
participation.

Advantages of authoritarian leadership:

 Subordinates are given a definite pattern to follow;

 Decision-making is expeditious;

Disadvantages:

 Individuality is suppressed; creativity becomes dormant;

 Hostility and aggressive tendencies increase;
 Discontent is created

 DEMOCRATIC OR EQUALITARIAN LEADERSHIP. This implies a leader who submits important

matters to group discussion and involves group members in decision-making.

Characteristics of the democratic leader:

 Encourages group participation and discussion;

 Draws ideas and suggestions from the group by discussion and consultation;
 Division of responsibilities is decided by group members who participate in the choice of whom they wish
to work with;
 Is objective in evaluating faculty members;
 Is an active participant in a group meetings.

Advantages:

 Greater group productivity;

 Lessened hostility and discontent,
 Encouragement of individuality and creativity

Disadvantages:

 Divided opinions in open discussions;

 Apathy and ignorance present in meetings;
 Delay in reaching decisions;
  LAISSEZ-FAIRE LEADERSHIP. This implies a leader who gives guidance but leaves decision-making to
group members.

Characteristics of the laissez-faire leader:

 Believes in complete freedom for group and individual members in decision-making,

 Plays down his role in the group’s activity;
 Exercises a minimum of control;
 Avoids determining responsibilities and co-worker assignments

Advantages:

 Encouragement of individuality and creativity

 Less apparent group discontent

Disadvantages:

 Loosely structured, disorganized, apathetic and even chaotic situations;

 Poorer quality of work and diminished accomplishment.

A NEW CONCEPT OF LEADERSHIP TECHNIQUE

5:0:0 Purely Autocratic Leader

0:5:0 Purely Democratic Leader

0:0:5 Purely Laissez-Faire

QUALIFICATIONS OF A MANAGEMENT LEADER

 Administrative Mind
 Integrity
 Ability to Instill Good Human Relations
 Ability to Make Decisions
 Health and Fitness for the Job
 Willingness to accept responsibility
 Understanding of Work
 Intellectual Capacity
  Authority is not clearly defined.

A New Concept of Leadership Technique

The traditional concept views leaders as absolutes. A new and modern concept takes into account that a leader
may have tendencies toward all the three aforementioned traditional orientations. To illustrate this, let’s consider the
three-dimensional concept proposed by Dr. Johnson (1960), found on the next page. Point values are assigned to each
leadership pattern which are arranged in this order: authoritarian, democratic, and laissez-faire. The maximum no. 5 would
indicate leadership entirely in that orientation. Thus, a classic authoritarian would be denoted as 5:0:0 ; a democratic
leader as 0:5:0 ; and the purely lasses-faire would be 0:0:5.

Figure 1. Three-dimensional Concept of Leadership Technique

Using the three-dimensional model, the new leadership approach would mean numerous combinations such as 4:1:0 or
3:2:0 or 2:2:1 or 1:4:0 and others. What do these various combinations mean? The new type of of leadership is
characterized by the ability to suit the appropriate technique or approach to a given situation. This may be rightfully called
the selective approach to management. One does not have to choose either the autocratic, democratic or laissez-faire
method. This type of leadership suggests that mastery lies in knowing when to use which method. In short, selective
leadership is a logical adaptation of autocratic, democratic, and laissez-faire techniques to appropriate situations, seeking
to put leadership on a rational basis.
QUALIFICATIONS OF A MANAGEMENT LEADER
A management leader is a person in a leadership position who, primarily by performing the management work of planning,
organizing, leading and controlling, enables people to work together to achieve objectives.
Administrative Mind. This refers to the ability to analyze situation objectively, to see the future and plan a constructive
course of action with an open mind.
Integrity. Of a person