Democratic Decision Making

The vision of democracy derives from the Greek words “demos” and “kratein” which translates to the “rule of the people.” It is an important concept that believes everyone should have an equal say in a particular decision. In management it translates to a democratic style of leadership where the manager still holds final responsibility for decisions but also delegates authority to the team by encouraging them to contribute, give suggestions and challenge the ideas of the manager (Pride, Hughes, et al, 2009). This type of management, also referred to as participative leadership, encourages employees to discuss the issues and find alternatives to problems a manager may be facing (Gitman & McDaniel, 2008). The principle role of the Manager is to utilize the resources within an organization as efficiently as possible to achieve the organization’s goals. The way in which they achieve depends greatly on many factors such as the organizational model of the company, the industry it operates in and the overall organizational culture. The traditional models of decision-making have appeared to be over ruled by a new democratic culture. In today’s complex business environment, democratic decision-making is an appropriate strategy that can improve the quality and effectiveness of an organizations management for a variety of different reasons that will be explored.

Firstly, it is important to address the disadvantages of democratic decision-making. One apparent difficulty that undermines successful management is that the decision making process can be very time consuming and draw the focus away from the core work. Too much consultation time can significantly decrease productivity and cause the business to underperform. Tannenbaum and Schmidt (1958, 1973) suggest that the extent to which leaders use autocratic or democratic leadership depends on the circumstance. They concluded that a democratic leadership style is less appropriate when there are time constraints and the