Introduction
There are various management styles and democratic management is one of the popular styles of management. Other styles include paternalistic management, autocratic management and laissez faire which makes four style of management that is widely accepted in the organization globally. Each management style has its pros and cons which assists an organization to apply according to the relevant situation and environment of the workplace. These styles of management are a tool to make decisions by the manager for their subordinate and lower level staff and for an organization on a whole. The two ends of style of management are permissive and autocratic where the manager chooses the style depending upon the circumstances and situation. Hence, a manager tends to exercise the variety of style and its range appropriately.
Democratic Style of Management:
In this style of management, as the name states, there is a democracy and freedom in decision making by the employees and subordinates. They are allowed to share their views regarding an issue and when they get a simple majority reinforcing their suggestion, than their suggestion is converted to a decision which is finalized by the top level management. There is no communication gap between the managers and employees so it is extensive and flows from top to bottom and bottom to top. Democratic style of management is efficient and effective when the decisions to be made are critical and the issue for which the decision has to be made is complex which needs a group of specialists having different expertise and skills. For instance, an organization is planning to install and introduce ICT system, but the top level of management is not computer literate. Therefore, they will seek the expertise of Information Technology specialists to make the decision keeping in view the need of the organization and its nature of work. Democratic management also ensures good quality work, participatory contribution and dedication towards work by the employees. On the contrary, this management style is time consuming as the decision to be taken needs an extensive research and debate by many of the employees whether senior or junior which needs to be streamlined. Consensus must be developed by this group of people in order to make a best decision or a decision which can be managed later on. Democratic style of management includes directive management and permissive management .
Another name of democratic style of management is participative style of management as it ensures the extensive participation of the employees while making any decision. The democratic manager make sure that his subordinates and employees are well informed about the scenario that is taking place in the organization, effect of the work and its decision and dedicate the responsibility to solve the problems. Manager acts as a coach over here, which takes the final decision but welcomes all the information and recommendation from his team before decision making. Major pro of this kind of management is that it results in good quality and quantity of work and employees gets motivated by the trust they get and thus respond with high morale, team spirit and cooperation .
The role of democratic manager is to:
The task of a democratic manager is to develop a plan which will assist his subordinates and employees to evaluate the performances on their own. The parameters are set and designed by the manager in accordance with the employee and thus the performance is evaluated on those set parameters. When an employee is asked to evaluate his own performance than he would be aware of his present status that where he stands and where he has to reach so as to meet the goal set by him. Here, democratic manager doesn’t set goal for the employees but rather gives free hand to the employees to establish goals themselves. But he assists his subordinates to set the goal and make sure that the goal is realistic and achievable, keeping in view the resources of the organization and the time limit in which the goal has to be accomplished .
When an employee is given a liberty to establish goals and the performance evaluation plan then it makes him more responsible and dedicated towards his job and the organization. He knows that if he is able to achieve his target and his performance evaluated is more than satisfactory then there is a golden chance of getting promoted and appreciated in terms of financial and non-financial perks and benefits.
In the democratic style of management and management, the performance of an employee is evaluated on the basis of the target that is set by none other than employee himself. His achievements and accomplishments are firstly recognized by the top management and then rewarded which will encourage him for better productivity in future.
Unlike other style of management, democratic style is not necessarily appropriate in all kind of business organization. It is useful when there is a group problem or an individual is going through some problem which needs to be resolved by discussing it with other subordinates. It is also beneficial to the skilled and experienced employees when some operational changes are required in an organization.
The democratic style of management is effective when:
- A democratic manager is only the one who intends to keep his employees informed about the matter that is going on in an organization and is affecting the business. A manager who doesn’t share the facts and figures of the business to his subordinates rather keeps it to himself, is not a democratic manager. Group discussion and flow of ideas will start arriving only when all the employees are well informed about the current scenario of the organization .
- In the democratic style of management, a manager will always appreciate and welcome all the opinions of his employees. Problem solving tasks are given to these employees who he thinks is able to solve and have the required expertise. For example, a website of an organization gets hacked by some hacker, than a democratic manager would ask his expert IT personnel to share their views and solutions to the problem and will even assign their duty to solve the issue.
- There is a sense of responsibility, growth and job satisfaction in the employees whose manager is democratic. His manager will provide all the basic opportunity for them to polish their skill, get confident and enhance the dedication towards the organization. It will make them motivated, when employees are free to establish their goals and performance evaluation plan and when their opinions are considered valuable.
- The democratic style of management is practiced when the nature of the problem is complex or so large that it cannot be handled single handedly by one person. Or it require a lot of input and expertise to solve the issue which obviously is not known by the manager himself.
- When there is, a need for change and the solution to the problem has a significant affect to the employees, than the democratic management is effective. The changes can be related to the technical up-gradation for instance introducing software for the sales staff instead of maintaining record in black and white. Or it can be related to decisions such as promotion, downsizing, deduction of salary due to poor business etc.
- Democratic style of management is another name of team work and participation that is required by the employees. Many employees don’t consider themselves as an asset to the corporation or thinks that their presence doesn’t have any impact on the business and workplace. Here, this style of management motivates these employees to participate and become a valuable part of an organization.
Manager should avoid democratic style of management especially when:
- The decision has to be taken is immediate and there is no time for the discussion and making consensus among every individual of the organization. Some decisions should be prompt and quick which can harm the organization if not taken at the right time. Therefore, in this case a manager should not use democratic style of management .
- When an individual takes a decision, it is cost effective and easier for the organization instead of involving every employee for their opinion and suggestions. When there is a need of saving cost of organization and time of employees than this management style is not useful.
- Many decisions taken in democratic style of management is not necessarily beneficial for the organization. It might benefit one individual or group of members but not to the organization because of the fact that the employees are not fully aware of the vision and scenario of the organization. Therefore, there is a chance of mistake and hence any business would not afford mistakes.
- If the manager feel that he would be replaced by any other employee or his job is under severe threat then this type of management will not work in that situation.
- If employee safety is at risk or have a critical concern to the manager and organization then democratic style of management must not be adopted.
Pros of Democratic Style of Management
Democratic style of management encourages and appreciates group discussion which results in greater and extensive communication in the organization whether it is among employees and top management or just employees.
The opinions of employees are appreciated and encourages regarding any critical issue which is of great importance to the organization. It will make these employees more dedicated to the organization with high morale and high spirit that will eventually increase the productivity and efficiency of their work.
In this style of management, the manager gets bombarded with the ideas may it be from a peon or a manager or even an interne and these ideas are very useful and informative for the organization.
Cons of Democratic Style of Management:
The major disadvantage of democratic style of management is that it is very time consuming as compared to other style of management because of its long process. It is obvious that to convince the majority and to develop a consensus more time and energy is consumed. At time when democratic manager is asked to take a quick decision that he might struggle where as an autocratic manager would not.
There are few chances that the decisions taken by the majority tends to be just in favor and interest of the majority of the organization but not in organization’s favor.
Moreover, in a democratic style of management there is a possibility that the staff and employees are unaware or not fully aware of the discussion and the vision of the business so they might make an inappropriate decision which is not in the favor of organization as a whole.
At times, democratic manager may also face conflicts unlike its advantage of reducing conflict. For instance, one group of people is not in a favor of a decision which other group is making which can create differences and friction among these groups and the decision maker.
When should this style of Democratic Management be adopted?
If a democratic manager needs a smooth and extensive flow of ideas than this style of management is the most useful tool for him. It allows an accumulation of people with their respective ideas according to their expertise and this bundle of ideas then assists in the progression of business. Manager who is new in the organization can adopt this style of management so as to get more of ideas and to become popular in a very short time.
Summary
This style of management is also called as “multilateral style of management” which enforces team involvement and team recognition in the decision making process. In the developed countries, people often rely on critical decision making and think so as to create efficient and effective working environment. Involving every individual that is associated to the organization in some way or other persuades them to bring diversified flow of ideas. It also enhances the emotional attachment of them with the organization and employee considers the benefit of the business as their own. The implementation of the ideas once become easier when there is a consensus in the groups of employees. This will result in overall progress of the individual and the organization. When the power is delegated to the employees than accountability becomes easier for the top management as it will increase the efficiency of all team members. When the democratic style of management is adopted by the manager, it will have an outstanding positive influence in the environment of the organization where personal effort and input is considered highly and accountability is easy for him. Last but not the least, happy and involved employee will result in better productivity with efficacy and efficiency.
Conclusion
Democratic style of management thus has more popularity than any other style. Just like any other approach of management, it has several drawbacks too as it takes long than usual decision making and occasionally there isn’t any room for manager to call a meeting for consensus or voting. On the contrary, employees considered themselves as a valuable and desirable asset to the organization which makes them motivated and dedicated towards the organization. They think that their efforts and ideas have a strong value in the eyes of the managers and their opinions will be listened to. As stated earlier, all the management styles have their pros and cons but it is important for the manager to be adaptive and flexible and to adopt the idea according to the circumstances and situation.
References
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