Introduction
Leadership is a core element to the development of a nation or an organization. It entails the principles that are necessary for the wellbeing of a society. There are various forms of leadership in organizations as well as nations. Among them is aristocratic form of leadership. It is a form of leadership where an individual controls all the decisions with minimal input from the members of the group. Autocratic leaders make choices on the basis of the personal opinions and judgments. Autocratic leaders are irrelevant when their excessive use of power over the group members would mean the failure of the group.
Users of aristocracy
Although, many people would campaign every day for democracy, aristocracy is equally necessary at some point. There are situations and groups of people that require aristocratic leadership in place of democratic leadership. Such groups or organizations include the ones where one person has to lead for various activities to occur accordingly (Leadership Styles: Autocratic Leadership, 2014).
One of the places where aristocratic leadership is mainly applicable is in the military. In most cases, commands work as instructions in the troops. It means leaders must be very keen to ensure all the members of the group follow the orders. At some point, the orders may be extensively dangerous but the troops have to follow. In such a case, an autocratic is needed to ensure the orders are followed. At no point should a group member ignore the order since it comes with outrageous repercussions (Travis, 2013). The power of an autocrat as a commander ensures success of the military.
Also, in manufacturing such leaders are necessary. They influence the decisions that the subordinates make. The manufacturing process is highly sensitive and involves various sub-processes. It is upon the leader to ensure all the processes run accordingly. He or she has to direct the subordinates on what to do in certain circumstances. The directions that the leader gives are paramount in ensuring the activities of the organization flow (Bowen, 2011).
The construction sector also requires such leaders. If the foreman in a construction site is not keen enough to control the operations, it is highly possible that the construction will have some defaults. It means that every step in the construction process must be under direct influence of the foreman. It means he has to step on the platform and ensure only the right procedures take place (Travis, 2013). For the construction to remain firm, the leader has to ensure the subordinates must undertake the necessary steps outlined for them.
In the normal governance procedures, aristocracy has been evident. There are leaders who head governments, and they believe unless everything works to their will it is not supposed to take place. For example, Erdogan the autocratic leader of Turkey does not believe in opinions from the people he leads. He controls most of the activities of the government by ensuring the processes that the government undertakes are according to his contention. If anything does not content him he has to ensure it does not occur (Tüfekci, 2014).
In the business world, there exist some aristocrats too. One of them is Martha Stewart. She is a business person who built her business empire with her personal attention useful in every detail. Martha Stewart is known as meticulous as well as demanding. Her autocratic leadership model made her flourish since he had to command activities to work to the direction that he believed to be the most favorable (Bowen, 2011).
Howell Raines is also famous as an autocratic leader. As a leader in an organization, she ensured all the activities would flow according to her intention. As a result, she could achieve massive success (Bowen, 2011).
Merits of autocratic leadership
Urgent occasions
At some point, an organization may require urgent decisions following the emergencies that may arise. When urgent occasions occur, the autocratic style of leadership should be the most preferable. Urgent situations require urgent decisions. Therefore, the organization must be willing to or employ an urgent action. In this case, an autocrat will be the best person to handle the situation. He or she must be ready to execute the most outstanding decision for the urgent situation.
Stressing moments
It is obvious that every organization will have some stress at some point of their operations. The stress may be in the entire organization preventing effective decisions to deal with some issues in the organization. As a result of excessive pressure from the stress, individuals may wish to employ the most outstanding procedures or principles to deal with it. At such points, the subordinates would prefer the decisions to be made by the leader. The situation would be exclusively favorable for the application of the aristocratic form of leadership (Bowen, 2011).
The subordinates would prefer the autocratic decision since they are may not be able to handle the extensive stress. They are exposed to little knowledge and understanding on how they can handle such situations when they arise. Therefore, they require the efforts and contribution of the leader who may have extensive exposure to similar problems. Emergency and stressing moments are usually major causes for companies to hire highly experienced leaders (Bowen, 2011).
The right decision
Sometimes people in a group are likely to come up with various decisions concerning a problem. However, only one of the decisions may be right. In such a case, the autocrat may stand with one decision. Since he may have the control over the decisions made in the conclusion, his decision would be the best. The point that he chooses to stand with may be the best for the situation, making it easy for an organization to deal with a stressing situation.
Challenges of aristocracy
There are numerous difficulties that are likely to occur if there is proper management for aristocratic leadership. Although, the leaders have the power to say what happens around them they may go beyond some point that may be extremely tricky. The aristocrats are likely to become extremely selfish causing massive pain to the person they lead. In such a case, control for their governance is extremely necessary.
Corruption
It refers to fraudulent or dishonest act by the people in power where bribes exchange hands. In most aristocratic forms of leadership, corruption is present. People engage in dishonest practices since they may have the protection of the leader. The people who surround the leader may be the most corrupt individuals. They believe that the leader will protect them from any allegations (5 main Disadvantages of Autocratic or dictatorial leadership, 2014). Therefore, they may engage in any form of corruption.
Some aristocratic leaders are greedy and would intend to enrich themselves during their tenure. Therefore, they will use every platform of corruption to attract riches. In most cases, such leaders use the people near to them to expedite their deals. They form circles with the subordinates that would ensure all of them benefit from certain corruption deals. They push for opportunities exposing the public to massive losses in the name of development (5 main Disadvantages of Autocratic or dictatorial leadership, 2014).
Whenever, aristocrats engage in corrupt deals, they do not wish for any of the people around them to leak their activities. As a result, they put exclusive measures that may lead to death of a subordinate if he or she leaks any information regarding the corruption deals that the group may have carried out (Autocratic Leadership, 2014).
Poor communication
For effective leadership, communication is paramount. Individuals have to ensure they remain in constant communication. It means all the parties must have a chance to air their views for the continuity of the group (5 main Disadvantages of Autocratic or dictatorial leadership, 2014). The channel of communication must be open to all people.
However, aristocracy does not support the element of communication. It dictates certain line that people must follow. The leader has the overall concern of the continuity of the group. There is no consultation within the group since the leader believes that his final decision defines the direction for the organization (Brenner, 2014).
Improper communication among members of a group or organization will always lead to its failure. With the extensive concern for the affairs of an organization or group, communication must be enhanced. However, most aristocratic leaders do not support the move as they fear losing on their unscrupulous manner of leadership. Their decision is final, and they do not encourage communication in whichever way. They use communication barrier as a technique to ensure the members of the group do not air their views that may seem relevant (5 main Disadvantages of Autocratic or dictatorial leadership, 2014).
Low production
It is evident that productivity comes with proper leadership. It mainly takes place when there is proper coordination in an organization. By this, it means that the leaders must be willing to enhance coordination within an organization (5 main Disadvantages of Autocratic or dictatorial leadership, 2014). Coordination mostly comes with proper communication among members of a group.
Therefore, it is impossible to experience high productivity if coordination is absent. The leaders are not willing to discuss any element that may encourage the production since they believe they may not succeed in executing their missions, which may be ill-fitted for an organization (5 main Disadvantages of Autocratic or dictatorial leadership, 2014).
In return, people will relent to laziness and unproductively. It means the organization will have to give up on its productivity mission. There will be extensive power against the efforts of the subordinates from the top leader (Autocratic Leadership, 2014). He will not be willing to encourage any state of productivity.
Lack of commitment
Following continuous ignorance for their support for various projects in the organization, the employees are likely to lose taste on their duties. They are likely to give up on their ability to carry out various duties in the organization. They may not be committed to the roles assigned to them.
If the commitment among the employees reduces, the productivity of the organization is also in an imbalance. The subordinates are not willing to work for organizations or leaders who cannot support their contribution in any way. The leaders are likely to expose the employees to extensive agony as they find their efforts wasted. Aristocratic leaders may even fire employees out of their passion for work (5 main Disadvantages of Autocratic or dictatorial leadership, 2014).They wish to work with people whom they can easily suppress.
Proper leadership of any organization must be ready to support the employees. It means the employees must be eager to work every day following the exclusive support they get from the employer. They are likely to show extensive commitment to their work, which will attract high production for the organization (Autocratic Leadership, 2014). The leader is extremely significant in ensuring exclusive commitment among the subordinates.
Discourages teamwork
The leader of the team is extremely significant in defining the direction of the team. He or she defines how the team will carry out certain processes. He or she must be willing to work with the employees to achieve the relevant success for the organization (Brooks, 2014).
It is not possible to find an autocratwho supports teamwork. In various ways, the leaders try to discourage the employees on their activities. They focus on personal interests without the involvement of the subordinates. Whenever, they engage in teamwork they the chances for the subordinates to understand their behaviors and missions in the organization (Autocratic Leadership, 2014).
Teamwork will require the leaders to spend a lot of time with the employees as they try to make them understand its significance. However, the aristocrats do not find favor in this, and they will always aim at bringing down such efforts that are likely to terminate their mission. The leaders will not have the capability to extend their authority, which may deny them an opportunity to enjoy the massive benefits that come with their positions (Autocratic Leadership, 2014).
Personal decisions
A leader is put in his or her position with the assignment of overseeing activities. However, aristocrats abuse their position. They are not willing to stand in the gap and ensure that things flow accordingly. Instead, they want to execute their selfish interests. Therefore, they have to ensure that everything flows to their favor. They do not support the decisions that other people make (Brooks, 2014).
When an organization seeks to execute certain processes or activities, the leaders do not respect the need for opinions. They will always stick to their thoughts. They may call for meetings as a formality, but they already have the conclusive decision. However, good an opinion by another may be, the leader is not ready to execute it. The final decision that will take place in the organization comes from the leader. He is the sole decision-maker for the organization.
The decision made by one person is not likely to benefit the entire organization. One mind cannot represent many other minds in decisions. At some point, there must be a failure since one person’s perspective may be wrong and may not match the thoughts by many people. It may be the main cause for failure in organizations that have an aristocratic form of leadership.
Conclusion
Autocratic leadership is authoritative in nature. It means there has to be someone who is controlling the activities of a group of people. The leaders are extensively significant when a situation seems to be out of hand, and they are willing to offer their effort. The leaders will ways save a day when there are massive disagreements on the most outstanding solution to the problem. However, there are massive demerits that come with a form of leadership. They are not usually keen on the decisions that the subordinates may suggest. They believe in personal opinions as the best solutions to the problem at stake. Also, the leaders may bar proper communication within an organization, which may attract exclusive consultation and proper decision for controversial situations.
References
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