Characteristics Of An Autocratic Leadership Style

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Part 1: Investigation
Autocratic Leadership Style
Definition of Autocratic Leadership:
Autocratic leaders are leaders who control all aspects and decisions of a task and use limited advice or ideas from group members. (Kendra Cherry, 2018). Leonard D. Schaeffer describes autocratic leadership as, “When a business needs to change relatively quickly, it’s much more important to just make a decision and get people moving than it is to take the time to conduct a thorough analysis and attempt to influence others to come around to your way of thinking.” (Leonard D. Schaeffer, 2002)

Characteristics of an Autocratic Leadership:

The general characteristics of an Autocratic Leader are:
- That they use little discussion and input from group members.
- All decisions including work methods are made by the leader.
- Creativity or out of the box thinking is not seen as important and is usually overlooked by the leader.
- Rules are highly regarded and are usually communicated clearly to employees.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Autocratic Leadership:

The advantages of Autocratic leadership are that it allows for fast and effective decisions in a crisis situation, this is due to the ability of make quick decisions without having to discuss amongst team members which wastes valuable time. There is a significant amount of leadership which means that employees do not lack in organisation or workloads, which enables important deadlines not to be missed. Autocratic leadership allows for