Managing Participation: A Critical Dimension of Leadership

Managers must adapt their leadership styles to fit the demands of the situations they face. One of the necessary manifestations of this view is the need to adapt the form and degree of participation in decision making by subordinates, to the personalities of the subordinates, the decisions to be made and the general organisational circumstances. Managerial leadership is no longer maintaining the status quo. Old habits must be discarded if one is to respond to today's challenges. The authors' experience of working with managers suggests that training focused on analytical models of participation contributes to the critical components of effective leadership.