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Week7LectureSlides.pptxWeek 7: Shared Leadership
Leadership styles Autocratic? Laissez Faire? Democratic?
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What is Democratic Leadership?
Democratic leadership is behavior that influences people in a manner consistent with and/or conducive to basic democratic principles and processes, such as self-determination, inclusiveness, and equal participation
(Gastil, 1994, p. 956).
Authority
A given democratic group or body, called the demos (e.g., Dahl, 1989), confers authority to specific individuals, all of whom are subject to removal by the membership.
Leaders need authority ...but the delegation of authority in a democratic group is never a mandate for any leader to employ authority without the eventual approval of the group
Democratic leaders must be accountable for the decisions they make as individuals and the roles they play in the demos
Finally, democratic leaders must try to prevent the development of hierarchies in which special privilege and status differentials dominate
Leadership Functions
Leadership is behaviour not position
Distribute responsibility & decision-making rather than concentrating it
Empower the membership; avoid behaviours associated with the “Great Man” model of leadership, show genuine care & concern for members, and develop future leaders.
Ensure productive and democratic decision-making using constructive participation (i.e. determine how members will think and decide, not what they will think & decide).
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Leaderful Groups
One might argue that diffusing leadership functions in this way would make a group leaderless, but as Starhawk (1986) explains, "Such groups are not, in reality, leaderless." Instead, they are " 'leaderful' -everyone in the group feels empowered to start or stop things, to challenge others or meet challenges, to move out in front or to fall back" (p. 270). In the ideal demos, more than one person serves every leadership function, no individual does an inordinate amount of the leading, and every group member performs leadership functions some of the time.
Democratic Followers
Take responsibility for the well-being of the demos
Be accountable for their actions and decisions
Regularly exercise their liberties and recognize, cherish, and guard autonomy
Strive to be leaders or leaderful
Be the watchdogs of its own leadership
When is Democratic Leadership Appropriate? (Gastil, 1994, p. 966)
Relational Leadership
Reality has no objective meaning in itself; it is given meaning by ongoing process of meaning-making and negotiations in interactions
Leadership work is about social processes of co-creation in which emergent coordination and change are produced
Leadership is emergent and ongoing throughout an entity
