Authoritarian Leadership Style Explained
Leadership styles help a leader guide followers toward correct and effective action. Depending on the group, different leadership styles might help motivate them to succeed. One type of leadership style, authoritarian, leads a group through control methods including strict rules and punishment.
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Identification
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Authoritarian leadership, also known as autocratic leadership, is a means of leading people that uses control and punishment to achieve desired performance results. This type of leadership is most often effective when used with groups showing low behavioral maturity and is generally found in use in the military, schools and sports teams.
Types
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Authoritarian leadership style is one of several styles of leadership used to motivate and guide group members into performing desired behaviors. Other styles of leadership include democratic, authoritative, consultative, participative and delegative.
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Theory X vs. Theory Y
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The authoritarian style leadership is sometimes called Theory X, which came from motivation specialist Douglas McGregor's 1960 book, "The Human Side of Enterprise." Theory X outlines a method of motivation involving a great deal of control over employees and a tough system of punishment. This is in contrast with Theory Y, which theorizes that an employee who is committed to the organization will be motivated to work hard. In Theory Y, motivation is based on increasing job satisfaction and personal responsibility.
Authoritarian vs. Authoritative
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Though the two names are similar, authoritarian style differs greatly from authoritative-style leadership. Although authoritarian style leadership involves tight control over the flow of information to followers and little explanation of the reasons for rules used to control the group, authoritative leadership involves explanation of the rules and open dialogue about desired and undesirable behaviors. According to "Classroom Management Styles" by Carl J. Wenning of Illinois State University, authoritative leadership styles help produce "socially competent and responsible" followers, while the tough authoritarian style tends to render students "ineffective at social interaction, and somewhat inactive."
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