Participative Leadership Participative leadership involves the use of decision procedures that allow other people some influence over the leader's decisions. Other terms commonly used to refer to aspects of participative leadership include consultation, joint decision making, power sharing, decentralization, empowerment, and democratic management. Participative leadership can take many forms and includes several specific decision procedures. Although usually classified as primarily a relations-oriented behavior, participative leadership also has implications for achieving task objectives and leading change. Types of Decision Procedures The type of decision procedure used by a manager determines how much influence subordinates or group members have over the decision. Scholars have proposed several different taxonomies of decision procedures, and there is no agreement about the optimal number of decision procedures or the best way to define them. However, most leadership scholars would recognize the following four decision procedures as distinct and meaningful: Autocratic Decision The manager makes a decision alone without asking for the opinions or suggestions of other people, and these people have no direct influence on the decision; there is no participation. Consultation The manager asks other people for their opinions and ideas and then makes the decision alone after seriously considering their suggestions and concerns. Joint Decision The manager meets with others to discuss the decision problem and make a decision together; the manager has no more influence over the final decision than any other participant. Delegation The manager gives an individual or group the authority and responsibility for making a decision; the manager usually specifies limits within which the final choice must fall, and prior approval may or may not be required before the decision can be implemented. Normative Decision Model The importance of using decision procedures that are appropriate for the situation has been recognized for some time. Building on earlier approaches, the normative decision model proposed by Vroom and Yetton (1973) describes aspects of the decision situation that determine whether a specific type of decision procedure will be effective. Vroom and Yetton identified five decision procedures for decisions involving multiple subordinates, including two types of autocratic decision (A-I and A-II), two types of consultation (C-I and C-II), and one type of joint decision making by the leader and subordinates as a group (G-II). The procedures are defined in Table 4-1. The decision procedure used by a leader affects the quality of a decision and decision acceptance by the people who are responsible for implementing the decision. These two mediating variables jointly determine how the decision will affect the performance of the leader's team or work unit. Aspects of the situation determine the importance of the mediating variables. Table 4-1 Decision Procedures in Normative Decision Model A- You solve the problem or make the decision yourself, using information available to you at the time. A- C- C- =ن G- You obtain the necessary information from your subordinates, then decide the solution to the problem yourself. You may or may not tell your subordinates what the problem is in getting the information from them. The role played by your subordinates in making the decision is clearly one of providing necessary information to you, rather than generating or evaluating alternative solutions. You share the problem with the relevant subordinates individually, getting their ideas and suggestions, without bringing them together as a group. Then you make the decision, which may or may not reflect your subordinates' influence. You share the problem with your subordinates as a group, obtaining their collective ideas and suggestions. Then you make the decision, which may or may not reflect your subordinates' influence. You share the problem with your subordinates as a group. Together you generate and evaluate