Dictatorial Leadership Style: 17+ Pros And Cons

by

A business leader ensures that their employee stays motivated, committed, and successful so the business grows. Choosing the right leadership style determines how the leader conducts and manages his role. 

That’s why choosing the right leadership style is crucial. Well, there are lots of types; Dictatorial is one of the popular styles is Dictatorial or Authoritarian leadership. 

To understand how this style works and the advantages and disadvantages that you can get. Here is what you might require. 

What does Dictatorial Leadership mean?

Dictatorship is also known as the authoritarian style; under this style, the leader has the centralization of all powers. He is the one who takes all the decisions without including anyone or consulting the followers. 

Also, the leadership requires us to follow the orders without any questions asked. 

Here are a few points that explain the Dictatorial leadership style here : 

  • Dictatorial leadership focuses on the leader instead of anyone else. 

  • The style is where the person has control over the decision-making process.

  • Leaders can choose if they want feedback or to make decisions alone. 

  • Dictatorial leaders make their decisions based on their moral code. 

  • The leader combines observation, experience, and ideas to create judgment. 

  • The judgments are used to have absolute control over the members. 

  • The leader uses rewards and punishment to maintain loyalty. 

  • This leadership demands to have compliance and unquestioning support whenever the leader passes an order. 

  • Sometimes the given order by the leader and the organization’s policy can be different, but the leader is still expected to follow their orders. 

Pros and Cons of Dictatorship

Pros Of Dictatorship

Well, Even though the dictatorial leadership style has its direct disadvantages, there are a lot of positive sides too. 

To understand both sides, here is the list of advantages you will get if you are considering the dictatorial leadership style 

pros of dictatorial leadership style

Reduces The Impact Of Mistakes 

When you choose the dictatorial leadership style, it forces the leaders to create a framework that differs for each project. 

With this, they have to outline the specific steps which are related to the projects, and the rest of the team members have to follow. Also, it creates the envisioned outcomes. 

Following this can cause a lot of work for the leader, but it makes sure to reduce the risks that might occur. 

The leaders are expected to use whatever the best practices so the team can achieve the goal also with the close supervision of the team to make sure that the orders are followed correctly. 

Much More Clarity Within The Chain Of Command 

Dictatorial leadership is helpful in outlining the chain of command, which is much clear and demands the companies. 

This is helpful in making sure that no one is confused or has doubts. Even it has much more easy access related to what to do when the leader is not present at that moment. 

The instructions are pretty clear and easy to follow for the team members. 

Boost The Short Term Productivity 

Well, choosing this leadership also encourages short-term productivity, As the team members know what exactly they are expected to do, and this helps in improving the chances of achieving what results in they want. 

Workers who follow the dictatorial style also tend to have fewer questions and instructions that have less focus on how to implement them. 

 This helps in boosting short-term productivity, which ensures the individuals direct their focus on completing the project instead of troubleshooting.

Improves The Fast Decisions 

According to the theory, the dictatorial leader can take as much time as the democratic leaders can take to decide something specific. 

However, most leaders use the style to take less time so they can decide fast. 

And then they can run it. 

 Also, the leaders can pull resources that they need to perform the job and get it done. 

It also allows the team to work on the given instruction that is given to them to complete the project. 

Here the team follows whatever leader chooses, which allows them to get the work done effectively. 


More Consistent Results 

The leader can produce more consistent results by following this style. 

The best practices are followed when the tasks get done; dictatorial leadership can create the consultancy, which helps the team to follow the same steps to complete the project. 

Here the individuals are discouraged so the task can be completed in the decided way. This type of leadership style is beneficial, especially when certain rules, laws, or regulations are required to be met as part of the requirement of the project. 


Provides Direction To Small Groups 

  When the team is working as a small group, no one wants to slip into the role of leadership. When you use this dictatorial leadership, you can assign the group and the leader to such a situation. 

Also, this will help in reducing the delays that cause situations of lack of leadership. With this, the task can be easily assigned, and productivity can be boosted to the organization’s better levels. 


Cons of Dictatorship

As for the disadvantages, the dictatorial leadership style has its cons too. It’s important to know so you can understand what the possible limitations you will get in this style of leadership are. 

However, to know more, here are the following points that can help. 

cons of dictatorial leadership style

Reduces The Long Term Morale 

When the world is able to have some kind of ownership in what they are doing,  it helps in providing a positive feeling. This also improves creativity and chances of doing a better job. 

However, when you choose dictatorial leadership, these kinds of feelings are taken away from them. 

Over time,  Even though productivity starts to boost up, it affects the morale of the team, which goes down. 

Not just that, it gets more criticism which takes a heavy toll, and people go through the stress that affects productivity. 

Also, in the end, the leader blames the workers who make the cycle start again. 


Discourages The Idea Of Innovation 

The leadership demands that the team follow what is directly the leader. So unless it’s not requested by the leaders, the team members can’t be creative, and it might be perceived as a threat. This causes the clamp down on what is allowed. 

Like most dictators, this style is more about retaining ownership and control instead of expanding opportunities for others. 


More Willing Employees To Leave Job 

The higher chances of getting the employees fed up because the leaders have goals that are specifically long-term responsibilities. 

However, using dictatorial leadership makes sense when you use it for fixing the errors; also, these errors should be something that can be corrected immediately. 

But when it gets prolonged for a longer period, it can make the employees leave the job and look for some other opportunities. 

The churn rate can increase unless the paycheck is bigger. The churn rate is the reason why the leadership style is not considered too much. 


Chances Of Rebellion Within Team 

The dictatorial style focuses highly on having control of one individual and also the way to make sure that the control is stronger and better on the team. 

This leads to consistent micromanaging even though the leader won’t be able to catch every action that the team member does. 

But it can be tiring and considered rude, arrogant, and bossy behavior for the employees. When the resentment increases, it can cause passive-aggressive behaviors. 

This can boost unfavorable outcomes and cause rebellion within the team. 


The Style Is Too Dependent On Leader Skills

Since the dictatorial leadership style is focused on the leaders, it’s beneficial for the companies which did the best practices within the workplace or industry. 

However, in case the leaders are not experienced or have the least knowledge, it can be the biggest disadvantage that they can face. 

Also, the employees who have better experience and knowledge as compared to the leaders can be the problem that will reduce the chances of getting success. 


Chances Of More Negative Feedback 

The dictatorial leadership style is too focused on making sure that the given job gets done in the right way and at the right time. 

If you make mistakes or fail, this style will point it out fast. But if the team follows the rules and orders as executed, it won’t give anything like positive feedback. 

This is why the dictatorial style focuses more on giving negative feedback, which can make the team member feel like they haven’t done anything good. 

Also, this reduces morale, and the employee can look for another company or switch jobs.

More To Explore:

Was this article helpful?