Question

When is autocratic leadership best applied and in what types of companies/industries?

Answer 1

I’ll start this by first explaining what autocratic leadership is. Authoritarian leadership is a style of leadership which, when employed, provides the understanding for the leader to assume complete control over every aspect of information, activities, and decisions of their subordinates. It becomes a necessity in a scenario where it is either dangerous, like in the case of a manufacturing unit with heavy machinery and in situations where there are zero margins of error, like an extremely critical project with specific needs and requirements. In most cases, which can be considered organic, we tend to make use of the aspect of freedom, creativity, and collaboration without subordinates because the job at hand might demand it. While, for an autocratic leader, the process might necessitate the use of paternalistic outlook to guide their subordinates, creating the scenario which benefits from its use. The most straightforward example that comes to mind is a construction site or in a military outfit. The fact that doing what an individual wants might not only endanger them but the others as well create a need for strict hierarchy, structure, inorganic formations and autocratic leadership considerations for providing the most suitable outcome to the situation.

We can also take a chemical manufacturing plant, and a machinistic organization can be considered as similar examples