4 Advantages and disadvantages of paternalistic leadership
Now that we’ve examined the core elements and characteristics of the style, it’s important to study its impact on an organisation. The paternalistic style, just like any other leadership model, has strong advantages, but also notable downsides to its application.
Advantages of paternalistic leadership
The major advantage of paternalistic leadership to other authoritarian models is the focus on employee welfare. Although employees might not have the power to impact decisions within the company, a paternalistic leader’s decision making is strongly influenced by the effect different actions will have on the employee. Paternalistic leadership considers the wellbeing of employees to be …show more content…
Paternalistic leadership puts employee education at the centre of its implementation. Since the leader cares about employee wellbeing and performance, he or she wants to support the employee to be a better worker and a better person. Paternalistic leadership isn’t about punishing when mistakes occur, but leading the way to ensuring the amount of mistakes is limited. It supports development, both in terms of gaining access to professional training, but also in terms of personal growth. It’s evident that the better trained your employees, the better your organisation does.
Paternalistic leadership doesn’t just provide the professional and personal development, but it can help employees make better choices as well. Since decisions are not done without consultation and care for subordinates, the leader has an important job in explaining and teaching subordinates about the decisions. As Mary Marshall, CEO coach and author of Putting Together the Entrepreneurial Puzzle, wrote in her blog post, the leader’s job is “to provide choice, as possible a good default suggestion, and most importantly explain …show more content…
Whilst subordinate input is not discouraged, the decisions are still in the hands of the leader. Placing power in the hands of a single individual can lead to problems. In paternalistic leadership, the issue is about the idea of the leader being the best person to make the decisions. If the leader doesn’t stay grounded and humble, the idea that he or she is the best person for deciding things can cause arrogance and lead to worse decisions. If there are no checks in place to question the leader’s decisions, then the organisation might suffer. In short, paternalistic leadership could lead to
Now that we’ve examined the core elements and characteristics of the style, it’s important to study its impact on an organisation. The paternalistic style, just like any other leadership model, has strong advantages, but also notable downsides to its application.
Advantages of paternalistic leadership
The major advantage of paternalistic leadership to other authoritarian models is the focus on employee welfare. Although employees might not have the power to impact decisions within the company, a paternalistic leader’s decision making is strongly influenced by the effect different actions will have on the employee. Paternalistic leadership considers the wellbeing of employees to be …show more content…
Paternalistic leadership puts employee education at the centre of its implementation. Since the leader cares about employee wellbeing and performance, he or she wants to support the employee to be a better worker and a better person. Paternalistic leadership isn’t about punishing when mistakes occur, but leading the way to ensuring the amount of mistakes is limited. It supports development, both in terms of gaining access to professional training, but also in terms of personal growth. It’s evident that the better trained your employees, the better your organisation does.
Paternalistic leadership doesn’t just provide the professional and personal development, but it can help employees make better choices as well. Since decisions are not done without consultation and care for subordinates, the leader has an important job in explaining and teaching subordinates about the decisions. As Mary Marshall, CEO coach and author of Putting Together the Entrepreneurial Puzzle, wrote in her blog post, the leader’s job is “to provide choice, as possible a good default suggestion, and most importantly explain …show more content…
Whilst subordinate input is not discouraged, the decisions are still in the hands of the leader. Placing power in the hands of a single individual can lead to problems. In paternalistic leadership, the issue is about the idea of the leader being the best person to make the decisions. If the leader doesn’t stay grounded and humble, the idea that he or she is the best person for deciding things can cause arrogance and lead to worse decisions. If there are no checks in place to question the leader’s decisions, then the organisation might suffer. In short, paternalistic leadership could lead to