Autocratic Leadership
Chapter from the book:
Oktaysoy,
O.
&
Elkırmış,
Ö.
(eds.)
2025.
Beyond Authority: Leadership Approaches From Classical to Contemporary.
Synopsis
This study aims to examine the theoretical framework of autocratic leadership with a multidimensional approach and to examine the effects of this leadership style at the organizational and individual levels, its principles, dimensions, and its relationship with the cultural context. In the leadership literature, autocratic leadership is defined as a managerial approach that focuses on absolute authority in decision-making processes, limits the participation of subordinates, and prioritizes control mechanisms. While this leadership model can be functional in terms of rapid intervention and maintaining order, especially in crisis conditions, it can weaken organizational flexibility, employee loyalty, and psychological safety in the long run. In the study, autocratic leadership was analyzed through five basic dimensions, and significant structural patterns were revealed in areas such as decision-making style, use of authority, communication style, level of supervision, and leader-subordinate relations. In addition, the study draws attention to the role of cultural factors in shaping the leadership approach and emphasizes that high power distance and collectivist cultures are more prone to an autocratic approach.
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Copyright (c) 2025 Onur Oktaysoy- Özer Elkırmış; Erdogan Kaygın- Mustafa Altıntaş- Mehmet Selman Kobanoğlu- Ali Bayram- Selen Uygungil-Erdoğan- Yaşar Şahin- Burcu Turan Torun- Ethem Topçuoğlu- Erdi Bozkır- Talip Bektaş- Vurgun Topçuoğlu- Serdal Özkes- Onur Oktaysoy- Özer Elkırmış- M. Akif Yenikaya- Ebru Uluçay Bektaş- Bilal Kobanoğlu- Mahmut Özdemirkol