Abstract
Purpose:
Democratic leadership has consistently been associated with positive outcomes for the organization in terms of enhanced employee engagement, improved group cohesion, and increased organizational commitment through the practice of participative decision-making processes. The underpinning theory of democratic leadership is based on the idea of shared decision-making processes in the workplace leading to a sense of ownership and responsibility among all members of the organization. However, this form of decision-making practice in the workplace can inadvertently lead to a diffusion of responsibility among all members of the organization and thus reduce the level of individual responsibility for decision outcomes. This paper proposes the construct of participative diffusion (PD), which is a form of leadership where decision-making processes in the workplace lead to a diffusion of responsibility and thus reduce the perception of ownership of decision outcomes in the workplace. The purpose of this study is to conceptualize the potential impact of participative leadership on organizational coordination.
Design/methodology/approach:
This study proposes an inductive qualitative research design based on an interpretivist philosophical approach to explore the practice of democratic leadership and its association with participative diffusion in the workplace. The study proposes the use of semi-structured interviews as a method of data collection to explore the perceptions of followers in democratic leadership contexts (Bryman, 2016).
Findings:
The conceptual analysis of democratic leadership in the workplace has indicated its potential impact on the perception of responsibility for decision outcomes in the workplace. The practice of participative diffusion in the workplace can thus lead to confusion about ownership of decision outcomes in the workplace.
Originality/value:
This study has contributed to the theory of democratic leadership by proposing the construct of participative diffusion as a form of leadership in the workplace and its potential impact on decision outcomes in the workplace (Gastil, 1994).