Issue

Leadership style: Harold claimed that he is a democratic leader but his actions looks more
like an autocratic leader, because he always make decision without consulting with his
employees. He just allow for only a minimal employee participation in the decision making
process and sometimes even ignore the opinions of the employees. He also showed arbitrary
control toward others and appeared to be intensive to employees concerns. Moreover, he
seldom engaged in open, two-way communications. All these shows that he is an autocratic
leader.

Impact
Harolds autocratic leadership style could damage an organization irreparably as he force his
employees to execute strategies and services in a very narrow way based upon a subjective
idea of what success looks like. There is also no shared vision and little motivation beyond
coercion. Employees commitment, creativity and innovation are typically eliminated by
autocratic leadership (Ojokuku, et al., 2012). Moreover, it also will causes the employees to
feel disconnect with this kind of leadership style and it might also decrease employee job
satisfaction in the company because most of the people will not feel happy while working at
this company.

Recommendation
In order to solve this issue, Harold should reduce power distance by adopting democratic
leadership style. Democratic leadership is associated with higher morale in most situations. A
democratic leader always emphasize group participation, discussion, and group decisions
encouraged by the leader. Moreover, this type of leader always tries to be a regular group
member in spirit without doing too much of the work.
To be a democratic leader, Harold should invite his employees to contribute in the decision
making process before he make the final decision (Bhatti et al., 2012). Moreover he should
seek advice from his subordinates and try to reach consensus within their teams (Rotemberg
and Saloner, 1993).
In order to make all these happen he should adopt the Employee Involvement Model
-Tell: Harold should makes the decision and announces it to employees. Moreover, he should
provide complete direction.
-Sell: Harold should makes the decision and then attempts to gain commitment from
employee by "selling" the positive aspects of the decision.
-Consult: Harold should invites input into a decision while retaining authority to make the
final decision himself.
-Join: He should invites employees to make the decision with him and considers his voice
equal in the decision process.
(Tannenbaum, A.S. and Schmitt, W.H. (1958). "How to choose a leadership pattern". Harvard
Business Review, 36, March-April, 95-101.)

Moreover, Harold should distribute responsibility among the membership, empower his
employees, and aid the groups decision making process (Gastil, 1994). To begin all these, a
variety of opportunities for involvement should be built into the structure of the organization.
Moreover, Harold should spend time showing their employees that they value them as
members of the organization. This should be a genuine demonstration by the management,
which clearly communicates to the employee that the manager appreciates each employee for
their unique contributions that they make to the organization.
Moreover, Harold should motivate and respect the employees in order to become a
democratic leader.
To inspire employee motivation, Harold must, Share the vision. It's not enough to just be
optimistic. You must give your team and organization something to be optimistic about. Talk
about where you have been, where you are, and where you are going. "Share your plan for a
brighter and better future, talk about the actions you must take, and constantly reiterate the
reasons why you will be successful. Create a vision statement that inspires and rallies your
team and organization."

Benefits
Low power distance leadership within the company could increase employee job satisfaction
and also help to develop peoples skill in the company (Bhatti et al., 2012). Moreover,
democratic leadership is one of the most effective style and it leads to higher productivity,
better contributions from the employees and also increase employees morale. Because the
employees are encouraged to share their thoughts, democratic leadership can lead to better
ideas and more creative solutions to problems. Moreover, the employees also feel more
involved and committed to projects, making them more likely to care about the end results
Moreover, it might also causes the employee turnover to decrease because the employees are
satisfy with their job so they would not think about leaving the company.