ABSTRACT
A number of frequently appearing terms such as "participation," "power equalization," and "democratic leadership" refer to an important and controversial aspect of managerial decision-making, namely the extent to which it is shared by the manager's subordinates. The extent, to which programmed jobs restrict the meaningful possibilities of participation, has been pointed out in the literature, but particularly in relation to low level jobs. Apparently the supervisors were more willing to allow sub-ordinate participation in making task decisions than in making maintenance decisions. The situational variables found to be related to leader decision-making in this study are potential mediators of the relation between participation and group performance. A weakness of most previous measures is the failure to assess managerial decision behavior in relation to specific, typical organizational decisions. The amount of subordinate influence in decision-making within a formal unit of the organization can be viewed as a continuum ranging from no subordinate influence to complete subordinate influence.
