ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses participative leadership as an approach that invites input from staff on decisions. It is the model that is most successful in education organisations like schools and universities, where management is more light-touch and flatter than commercial organisations. The chapter also discusses participative leadership and motivation, going back to the Hawthorne experiments of the 1920s and, of course Maslow’s theory of human motivation. It also brings in John Cotton’s work on the dimensions of participative leadership and we ‘re-discover’ Rensis Likert’s fourfold leadership model – his fourth leadership style was called ‘participative’ – which Likert found improved teamwork, communication and efficacy. The qualities of a participative leader are also discussed as is de Bono’s Six Thinking Hats model.
