A Meta-Analytic review of the productivity and satisfaction of democratic and autocratic leadership

There exists a wealth of research examining the effects of democratic and autocratic leadership on group productivity and member satisfaction; however, past reviews of this literature have not systematically integrated the results of available quantitative studies. This essay uses a meta-analysis to provide such an integration. Analysis reveals no correlation between democraticdautocratic leadership style and productivity, except when taking into consideration the influence of study setting and task complexity. Results also suggest that democratic leadership has a moderate positive correlation with member satisfaction, but this relationship may be moderated by task complexity. The conclusion discusses the limits of experimentally manipulating democratic leadership and the need for conceptual refinement.