CONTINUUM OF AUTOCRACY AND HYPOCRITE DEMOCRACY: EXPLORATIONS IN ORGANISATIONAL LEADERSHIP

Human resource is the most important asset in any organisation. The enrichment and effective utilisation of human resource depends to a great extent on the leadership and its style. The literature on leadership style categorise it into autocratic, democratic, and free-rein. A slight variant of this, in the form of leadership continuum, is also in the management literature. But as against this, present study has identified continuum of autocracy, based on descriptive and qualitative research methods such as microscopic observation, document analysis, situation analysis, and key informant interview. Author's proposition, is that the manifestation of autocracy is practiced by majority of leaders; even in organisations preaching democracy. This is termed as ‘continuum of autocracy'. One style of such continuum is hypocrite democracy. This paper brings to light the characteristics and impacts of continuum of autocracy and also hypocrite democracy and their impacts on the sustenance of organisations.