Leadership

Context (archaeology)

Public relations

Archaeology

Authoritarian leadership style

Systematic review

Psychology

Authoritarianism

Politics

Geography

Political science

Democracy

MEDLINE

Shared leadership

Leadership style

Management Review Quarterly

Although authoritarian leadership styles are often associated with negative performance, work climate deterioration, increased power distance, and centralized control, contradictory empirical evidence has emerged in the literature. In this paper, we perform a systematic literature review with three aims: (1) understand the effects of authoritarian leadership styles on performance, (2) study the temporal and geographical evolution of the scientific debate, and (3) establish a research agenda for the future. The results show that in the last two decades, the interest for the field has shifted from Western to Eastern countries. Moreover, many authors encourage leaders to increase or decrease their degree of authoritarian leadership depending on the context to more effectively connect leadership with performance. Therefore, leadership should be studied in light of a more complex approach that considers hybrid leadership styles and their effects on performance. Finally, we discuss our study’s limitations and managerial implications.

Authoritarian leadership styles and performance: a systematic literature review and research agenda