Behavioral Science—Questioning the Meaning of “Democratic” Management

Just as in the 1930s and 40s, the world is still experimenting with many autocratic forms of administration. Currently, not all of these autocrats are human. Some of them involve a “one best” model of accounting, information systems, and decision-making. The need for behaviorists to demonstrate the existence of alternative forms is just as great now as it was when Levine and others began their work on the importance of group dynamics to formal organizations thirty years ago. Many managers still have the concept that information flows up the organization and decisions flow down. But an acknowledgment of the existence of alternative organizational systems does not have to be sugar-coated with the term democratic.