International Journal of Organizational Leadership

Abstract

This study represents a comparative research of the particularities of leadership styles among the owners of small or medium enterprises from Romania and the Netherlands. The three styles used in the present research are autocratic, democratic, and Laissez-faire. The main research instrument of the study was the survey, based on which the researcher determined the dominant leadership style for each respondent. This survey has been applied on a sample of 50 small or medium business owners from Romania and 128 small or medium business owners from the Netherlands. According to the final results, the dominant leadership style in both cases has been the democratic one. Moreover, a series of factors such as the company’s age and owner’s sex which significantly influence the practiced style have identified.