Democratic Leadership Style of Jack Ma at Alibaba Company

This report examines democratic leadership, focusing on Jack Ma's leadership style at Alibaba. It defines democratic leadership as valuing follower participation while retaining final decision-making authority. The report highlights how Jack Ma fostered employee involvement, encouraging individual ideas and uniting workers under a common goal, leading to increased motivation, productivity, and creativity. It explores how Jack Ma empowered employees in decision-making processes and fostered a sense of inclusion and value. The report emphasizes the importance of employee satisfaction and morale, aligning with the principle of treating employees as the company's top priority. The analysis references relevant sources to support the claims, illustrating the practical application and benefits of democratic leadership in a real-world business context, specifically Alibaba's success.

Running head: MANAGEMENT
Table of Contents
Topic- Democratic leadership....................................................................................................1
Description of Theory of Democratic Leadership.................................................................1
Application of Theory to Jack Ma within Alibaba Company................................................1

1MANAGEMENT
Topic- Democratic leadership
Description of Theory of Democratic Leadership
Democratic leaders value the participation and involvement of their followers but still
make the final decision (Jakhar, 2017). In addition, involving more people to participate
means, there will be more ideas and suggestions to come up with the best one. Furthermore,
Jack ma has a democratic leadership style because he encouraged individual’s ideas. He does
not believe on supervision, he believes that the power of accomplishment is in uniting his
workers under a common goal (sattar, 2019). This is very beneficial for Alibaba as the
workers will be motivated to work on achieving the common goal and will be more
productive, rather than working just because of the fear of supervision. Moreover, his
employee will be willing to work toward the success of Alibaba because of their appreciation
and valued participation. In addition, employees’ participation and their common goal will
unite them more strongly to be more productive and creative.
Application of Theory to Jack Ma within Alibaba Company
Jack Ma was successful in trying to engage their workers in the different decision-
making processes which used to be taking place in the company. Jack Ma is one of the
fascinating examples of the successful leader wherein he always empowered the group
members and aiding the group-decision making approach as well. Through fostering the
proper feelings of inclusion as well as involvement, the team members are made to feel
highly important and valued. Jack Ma always tries in understanding and hearing the problems
faced by employees who make them feel valued and integral part of the company as well.
The CEO of Alibaba has been highly particular regarding hiring the most superior
people in their organization as he feels that the employees need to have more technical skills
than the superior or boss and when the person does not possess such, he or she should not be

2MANAGEMENT
hired. Jack Ma is highly tenacious in nature as he possess the clear vision wherein he has the
idea of what to achieve and inspiring the people around him to work hard for achievement of
the goals successfully as well (Parés, Ospina and Subirats 2017). Due to the democratic kind
of style which is followed by Jack Ma, Alibaba has been of huge success in the current
scenario and according to Jack Ma, making money in the present scenario is simple, however,
making sustainable money while being highly responsible towards the society and improving
world is highly difficult (Fiaz, Su and Saqib 2017).
For instance- Jack Ma has been successful in letting the employees come to work
with smile as for Jack Ma, employees are the top priority of the company and they are needed
to be treated efficiently. Work hard, but be happy is the key mantra which is followed by Jack
Ma for keeping their employees satisfied in the different kinds of working conditions
(Smolović Jones et al. 2016).
In the 21st century, moral and democratic leadership is mainly reinforced through the
sustained commitment of the different employees and the employers in the together manner
to live corporate values in each and every action at every level throughout the company
(Forbes.com 2020). As a CEO of Alibaba, the main job which was performed by Jack Ma
was increasing job satisfaction among the different employees and improving their morale as
he felt that employees are the greatest asset of the company and they are required to be
valued to the large extent (Alibaba.com 2020).

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References
Alibaba.com 2020 Alibaba.com-Official Website (Online) Retrieved from
https://www.alibaba.com [Accessed on 8th April 2020]
Fiaz, M., Su, Q. and Saqib, A., 2017. Leadership styles and employees' motivation:
Perspective from an emerging economy. The Journal of Developing Areas, 51(4), pp.143-
156.
Forbes.com 2020 Jack Ma Outlines Bold Vision for his Philantrophy Foundation (online)
Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/jdoebele/2019/12/02/jack-ma-shares-his-plans-
for-education-philanthropy-in-china/#749ef4595c7f [Accessed on 8th April 2020]
Parés, M., Ospina, S.M. and Subirats, J. eds., 2017. Social innovation and democratic
leadership: communities and social change from below. Edward Elgar Publishing.
Smolović Jones, S., Smolović Jones, O., Winchester, N. and Grint, K., 2016. Putting the
discourse to work: On outlining a praxis of democratic leadership development. Management
Learning, 47(4), pp.424-442.