The armed forces is an example. The image that comes to mind is an army sergeant who barks out orders and expects total and unquestioning compliance. Another example is a parent. While this implies a double standard that is not necessarily a characteristic of an authoritarian manager, the tone of the words suggests complete obedience to an authority. If we were to draw a personality profile of an authoritarian manager, it would generally start with an over-achiever, someone who has worked hard for years to be the best.
Nothing is ever quite good enough.
These parental expectations may never have been expressed so succinctly, but were communicated by profound disappointment at a B on the report card or comparison to another sibling who excelled. If the employee fails to achieve these high standards, the failure is met with strong disapproval much like that of a scolding parent. While an authoritarian manager is probably a diligent and hard worker, they have a tendency to take on too much and become overloaded. Authoritarians have a hard time delegating to other people because they feel that they could do a better job themselves. So they refuse to train others to do tasks which would lighten the load.