Effective leadership has always involved many others in the complex process of leading, but the matters of how to best do this and how to ensure desired and expected outcomes are not easily answered on the basis of existing practice or inquiry. One of the difficulties in reviewing research on participative leadership is simply that researchers differ in what they mean by it. In consequence, it is necessary to adopt a loose definition of what is in any case an indefinite concept. This then creates problems when researchers are trying to define, examine, or prove a specific theory. However, leadership practices may be refractions of Societal values.
Participative leadership is an excellent example.
It has been said that leadership practices fit in well with Western industrial values. Consequently, the question as to whether participative leadership is desirable may be indelibly linked to an ethical issue rather than a practical one. In this way it is feasible that the fairly widespread deployment of participative practices is a product of the leader's perceptions of what is acceptable to their subordinates and to their own supervisors.