What is meant by the threshold effect of participative leadership? Explain.

Student answers may vary. Recent research revealed that there is a minimum threshold for the level of participative leadership that must be reached before positive effects on employee performance are realized. Further, the extent to which this threshold effect was realized depended upon how much information the leader shared with followers. Two studies were conducted to explore when and how this threshold effect occurs. In both studies, participative leadership was unrelated to employee performance below a moderate, threshold level, but once that threshold was surpassed, gains in employee performance were achieved. This curvilinear relationship was stronger when information sharing by the leader with subordinates was high, and weaker when information sharing was low. Finally, Study 2 found that employee perceptions of leadership effectiveness mediated the combined effects of participative leadership and information sharing on objective work performance. Researchers explained their findings by suggesting that some leaders are reluctant to embrace participative leadership because they fear doing so will lessen their power or cause them to be blamed if employees fail to meet expectations. Leaders may elect to exhibit a moderate degree of participative leadership, assuming that doing so will be enough to pacify subordinates' desires for input. If subordinates sense that the leader's commitment to participative leadership is half-hearted, they may decline to invest the extra effort and resources that their participation would require. When followers sense a full commitment to securing their input, they are more likely to provide it, which will improve work performance.
The extent to which the leader shares information with subordinates further complicated the threshold effect. When employees felt the leader readily shared relevant information with them, the threshold effect was strengthened. If they felt the leader was reluctant to share information, it was weakened.