Sharing decision making with group members and working with them side by side has become the generally accepted leadership approach in the modern organization. A useful perspective for understanding collective and participative leadership is that they are based on networks of people working together and sharing information. A social network consists of a set of individuals and the relationships that bind them, such as people within a work group who trust each other enough to accept their advice on a problem.

Participative leaders share decision making with group members. The terms shared leadership, collaborative leadership, and team leadership all refer to the same idea as participative leadership. Participative leadership encompasses so many behaviors that it can be divided into three subtypes: consultative, consensus, and democratic. Consultative leaders confer with group members before making a decision. However, they retain the final authority to make decisions.

Consensus leaders strive for consensus. They encourage group discussion about an issue and then make a decision that reflects general agreement and that group members will support. Democratic leaders confer final authority on the group. They function as collectors of group opinion and take a vote before making a decision. The participative style is based on management openness because the leader accepts suggestions for managing the operation from group members.