Democratic leadership is widely promoted in engineering education due to its potential to enhance participation, communication, and ethical reasoning. However, its effectiveness under stressful, time-constrained conditions remains insufficiently explored. This study investigates the impact of democratic leadership on team performance among Mechanical Engineering students under varying stress levels. A quasi-experimental case study was conducted involving ten Mechanical Engineering students divided into two democratically led teams. The teams completed three tasks of increasing complexity: a cognitive task, a collaboration-intensive task, and an ethical decision-making scenario. Performance was evaluated using task accuracy, completion time, and response quality, while team dynamics were assessed through a post-task survey. Results show that 70% of participants reported improved communication, 60% reported enhanced problem-solving, and 60% expressed satisfaction with team performance under stress. However, findings also indicate that unstructured participation may delay decision-making. The study concludes that democratic leadership is most effective when combined with clear role assignment and structured task management in engineering teams.
Sambrano et al. (Fri,) studied this question.