First we have to look at possibilities of all management methods which may influence the employees positive or negative view.
Fear is not always an appropriate management accounting style for motivating people successfully.
Today the autocratic style is still a part of several bigger companies such as Foxcon or Volkswagen.
Those firms have introduced their style long time ago.
They are still successful at this but the workforce has to do what the chairman or head of the company says.
A principal of order is given.
Those producers can act fast and individual for every customer’s demand.
Nowhere else you have such a high risk in demotivating employees as you have in this type of style.
Some of the workers from Foxcon are so desperate of their working environments that they were willing to suicidal by jumping from the factory’s roof.
If you adapt employees with their opinions and ideas into a decision-making process by offering a lower hierarchy structure, they are more willing to support the company for their own purpose.
As a result you can profit from such a situation, because the mindset is different and tends to more creativity.
At the end you may get a so called win-win situation.
I don’t think that a big amount of fear helps in a company at all.
Above all (of) it is very important to get all advantages and disadvantages of each management style together.
The decision for the right management style depends on the aim or purpose of every company.
Facebook for instance needs creative heads, so they have chosen the democratic way with a very flat hierarchy.