dc.description.abstract | The aim of this thesis is to identify the effect of management styles on their economic results, focusing on the participation level of the managers on the decision making process. The study was based on Rensis Likert (1975;1979) management style evaluation method. The first step of the research was a questionnaire sent by email with a set of closed ranked questions using the Likert scale. 111 controllers of the firm posted at the Valor 1.000 publication from 2000 to 2004 returned the questionnaire. The data analysis used a number of complementary methods. First, Principal Component Analysis was used to group que organizational characteristics questions. Five factors were estimated, classified as leadership, motivation, communication and cooperation, decision-making, goals and directives. Second, cluster analysis was used to classify the firms according to their management styles. Among the surveyed firms, 45,95% were classified as “direct participation”, with occasional punishments; 29,73%, had a “consultati | en |