Kurt Lewin's 3 Leadership Styles

Kurt Lewin, one of the leading members of the Gestalt School, made great contributions to social psychology but also to other disciplines, such as organizations.

In this article we will analyze the three leadership styles described by Kurt Lewin: the authoritarian type, the democratic one and the “laissez-faire”, which can be translated as “letting go”.

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Kurt Lewin's theory

Kurt Lewin (1890-1947) was a German psychologist who had a fundamental influence on the development of this science during the first half of the 20th century. Like Wertheimer, Köhler and Koffka, he was part of the Gestalt School, which he tried to find out of the laws that determine human perception and the mind's tendency to organize received stimuli.

Lewin is credited with founding social psychology as an independent discipline. This is due to his conception of social situations as "fields of forces" where different factors operate and confront each other. research on social actions, his analysis of group dynamics or his famous equation to predict the conduct.

Another of the key contributions of this author is his theory of the three styles of leadership, based on the experiments he carried out in 1939. This fragment of his work had a great impact on another branch of psychology: industrial, also called work or organizational psychology, which analyzes behavior within the framework of the world of work.

However, Lewin's leadership theory is not only useful for analyzing the context of organizations, but it can apply to any human group with structural characteristics such as hierarchy or the attempt to achieve one or more objectives. Of course, the organizational environment has shown a particular interest in these types of theories.

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The three styles of leadership

Lewin's research led this pioneer to describe three different types of leadership in organizational management environments: the authoritarian, which has a dictatorial character, the democratic, in which decision-making is collective, and the "Laissez-faire", in which the supervision carried out by the leader of the tasks carried out by his subordinates is minimal.

Each of these leadership styles is related to behavioral patterns, interaction dynamics, and a different socio-emotional environment. All three types of leader have their own advantages and disadvantages, and none can be said to be superior in all respects; Nevertheless, Lewin affirmed that the democratic one is the most effective of the three.

1. Authoritarian

Authoritarian work environments are characterized by the fact that the leader monopolizes decision-making. It is this person who determines the roles of subordinates, the techniques and methods they must follow to complete their tasks and the conditions in which the work is carried out. It is a very widespread leadership style in most organizations.

Despite the negative connotations of the word "authoritarian," Lewin insists that this type of leader does not always create an unpleasant socio-emotional environment; criticism of employees is common, but so is praise. Authoritarian leaders are also characterized by little participation in performing the job tasks themselves.

In Lewin's observations, authoritarian-style leadership carries the risk of a "revolution" by subordinates. The probability of this happening will be greater the more marked the authoritarian character of the leader.

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2. Democratic

The democratic style that Lewin described is very different from authoritarian-type leadership. Leaders who follow this pattern do not make decisions alone, but rather they emerge as a result of a process of collective debate; in this the leader acts in an expert role who advises subordinates, and of course can intervene in the final decision if necessary.

Most people tend to prefer democratic-type leadership above the authoritarian and laissez-faire, especially when they have had bad experiences with one of these styles. However, democratic leadership carries a certain risk of a loss of efficiency, especially in relation to collective decision-making.

3. Laissez-faire

The French concept "laissez-faire" could roughly be translated as "letting go", "non-interventionism" or "liberalism", following the political-economic terminology used by Lewin. Leaders of this type let subordinates make their own decisions, although they do not necessarily take responsibility for the results of these.

This leadership style is generally considered to be the least effective of the three as it can lead to a lack of productivity and consistency; it is better to have an active leader. Nevertheless, works very well when subordinates are capable and highly motivated people Furthermore, there is no great need for communication between workers.