The authoritarian style was first described by psychologist Kurt Lewin in a study that identified three key styles of leadership. Journal of Social Psychology 10, 271-301. Means following rules rigorously, and ensure that their people follow procedures precisely. Support your professional development and learn new teaching skills and approaches. This content is taken from the Coventry University's online course, Durham University & Durham University Business School. Lewin’s research led him to describe three different types of leadership in organizational management environments: the authoritarian one, which has a dictatorial character, the democratic one, in which decision making is collective, and the “laissez-faire” one, in which the leader’s supervision of the tasks carried out by his subordinates is minimal. Several years ago, after working with over 10,000 executives and professionals around the world, I began to see more clearly how there are distinctly different styles that people follow in their approach to taking action in life and work, and in what motivates them to pursue a goal. Carry on browsing if you're happy with this, or read our cookies policy for more information. It is this person who determines the roles of the subordinates, the techniques and methods they must follow to complete their tasks and the conditions in which the work is carried out.
This is a framework for understanding meaningful differences in people’s working styles.
Leadership Styles - Choosing the Right Approach for the Situation, Psychologist Kurt Lewin developed his framework in the 1930s, and it provided the foundation of many of the approaches that followed afterwards. This fragment of his work had a great impact on another branch of psychology: industrial psychology, also called psychology of work or organisations , which analyses behaviour in the framework of the world of work. Leaders of this type let subordinates make their own decisions, although they do not necessarily take responsibility for the results of these decisions. Reflecting on your knowledge and experiences, what are (or would be in your opinion) the advantages and disadvantages of the leadership styles mentioned above? It was Kurt Lewin and his colleagues that classified leadership styles according to the culture of autocratic, democratic, and laissez-faire. It clarifies everyone's roles and responsibilities, but it can be amoral and can lead to high staff turnover, "Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.". Kurt Lewin, one of the main members of the Gestalt School, made great contributions to social psychology but also to other disciplines, such as that of organizations. Not very effective in teams that rely on creativity, flexibility and innovation.
The three types of leaders present their own advantages and disadvantages, and it cannot be said that any of them is superior in all aspects; however, Lewin stated that the democratic one is the most effective of the three . Leaders who follow this pattern do not make decisions alone, but they emerge as a result of a process of collective debate, in which the leader acts in an expert role advising subordinates, and of course can intervene in the final decision if necessary. Sign up to our newsletter and we'll send fresh new courses and special offers direct to your inbox, once a week. Bureaucratic leadership is also useful for managing employees who perform routine tasks. Further your career with an online communication, leadership, or business management course. Authentic leaders must adapt their styles to fit the situation and capabilities of their teammates. Participative or democratic leaders: these leaders usually involve their followers in the decision-making process. Style is the outward manifestation of one’s authentic leadership. You can update your preferences and unsubscribe at any time. Back then, many people asked what it meant to be authentic. Despite the negative connotations of the word “authoritarian”, Lewin insists that this type of leader does not always generate an unpleasant social-emotional environment; criticism of employees is common, but so is praise . Sometimes the team needs a visionary, a new style of coaching, someone to lead the way or even, on occasion, a kick in the bike shorts.
Trying to keep boredom at bay while in coronavirus lockdown? This is due to his conception of social situations as “force fields” where different factors operate and confront each other, his research on social actions, his analysis of group dynamics or his famous equation for predicting behaviour.
Manager and leader are two completely different roles, although we often use the terms interchangeably. Like Wertheimer, Köhler and Koffka, he was part of the Gestalt School , which tried to find out about the laws that determine human perception and the tendency of the mind to organize the received stimuli. Lewin, Lippit and Whit (1939) classified leadership into three styles: Autocratic leaders: these leaders use their authority to impose the ways of working and often make decisions without consulting their team or followers. According to writer and consultant Peter Drucker, "Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things." Transformational leadership is the best approach for most situations. This is a very widespread leadership style in most organisations. Kurt Lewin's model expresses this range of styles in relatively simple terms, from Authoritarian or Autocratic, through Democratic or Participative, to Delegating or "Laissez Faire." Gather Leadership Support. Another of the author’s key contributions is his theory on the three styles of leadership, based on the experiments he carried out in 1939. Discover why organisations behave the way they do, the effects of misbehaviour at work - and what you can do to improve things. Each of these leadership styles is related to behavioral patterns, interaction dynamics and a different social-emotional environment. This style of leadership is important when team agreement matters. Copyright © 2020 ▷ All about Psychology - VirtualPsychCentre.
For example, highly-capable people, who are assigned to a complex task, will need a different leadership approach from people with low ability, who are assigned to an ambiguous task. This work sometimes goes by the name of Lewin Theory.