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The 3 leadership styles of Kurt Lewin

The 3 leadership styles of Kurt Lewin

March 26, 2024

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

In this article we will analyze the three leadership styles that Kurt Lewin described : the authoritarian, the democratic and the "laissez-faire", which can be translated as "let do".

  • Related article: "Kurt Lewin and the Theory of the Field: the birth of social psychology"

The theory of Kurt Lewin

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 School of Gestalt , which he tried to find of the laws that determine human perception and the tendency of the mind to organize the received stimuli.


Lewin is credited with the foundation of social psychology as an independent discipline. This is due to their conception of social situations as "fields of forces" where different factors operate and are confronted, to their investigations around social actions, to their analyzes on group dynamics or to their famous equation to predict behavior.

Another of the key contributions of this author is his theory about 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 psychology of work or organizations , which analyzes behavior in the framework of the world of work.


However, Lewin's theory of leadership is not useful only to analyze the context of organizations, but can be applied 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 this type 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, who has a dictatorial character, the democratic one, in which the decision-making is collective, and the "laissez-faire", in which the supervision carried out by the leader of the tasks performed by his subordinates is minimal.

Each of these leadership styles is related to behavioral patterns, interaction dynamics and a different socio-emotional environment. The three types of leader have their own advantages and disadvantages, and none can be said to be superior in all aspects; However, Lewin said that the democratic 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 subordinates' roles, the techniques and methods they must follow to complete their tasks and the conditions under which the work is carried out. It is a very extended leadership style in most organizations.

Despite the negative connotations of the word "authoritarian", Lewin insists that this type of leader does not always generate an unpleasant socio-emotional environment; criticisms of employees are common, but so are the praises . Authoritarian leaders are also characterized by little participation in carrying out the work tasks themselves.

According to Lewin's observations, authoritarian style leadership carries the risk of a "revolution" on the part of 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 leadership. Leaders who follow this pattern do not make decisions on their own, but they arise as a result of a process of collective debate; in this the leader acts in an expert role that advises the subordinates, and of course can intervene in the final decision if necessary.

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

3. Laissez-faire

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

In general it is considered that this style of leadership is the least effective of the three since it can lead to a lack of productivity and consistency; It is better to have an active leader. However, It works very well when subordinates are capable people and with a high level of motivation and in addition, there is no great need for communication among workers.


Leadership Styles Autocratic Democratic Laissez-Faire (March 2024).


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