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Kurt Lewin often is credited as the founder of the field of social psychology. His research addressed diverse areas, including leadership and change. He was committed not only to developing reasonable theories for human behavior but also providing insightful applications for those hypotheses.
In 1939, Lewin worked with two other researchers to identify the effectiveness of three different leadership styles-authoritarian (autocratic), participative (democratic), and delegative (laissez-faire). These days it's no surprise to read that the study concluded that a democratic leader style was most effective, and as the saying goes, "The rest is history." The original framework of leadership styles has been expanded in subsequent research...