Harold Jack Leavitt (14 January 1922 – 8 December 2007) was an American psychologist of management. Harold Leavitt

Life and career

Leavitt was born on 14 January 1922. A native of

Lynn, Massachusetts Lynn is the eighth-largest municipality in Massachusetts and the largest city in Essex County. Situated on the Atlantic Ocean, north of the Boston city line at Suffolk Downs, Lynn is part of Greater Boston's urban inner core. Settled by E ...

, he was the youngest of eleven siblings. Following the conclusion of his baccalaureate studies at Harvard University in 1943, Leavitt continued graduate study at

Brown University Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Provide ...

in 1944. He then served as a United States Navy reservist for two years, and earned a doctorate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1949. Republished as Leavitt taught at the University of Chicago and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute prior to joining the

Carnegie Mellon University Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. One of its predecessors was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools; it became the Carnegie Institute of Technolog ...

in 1958. He was a professor at Stanford University between 1966 and 1987, where he was later named Walter Kenneth Kilpatrick Professor of Organizational Behavior. Leavitt's tenure as principal of the Management Analysis Center began in 1971. Additionally, he was an adviser to the National Training Laboratories. In retirement, Leavitt relocated to Pasadena, California, and died of pulmonary fibrosis in the city's

Huntington Memorial Hospital Huntington may refer to: Places Canada * Huntington, Nova Scotia New Zealand * Huntington, New Zealand a suburb in Hamilton, New Zealand United Kingdom * Huntington, Cheshire, England * Huntington, East Lothian, Scotland * Huntington, ...

on 8 December 2007, aged 85.

Research

Leavitt dealt with the analysis of patterns of interaction and communication in groups, and also interferences in communication. He examined the personality characteristics of leaders. He distinguished three types of managers: # The visionary and charismatic leader is characterized by being original, witty, and uncompromising. He is often

eccentric Eccentricity or eccentric may refer to: * Eccentricity (behavior), odd behavior on the part of a person, as opposed to being "normal" Mathematics, science and technology Mathematics * Off-center, in geometry * Eccentricity (graph theory) of a v ...

and seeks to break with status quo, and embarking on a new path. Historical examples of such leaders were Gandhi, Hitler, Gladstone and the

Ayatollah Khomeini Ruhollah Khomeini, Ayatollah Khomeini, Imam Khomeini ( , ; ; 17 May 1900 – 3 June 1989) was an Iranian political and religious leader who served as the first supreme leader of Iran from 1979 until his death in 1989. He was the founder of ...

. # The rational and analyzing leader' are holding to the facts supported by numbers. He is systematic and can effectively control. Examples of this type are

Clement Attlee Clement Richard Attlee, 1st Earl Attlee, (3 January 18838 October 1967) was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1945 to 1951 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1935 to 1955. He was Deputy Prime Mini ...

, Robert Peel, or Jimmy Carter. # The pragmatist – The contractor of established plans, skillfully solving problems. Leaders of this type are typically not visionary. They seek to subjugate the people to their will. Historical examples: Bismarck, Lenin, Stalin,

Lyndon B. Johnson Lyndon Baines Johnson (; August 27, 1908January 22, 1973), often referred to by his initials LBJ, was an American politician who served as the 36th president of the United States from 1963 to 1969. He had previously served as the 37th vice ...

Works

* ''Managerial Psychology''. Éditions University of Cahicago Press, Chicago-London, 1975, * ''Corporate Pathfinders''. Homewood, Ill. Dow Jones-Irwin in 1986 * Harold J. Leavitt and Jean Lipman-Blumen: ''Hot Groups : Seeding Them, Feeding Them, and Using Them to Ignite Your Organization''. Oxford University Press 1999, * ''Top Down, Why Hierarchies are Here to Stay and How to Manage Them More Effectively'' Harold J. Leavitt, Harvard Business School Press, 2004

Notes

External links

*
Harold Leavitt: An Oral History
, Stanford Historical Society Oral History Program, 2003.

Sources

*Richard Koch: ''The dictionary management and finance. Tools, time, techniques from A to Z'', Publisher Professional School of Business, Kraków 1997. {{DEFAULTSORT:Leavitt, Harold 1922 births 2007 deaths 20th-century American psychologists Stanford University Graduate School of Business faculty Harvard University alumni People from Lynn, Massachusetts Scientists from Massachusetts Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute faculty Brown University alumni Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni United States Navy reservists University of Chicago faculty Carnegie Mellon University faculty Deaths from pulmonary fibrosis