Harold Leavitt
Harold Jack Leavitt (14 January 1922 – 8 December 2007) was an American psychologist of management.
Life and career[edit]
Leavitt was born on 14 January 1922. A native of Lynn, Massachusetts, 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 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.[1] Leavitt taught at the University of Chicago and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute prior to joining the Carnegie Mellon University in 1958.[2] He was a professor at Stanford University between 1966 and 1987,[1] where he was later named Walter Kenneth Kilpatrick Professor of Organizational Behavior.[3] Leavitt's tenure as principal of the Management Analysis Center began in 1971. Additionally, he was an adviser to the National Training Laboratories.[4] In retirement, Leavitt relocated to Pasadena, California,[1] and died of pulmonary fibrosis in the city's Huntington Memorial Hospital on 8 December 2007, aged 85.[5]