MARY PARKER FOLLETT,
1868–1933
A prophet before her time?
Follett was an American political scientist and management thinker who experienced a late and somewhat unexpected career as a management guru. In the 1920s she was well known on both sides of Atlantic, but her star was later eclipsed by the more masculine approaches that seemed to be better attuned with the Second World War era. The principles of democracy and cooperation permeate all Follett’s writings, be they about politics, business or education. (Indeed, she thought that democratic principles should be taught from an early age.)
Follett theorised about community, experience and the group, and how these related to the individual and the organisation. A business, she reasoned, is a microcosm of human society. An organisation is one in which people at all levels should be motivated to work and participate. They should gather their own information, define their own roles and shape their own lives.
Organisations are based fundamentally on cooperation and coordination; this is the single unifying principle holding them together. She advocated ‘power with’ (a jointly developed power) rather than ‘power over’ as the key to social progress and business success – which did not suit the prevailing mood before, during and after the Second World War, but is much more in tune with recent management thinkers. Henry Mintzberg and Rosabeth Moss Kanter, for example, are fans of Follett’s approach.
The following quotations serve as examples of Follett’s ethos of management and resonate with today’s ideas about organisational citizenship and the importance of employee involvement.
The ramifications of modern industry are too widespread, its organisation too complex, its problems too intricate for industry to be managed by commands from the top alone.
You must have an organisation which will permit interweaving all along the line …
It is my plea above everything else that we learn how to cooperate …
The leader knows that any lasting agreement among members of the group can come only by their sharing each others’ experience.
The difference between competition and joint effort is the difference between a short and a long view.
Follett’s theoretical emphasis on integration, synthesis and unifying differences and her work on group processes, crowd psychology, neighbourhood and work, governance and the self in relation to the whole now appear way ahead of their time. We should remember, however, that in the 1920s – before the spectre of war reared its head – she was received with empathy and understanding.
Her current resurrection is an indication of the relevance of such theories to many working environments today.
Further reading on Follett.
Graham, Pauline (ed.). Mary Parker Follett: Prophet of Management – A Celebration of Writings from the 1920s, Harvard Business School Press, 1995.
Tonn, Joan C. Mary P Follett: Creating Democracy, Transforming Management, Yale University Press, 2003.
http://www.employment-studies.co.uk/pdflibrary/a_tj0305.pdf