Mary Parker Follett

Mary Parker Follett

Abstract

Mary Parker Follett has been categorized as both an individualist and a collectivist, based on statements in her varied writings over two decades. This paper argues that, instead, Follett approached the issue of the true nature of man using a Hegelian dialectical technique, emerging with a distinct position that merges the best of both extremes into a unique synthesis. While the traditional individualist/collectivist dichotomy still holds sway in much of the management literature, several recent theories that take a perspective similar to Follett's are discussed. The analysis makes clear that, once again, Follett's ideas were ahead of their time.

Mary Parker Follett

Introduction

Mary Parker Follett never wrote on ethics in management or on business ethics. Today, both topics are not only popular but essential. However some implicit and even explicit references to these topics can be found in her thought. What is more, underlying her whole approach to business and management are concepts that have much to do with ethics. Follett holds that the manager has to accept standards which come from professional managerial associations.

Discussion

Additionally, Follett is aware of the contribution of business management to individual development, to the welfare and culture of society. She also presents a seminal approach to stakeholder theory. Her concept of ethics is related to her dynamic vision of the individual and society. It overcomes subjectivism and the narrow view of an individualistic ethics, but it is not an ethics rooted in ethical principles or in human virtues.

Mary Parker Follett (3 September 1868 - 18 December 1933) was an American social worker, management consultant and pioneer in the fields of organizational theory and organizational behavior. She also authored a number of books and numerous essays, articles and speeches on democracy, human relations, political philosophy, psychology, organizational behavior and conflict resolution. Along with Lillian Gilbreth, Mary Parker Follett was one of two great women management gurus in the early days of classical management theory. As such she was one of the first women ever invited to address the London School of Economics, where she spoke on cutting-edge management issues. She also distinguished herself in the field of management by being sought out by President Theodore Roosevelt as his personal consultant on managing not-for-profit, non-governmental, and voluntary organizations.

In her capacity as a management theorist, Mary Parker Follett pioneered the understanding of lateral processes within hierarchical organizations (which recognition led directly to the formation of matrix-style organizations, the first of which was DuPont, in the 1920s), the importance of informal processes within organizations, and the idea of the "authority of expertise"--which really served to modify the typology of authority developed by her German contemporary, Max Weber, who broke authority down into three separate categories: legitimate, traditional and charismatic.

Follett was born in Massachusetts and spent much of her early life there. In September 1885 she enrolled in Anna Ticknor's Society to Encourage Studies at Home. In 1898 she graduated from Radcliffe College, but was denied a doctorate at Harvard on the grounds that she ...