MARY PARKER FOLLETT

Born 1868 near Boston, Mass Well to do family Attended Radcliffe/Harvard Gaunt Bostonian spinster Fluent in German and French Lived with her long time companion Five Books

Acolades
Peter Drucker The brightest star in the management firmament Prophet of Management Warren Bennis Swashbuckling advance scout of management thinking Rosabeth Moss Kanter Reading Mary Parker Follett is like entering a zone of calm in a sea of chaos

Non Person - Drucker

Gender Her ideas, concepts, and precepts were being rejected in the 1930s and 1940s

FIVE BOOKS
1896 The Speaker of the House of Representatives 1918 The New State Group Organization, the Solution for Popular Government 1924 Creative Experience (1933 Died) 1941 Dynamic Administration The Collected Papers of Mary Parker Follett 1949 Freedom and Coordination

The Speaker of the House of Representatives (1896)

Researched and written while still a college student Examines the methods used by effective Speakers to exert their power and influence Reviewed by Teddy Roosevelt (then head of the NYC Board of Police Commissioners). He called it indispensable reading for any study of Congress

The New State (1944)

Advocated the replacement of bureaucratic institutions by group networks in which the people themselves analyzed their problems and then produced and implemented their own solutions Book critically acclaimed in both US and England MPF asked to be on several Boards (arbitration boards, minimum wage boards, public tribunals, etc.) These experiences allowed MPF to examine the politics of industrial relations

Creative Experience (1924)

Circular Response and Integrative Behavior
We react not only to the other party but also to the relationship that exists between us, thus creating in part our own response.

Dynamic Administration (1941)

Compilation of lectures given in New York at the annual Bureau of Personnel Administration meetings Demonstrated how the ideas that contributed to a strong and healthy society could also contribute to a creative and successful business organization. Constructive Conflict Power Authority Leadership

Freedom and Coordination (1949)

Compilation of lectures given in London at the London School of Economics Profoundly interested in the individual in society and how one could attain personal fulfillment while striving at the same time to create a well-ordered and just society Most developed of her ideas

Circular Response
Example is a game of tennis How you return the ball depends partly on how I hit the ball, which depends somewhat on how you hit it previously I respond not only to you, but also to the relation between you and me Good managers need to anticipate the response of their employees

Conflict
Three ways to resolve Conflict Domination Compromise Integration

Constructive Conflict
Dont ask who is right in a conflict The proper response is to assume that both sides are right, but to different questions Integrate both positions into a new and different answer that satisfies what each side considers right The end result is not victory or even compromise, but Integration of Interests

Advantages of Integration
Integration creates something new Difference itself is not pathological Leads to permanent solutions

Steps to Integration
Identify the differences face the issues Evaluation leads to revaluation Break each sides demands into parts

Obstacles to Integration
Requires intelligence, perception, discrimination, and above all a brilliant inventiveness Some people enjoy domination Undue influence of leaders Lack of training in integration

Constructive Conflict
Treat the conflict as a joint problem and work together to find its solution. Begin by making costless exchanges: what is essential for the other party may be unimportant for you. Always avoid an eitheror situation, maintain an open mind, step outside the problem, be inventive. Little by little, as the joint field of vision is clarified, the true demands are uncovered and the moment comes when a solution emerges that meets your respective needs. Outside solutions even sensible proposals introduced by well-meaning onlookers will not succeed. The involved parties themselves, according to Follett, must find their own solution. Pauline Graham

Power
Power Over vs. Power With
How to Reduce Power Over Integration Law of the Situation Make businesses more of a functional unity Open knowledge

Giving Orders
Disadvantages of arbitrary commands
Breaks initiative Discourages self reliance Lowers self respect

Ways to give orders

Depersonalize - Law of the situation Replace orders by teaching the techniques of a job Give reasons with the order All employees should know the purpose of the firm

Authority
Strive for management with authority all down the line Replace ultimate authority (by the CEO) with cumulative authority

Leadership
Prerequisites for Leadership
Thorough knowledge of the job Ability to grasp the total situation One who can organize the experience of the group and thus get the full power of the group Vision for the future; Anticipate change

Leadership can be learned

Criticisms
Lack of experience in industry A dreamy idealist A social philosopher Lacked empirical data

Quotes
Unlike politicians, economists, and academics, businesspeople were doers. Creative Experience, p. 17
Fear of difference is fear of life itself. It is possible to conceive of conflict as not necessarily a wasteful outbreak of incompatibilities but a normal process by which socially valuable differences register themselves for the enrichment of all. Creative Experience, p. 301

Quotes
Not power over, but power with Dynamic Administration
If your business is so organized that you can influence a co-manager while he is influencing you; so organized that a worker has an opportunity of influencing you as you have of influencing him; if there is an interactive influence going on all the time, power-with may be built up. Dynamic Administration, p. 76