Mary Parker Follett

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Mary Parker Follett was an American economist, known also as the "mother of the modern management". She was renowned for emphasizing collaboration and personnel management in businesses. Follett's guidelines for managing a team to achieve organizational success still hold true today. Small enterprises can still benefit from Follett's management theory (Peek, 2022).

Organizational behavior theory was revolutionized by Mary Parker Follett using psychology and human relations inside industrial management. Follett was a management consultant, author, lecturer, and social worker who gave personal counsel to President Theodore Roosevelt (Peek, 2022).

Mary Parker Follet, who is praised in management theory and psychology for her holistic, humanistic approach to presenting the issues, is typically portrayed as a psychologist in management textbooks and is forgotten in political science, despite the fact that it was in this field that she carried out the first research, focusing among other things on organizational power issues (Kaczmarek, 2017).

Early in the 20th century, Mary Parker Follett developed the philosophical and theoretical foundation for a direct democracy. Follett viewed democracy holistically, moving beyond the symbolic acts and procedures of representative government to the actual exercise of democracy. For Follett, direct democracy required citizens to be willing, accountable, and capable of acting on their own to tackle difficult problems. Through individual and group actions that revitalize society as a whole, direct democracy increases the authority and capacity of citizens and society as a whole for self-regulation ( Nelson, 2017).

Publications

Mary Parker Follett is an author of several books, articles and speeches. The most famous publications are (Stout, Love, Patalon, 2015):

  • The New State (1918)
  • Creative Experience (1924)
  • Dynamic Administration: The Collected Papers of Mary Parker Follett (1942)
  • Community is a Proces (1919)
  • The Speaker of the House of Representatives (1896)

Biography

Quincy, Massachusetts, was the place of birth of Mary Parker Follett (1868-1933). She attended the Thayer Academy in Braintree where she received a lot of her ideas from the lecturers. She attended the Society for Collegiate Instruction (later Radcliffe College), a Harvard University associate, with money left over by her father (Nelson, 2017). Over the years 1888-1898 Mary Parker Follett was a student of the University of Cambridge and then moved to study at Society for the Collegiate Instruction of Women in Cambridge, one of the departments of Harvard University, in which she graduated in field of political science and economy (Korombel, Grabiec, 2016).

Early in her 30s after returning to Boston, Follett stunned many of her friends and coworkers by deciding against a career in academia and instead pursuing social work. She would spend the next 25 years to this sector, working in community initiatives and joining the Roxbury Neighborhood House team (Nelson, 2017).

Functions performed by Mary Parker Follett

Mary Parker Follett performed functions of:

  • president of the organization of the City Committee of the Wider Use of School Buildings (1908)
  • vice-president of the National Association of Cultural Houses (1917-1921)
  • lecturer in industrial management at Oxford University (1926)
  • Consultant of the League of Nations and the International Labor Organization in Geneva (1928)
  • lecturer at the London School of Economics (1933)

Management issues by Follett

Mary Parker Follett's primary areas of expertise were :

  • The notion of power and authority
  • The notion of responsibility
  • The law of situation and the need of workers to participate in management
  • Constructive conflits
  • Coordination rules

Mary Parker Follett thought of power as having the power to set things off, acting out when the situation calls for it, or making changes. The remark unequivocally demonstrates that power is a personal, indivisible trait that each person possesses rather than something that is exercised over them. Mary Parker Follett emphasized the need to move away from dominant power, which is power over others, and aim to exercise power common, which is power exercised along with other people, both in theory and in reality.

Follett also defined the concept of authority, which she regarded as "having formal power, legally owing to the performers of particular activities, belonging to a post, and consequently possessing such authority that can be delegated coupled with specific functions."

Mary Parker Follett identified responsibility with the authority of the position, as a result of which "people should be responsible not to someone, but rather for something." The process of determining each employee's responsibility and how to manage it is both crucial and moderately challenging. Follett indicated that it was then necessary to distinguish between collective responsibility and cumulative responsibility. Responsibility is collective, because certain the number of people is responsible for achieving the same goal. It is cumulative as it starts at the lowest levels and develops into a model company-wide.

Mary Parker Follett formulated the Law of situation in which she pointed that orders should consist of the decisions made by those who give and take them. She said multiple times that partnership between the superiors and subordinates is beneficial due to the fact that the more someone is forced to do something, the more the person will feel the resistance towards that action instead of doing it.

Constructive conflicts that arise in organizations should be handled as natural occurrences that cannot be avoided, but rather, should be used skillfully. That is why there is such a significant potential difference that would be advantageous to all parties involved in the conflict. Follett divided conflict resolution into three categories based on years of research: dominance, compromise, and integration. She believed that the last approach is the most advantageous for the company.

Through her research and experience, Mary Parker Follett has drawn the following conclusions: cooperation between all organizational levels is essential, and the activities of those who work "with each other" should be coordinated. She developed the idea of coordination. In her view, it is a tool for collective planning and should operate in accordance with four fundamental principles:

  1. should be based on direct contacts with people,
  2. should be carried out from the beginning of the implementation of a given project,
  3. should take into account all factors influencing the situation,
  4. it should be continuous.

Examples of Mary Parker Follett

  1. Collaboration and Communication: Mary Parker Follett believed that collaboration and communication were essential elements of successful organizations. She encouraged managers to embrace a collaborative working environment and foster open communication between teams and departments. For example, her principles of "power with" and "power to" emphasized the importance of working together and listening to one another to achieve common goals.
  2. Respect for Employees: Follett also believed that employees should be treated with respect and given the opportunity to contribute to decision-making. She stressed the importance of trust between managers and employees, and encouraged managers to recognize the value of their employees’ ideas. For example, she advocated for using participative decision-making, where employees are given the chance to contribute to and shape the decision-making process.
  3. Conflict Management: Follett also recognized the importance of managing conflicts in an effective and constructive manner. She developed a "circle of conflict" approach, which focused on understanding the parties involved and seeking to reach a compromise that was mutually beneficial. For example, Follett encouraged managers to recognize when conflicts arise and to use a collaborative approach to resolve them. This can help to create a healthier and more productive workplace.

Advantages of Mary Parker Follett

Mary Parker Follett was an American economist who revolutionized the way businesses manage personnel. Her management theory emphasizes collaboration and the importance of team dynamics in achieving organizational success. Here are some advantages of Mary Parker Follett's approach to management:

  • Follett's management theory is focused on the importance of collaboration between employees and teams. This encourages cooperation and helps build team spirit, which is essential for a productive workplace.
  • Follett emphasizes personnel management, which is the practice of understanding and developing the skills and abilities of employees. This helps build a strong team culture, which is beneficial for both the organization and its employees.
  • Follett's theory also emphasizes communication and feedback loops, which help ensure that everyone is on the same page and that everyone is able to contribute effectively to the organization's success.
  • Finally, Follett's approach to management is still relevant today, as small businesses can benefit from her management principles and guidelines. This ensures that businesses are able to effectively manage their teams and maximize their productivity.

Limitations of Mary Parker Follett

Despite Mary Parker Follett’s successful contributions to modern management theory, there are certain limitations to her work. These include:

  • The lack of technology considerations in her work: Follett's work predates the digital revolution, and as such, does not take into account the role of technology within a business.
  • Her limited scope: Follett's focus is on personnel management and collaboration, but she does not address other important areas such as finance, accounting, or marketing.
  • Her reliance on moral and ethical guidelines: While Follett's emphasis on collaboration and personnel management is important, her reliance on moral and ethical guidelines may be seen by some as outdated and overly restrictive.
  • Her lack of global perspective: Follett wrote primarily for a Western audience, and as such, her work lacks an international perspective.

Overall, while Mary Parker Follett’s work has been influential in modern management theory, there are certain limitations to her work which should be considered.

Other approaches related to Mary Parker Follett

Mary Parker Follett is known as the "mother of the modern management" and her guidelines for managing a team to achieve organizational success still hold true today. There are several other approaches related to her which continue to be in use today, including:

  • Systems theory - This approach views organizations as complex systems with multiple elements that interact to form a whole. It emphasizes the importance of understanding the interactions between different elements and how they affect the overall system.
  • Human relations movement - This approach focuses on the needs of the individual and how they can be better managed in order to improve organizational performance. It emphasizes communication, trust and collaboration as key components of managing personnel.
  • Participative management - This approach focuses on empowering employees and giving them a greater sense of ownership in their job. It emphasizes the need for managers to listen to their employees, create an environment of trust, and provide them with opportunities to participate in decision-making.

In summary, Mary Parker Follett’s management theory is still relevant today and there are many other approaches related to it which continue to be in use. These approaches all emphasize collaboration, communication, and trust between employees and managers in order to create an effective organizational environment.


Mary Parker Follett — recommended articles
Chester Barnard — Intercultural management — Leadership models — Behavioral school — Types of change agents — Authoritarian leadership — Management by values — Theory X and Y — Acquired needs theory

References

Author: Kacper Szymski

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