2010年7月3日 星期六

Mary Parker Follett

Mary P. Follett : Creating Democracy, Transforming Management
Tonn, Joan C.
Pages: 639
Publisher: Yale University Press
Released: 2003
Language: en

LC Call Number: HN57 -- .T695 2003eb
ISBN: 9780300096217
Dewey Decimal Number: 303.48/4/092 B

Subjects: Follett, Mary Parker, -- 1868-1933. Women social reformers -- United States -- Biography. Social reformers -- United States -- Biography. Social structure. Democracy. Management. Psychology, Industrial.



Mary Parker Follett

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Mary Parker Follett
Born 3 September 1868
Massachusetts, United States
Died 18 December 1933 (67 years old)
Boston, Massachusetts
Occupation Social worker turned management theorist and consultant and writer
Nationality American
Genres Non-fiction
Subjects Management and Politics

Official website

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.She admonished overmanaging employees, a process now known as micromanaging, as “bossism” and she is regarded by some writers as the “mother” of Scientific Management. 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.[1]

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[2]. In 1898 she graduated from Radcliffe College, but was denied a doctorate at Harvard on the grounds that she was a woman.

Over the next three decades, however, she published many works, including:

  • The Speaker of the House of Representatives (1896)
  • The New State (1918)
  • Creative Experience (1924)
  • Dynamic Administration (1941) (this collection of speeches and short articles was published posthumously)

There is correction in the publishing year of book "Dynamic Administration" it is actually 1st published in 1942 by harper& brothers publisher its a collection of papers of follett which was edited by C.Metcalf and L. Urwick.

She recognized the holistic nature of community and advanced the idea of "reciprocal relationships" in understanding the dynamic aspects of the individual in relationship to others. Follett advocated the principle of what she termed "integration," or noncoercive power-sharing based on the use of her concept of "power with" rather than "power over." Her ideas on negotiation, power, and employee participation were highly influential in the development of the fields of organizational studies, alternative dispute resolution, and the Human Relations Movement.[citation needed] She was also a pioneer in the establishment of community centers.

Even though most of Mary Parker Follett's writings remained known in very limited circles until republished at the beginning of this decade (beginning with Pauline C. Graham's first-rate work), her ideas gained great influence after Chester Barnard, a New Jersey Bell exec and advisor to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, published his seminal treatment of executive management, The Functions of the Executive[3]. Barnard's work, which stressed the critical role of "soft" factors such as "communication" and "informal processes" in organizations, owed a telling yet undisclosed debt to Follett's thought and writings. In addition, her emphasis on such soft factors paralleled the work of Elton Mayo at Western Electric's Hawthorne Plant, and presaged the rise of the Human Relations Movement, as developed through the work of such figures as Abraham Maslow, Kurt Lewin, Douglas McGregor, Chris Argyris, Dick Beckhard and other breakthrough contributors to the field of Organizational Development or "OD".[4] Her influence can also be seen indirectly perhaps in the work of Ron Lippitt, Ken Benne, Lee Bradford, Edie Seashore and others at the National Training Laboratories in Bethel, New Hampshire, where T-Group methodology was first theorized and developed.[5] Thus, Mary Follett's work set the stage for a generation of effective, progressive changes in management philosophy, style and practice, revolutionizing and humanizing the American workplace, and allowing the fulfillment of Douglas McGregor's management vision--quantum leaps in productivity effected through the humanization of the workplace.[6]

[edit] References

  1. ^ "The Theory of Social and Economic Organizations"; Talcott Parsons, transl., 1947; distilled from Weber's multi-volume work, "Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft" (Economy and Society).
  2. ^ Mary P. Follett : Creating Democracy, Transforming Management, Tonn, Joan C., New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003. p. 34
  3. ^ 1938
  4. ^ Art Kleiner, "The Age of Heretics: Heroes, Outlaws, and the Forerunners of Corporate Change." New York: Doubleday, 1996.
  5. ^ Kleiner, 1996, pp. 31-59 and photos, pp. 190-91.
  6. ^ Douglas McGregor, "The Human Side of Enterprise". 1961.

"Dynamic Administration: The Collected Papers of Mary Parker Follett: Early Sociology of Management and Organizations", Vol. 3, by Mary Follett, L. Urwick (Editor); Publisher: Taylor & Francis, Inc. November 2003. ISBN 9780415279857

"Mary Parker Follett: Prophet of Management", by Pauline Graham (Editor); Beard Books, Incorporated: December 2003. ISBN 9781587982132


Montana, P. J., & Charnov, B. H. (2008). Management. New York: Barron’s, p. 18. ISBN-13:978-0-7641-3931-4



[edit] External links


Mary Parker Follett


Mary Parker Follett (1868-1933) was a visionary and pioneering individual in the field of human relations, democratic organization, and management. Born in Massachusetts, in 1892 she entered what would become Radcliffe College, the women's branch of Harvard. She graduated from Radcliffe summa cum laude in 1898. Follett's intensive research into government while at Radcliffe was later published in her first book, The Speaker of the House of Representatives (1909), which was lauded (by, among others, Theodore Roosevelt) as the best study of this office of government ever done.

From 1900 to 1908, Follett devoted herself to social work in the Roxbury neighborhood of Boston. In 1908 she became chairperson of the Women's Municipal League's Committee on Extended Use of School Buildings, and in 1911 she helped open the East Boston High School Social Center. She was instrumental in the formation of many other social centers throughout Boston. Her experience in this area helped to transform her view of democracy. Follett later served as a member of the Massachusetts Minimum Wage Board, and in 1917 she became vice-president of the National Community Center Association. By this time, however, she had turned most of her attention to writing for a wider public regarding what the social centers had taught her about democracy. In 1918 she published her second book, The New State, which is concerned with the human nature of government, democracy, and the role of local community.

In 1924, Follett published her third book, Creative Experience. This work addresses more directly the creative interaction of people through an on-going process of circular response. From this point until her death in 1933, Follett found her most enthusiastic audience in the world of business. Admiration and respect for her work grew on both sides of the Atlantic, and she became a leading management consultant. (Peter Drucker, who discovered Follett's work in the 1950's, is said to have referred to Follett as his "guru.") Her various papers and speeches in this context were published in 1942 by Henry Metcalf and Lionel Urwick in a book called Dynamic Administration. Another celebration of her work in this context is Mary Parker Follett: Prophet of Management, which was edited by Pauline Graham and published in 1995. In 1998, The New State was re-issued by Penn State Press, with a preface by Benjamin Barber. A biography of Follett, written by Joan Tonn, a professor at the College of Management, University of Massachusetts, Boston, is expected to be published next year.

Follett is increasingly recognized today as the originator, at least in the 20th century, of ideas that are today commonly accepted as "cutting edge" in organizational theory and public administration. These include the idea of seeking "win-win" solutions, community-based solutions, strength in human diversity, situational leadership, and a focus on process. However, just as her ideas were advanced for her own time, and advanced when people wrote about them decades after her death, they remain too often unrealized. We recognize them as an inspirational and guiding ideal for us today, at the beginning of the 21st century. It is the intention and the design of the Foundation's programs to continue the effort to bridge ideal and practice in a continuous process that gives rise to true freedom.

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