Mary Parker Follett

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Mary Parker Follett

Mary Parker Follett (born September 3, 1868 in Quincy , Massachusetts , † December 18, 1933 in Boston , Massachusetts) has made a name for herself as an author on management theories and political theories. She coined terms such as " conflict resolution " and " leadership is an activity".

Life

Mary Parker Follett was educated at the Thayer Academy, then took over functions in the family after the death of her father because her mother was disabled. In 1892 she continued her education through the Society for the Collegiate Instruction of Women, the predecessor organization of Radcliffe College , Cambridge, Massachusetts, and graduated in 1898 with the highest praise for economics, government, law and philosophy "( summa cum laude ).

From 1900 to 1908 she did social work in Boston. The experience gained here led Parker Follett from 1908 to promoting community centers as focal points for adult education and social assistance. These activities had an impact on US development well after her death. Fundamental research on group work, development and organization was later carried out in these centers.

Today Parker Follett is better known for her influence on management, although her accomplishments in this area were long ignored after her death. In principle, she transferred her findings from the community centers to companies. She was the first to study corporations as social systems, and her research went unrepentant until the late 1950s ( Douglas McGregor ). From her the definition "Management is the art of doing things together with other people" comes from.

Mary Parker Follett has also contributed to the human resource management field. Not "power over" but "power through" was just as much a part of her theses as sharing power.

Konopka summarizes the key findings of Parker Folletts as follows:

  1. Social experience is the basis of state structures.
  2. Sovereignty is related to the ability to rule yourself, a group, or a state.
  3. State structure is the expression of the functional purpose elements.
  4. The will of a group is not atomic, but the common expression of the individual will decisions.
  5. Rich experiences can only arise through actual group experiences. You have to experience the diversity of groups. The diversity of human nature makes it impossible to exhaust the ability of modern man.
  6. Individuals and groups are not opposites.
  7. The individual is the ultimate unit and more diverse than any group can be.
  8. There is no necessary contradiction between citizens and the state.
  9. Freedom and determination are not opposites.
  10. Self and others are not opposites.

Parker Follett's conviction that individuality can only develop from the social fabric is expressed in these theses. She sees an unbroken chain of individuals, through communal groups to the state, whose democratic structure has its core in the individual.

“ Being democratic is not about choosing a particular form of coexistence, it is learning how to coexist with other people ... The group process contains the secrets of collective life, it is the key to democracy and the most important lesson to each Individual must learn. This is our main hope for our political, social and international life in the future.
To be a democrat is not to decide on a certain form of human association, it is to learn how to live with other men ... The group process contains the secret of collective life, it is the key to democracy, it is the master lesson for every individual to learn, it is our chief hope for the political, the social, the international life of the future. "

- Mary Parker Follett, The New State, p. 22-23

Quotes

“ The education for the new democracy must start from the cradle - in kindergarten, school and play, and so on, permeate all activities of our life. Citizenship is not learned in school or in citizen education or through civil rights training. It is only acquired by experiencing it through action in the situations in which we develop social understanding. That should be the goal of all day school education, all evening school education and all our organized entertainment, our family or social
life The training for the new democracy must be from the cradle - through nursery, school and play, and on and on through every activity of our life . Citizenship is not to be learned in good government classes or current events courses or lessons in civics. It is to be acquired only through those modes of living and acting which shall teach us how to grow the social consciousness. This should be the object of all day school education, of all night school education, of all our supervised recreation, of all our family life, of our club life, of our civic life. "

- Mary Parker Follett, The New State, p. 363

Works

  • The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Longmans Green and Co, New York London Bombay 1896
  • The New State: Group Organization, Longman, London 1918
  • Creative Experience, Longman, London 1924
  • Dynamic Administration, Harper & Brothers, New York, 1941
  • Freedom and Coordination, Pitman, London, 1949

Web links

References

Reproduced from the encyclopedia of informal education www.infed.org
  • Stuart Crainer: Key Management Ideas Thinkers that changed the Management World, Prentice Hall, London 1998, ISBN 0-273-63808-4 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Pauline Graham: Mary Parker Follett - Prophet of Management . A Celebration of Writings from the 1920s. Bear Books, Washington DC 1995: pp. 13 f., ISBN 1-58798-213-7 .
  2. ^ Konopka, G. (1958): Eduard C. Lindeman and Social Work Philosophy, Minneapolis. University of Minnesota Press.
personal data
SURNAME Follett, Mary Parker
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Parker Follett, Mary
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American author on management and political theories
DATE OF BIRTH September 3, 1868
PLACE OF BIRTH Quincy (Massachusetts)
DATE OF DEATH December 18, 1933
Place of death Boston , Massachusetts