How Mary P. Follett's ideas on management have emerged: An analysis based on her practical management experience and her political philosophy

Abstract

Purpose

The aim of this paper is to highlight the way Mary P. Follett's ideas on management have emerged.

Design/methodology/approach

The research explores the different opportunities Mary P. Follett has regarding management issues. It also analyses Follett's way of reasoning in some of her conferences on management.

Findings

Follett's ideas on management have been based on her practical management experience and on her political philosophy. The paper particularly demonstrates that Follett was currently proceeding in three different areas: instantiation, conceptual linkage and deduction of management principles. A management problem becomes a particular instance of social interaction situation, within a broader category of problems and situations: that is what we identify as “instantiation”. Follett makes connections with concepts she has developed about democracy: that is what we named “conceptual linkage”. Deduction of management ideas is then made possible by combining instantiation and conceptual linkage.

Originality/value

This paper helps to explain why so many management authors have considered Mary P. Follett as a pioneer, a “prophet of management”.

Citation

Damart, S. (2013), "How Mary P. Follett's ideas on management have emerged: An analysis based on her practical management experience and her political philosophy", Journal of Management History, Vol. 19 No. 4, pp. 459-473. https://doi.org/10.1108/JMH-05-2012-0041