Follett, Mary Parker

Mary Parker Follett (1869–1933) has been described with phrases such as “a democratic hero” and “a thinker ahead of her time” by current scholars of management and organizational theory. Despite these accolades, [Page 402]this Progressive era scholar-activist all but disappeared from the academic landscape after her death in 1933. Her work encompassed three highly acclaimed books (The Speaker of the House of Representatives, 1896; The New State, 1918; and Creative Experience, 1924) and a decade of invited lectures and consultations in the United States and England. She focused on both the actions and study of community development, civic engagement, group processes, leadership, industrial relations, and democratic deliberation. Today, scholars in many fields note that despite her association with prominent thinkers of the early twentieth century, her name was seldom, if ever, mentioned on a list of important management scholars of her time. Peter Drucker suggested that Mary Parker Follett may have been viewed as a subversive because her ideas were so far afield of the dominant views of power and control at the time. Others offer that Follett chose to act as a public scholar rather than an academic and her work was overshadowed by institutional scholars like Henry Mayo, whose affiliation with Harvard and Western Electric assured him legitimacy and recognition. In 1941, Henry Metcalfe and L. Urwick paid tribute to Follett's creativity and vitality by publishing the papers/lectures delivered to business management conferences in both the United States and England from 1924 to 1933 (Dynamic Administration: The Collected Papers of Mary Parker Follett). Her work did not come to the forefront again until 1995, when Harvard University Press released an edited book of her writings with commentary by notable international scholars.

Follett, the eldest child of an affluent Quaker family from Quincy, Massachusetts, attended Thayer Academy, one of the very few coeducational private institutions in the country at that time. At the age of 24, she entered the Society for Collegiate Instruction for Women in Cambridge, Massachusetts, later known as Radcliffe College. The institution, unofficially affiliated with Harvard University, allowed the women to study with Harvard professors. She graduated from Radcliffe in 1896, with specialties in economics, government, law, and philosophy. Before graduating, she spent a year abroad at Newnham College, in Cambridge, England, where she wrote a paper that eventually became her thesis and her first book, The Speaker of the House. Lauded as an “indispensable read” by Theodore Roosevelt, this work represented her lifetime approach to scholarship: meticulous review of documents, keen observations of individuals, and firsthand accounts of detailed and insightful conversations. Following a year of postgraduate work in Paris, Mary returned to the Boston area, where she took up residence with Isobel Briggs, with whom she lived until 1926. Supported by inherited wealth, Mary Parker Follett focused her attentions for the next 20 years on the swelling immigrant populations in Boston's poorest neighborhoods, establishing and working in community centers.

Follett's work at Roxbury Neighborhood House led to a campaign for community use of neighborhood school buildings to foster citizenship activities. As chair of the Women's Municipal League's Committee on Extended Use of School Buildings from 1908 to 1920, she opened up the East Boston High School Social Center, which was deemed so successful that it was replicated throughout the city. The centers provided neighborhood outlets for recreation, drama clubs, and orchestras, but Follett also saw them as places to foster participatory democracy. Under her guidance, center groups formed “city councils” to address local problems. In 1917, Follett became vice president of the National Community Center Association.

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