Mary Parker Follett

‘Classical approach to management mainly concerned with the increasing the efficiency of workers and organisations based on management practices, which were an outcome of careful observation. Besides, administration principles are based on attempts to document and understand the experiences of successful managers’ (Management, p.90).This essay will seek to some Mary Parker Follett’s main contributions to management thought and practice. It will also explain why Mary Parker Follett has been described as ‘thoroughly modern’ and an administrative theorist in the classical approach to management. For example, the opinion of organisations based on the group behaviour has led to the idea of the self-managing team. “Integration” has become, in modern times, conflict resolution (Hurst, D.K, 1992, Business quarterly, p.45). The aim of this essay is to determine that how her contributions relate to classical approach to management and also examine how they relevant to managers in contemporary organisations.

The first section of this essay will examine Follett’s first contribution to management is the importance of groups within organisation. ‘In societies we often think of the individual as being the opposite of the group, that groups negate individuality, but she acknowledged that groups are able to help society in general and achieve personal identity to improve the quality of group members’ lives, help to explain how people can work together effectively but with less risk of self-deceiving denials of power than occurs in our contemporary ideas about corporate culture and leadership. Follett had a clear idea of how a good boss helps people grow’ (The optimist: Mary Parker Follett, p.103). To Follett, an organisation cannot be successful if working without teamwork. Every member has their own unique opinion but each person’s opinion should be recognised. Therefore, all members need to combine their efforts to be successful. This contribution clearly relates to classical...