Mary Parker Follett

Constructive conflict, power-with vs power-over

An American social worker and management thinker active in the early twentieth century, Follett lectured at the London School of Economics late in her career. Her books, including 'Creative Experience' (1924), argued that conflict should be integrated rather than suppressed and that durable authority derives from consent and shared purpose rather than hierarchy. Her ideas prefigured concepts central to participative management, systems thinking, and modern leadership theory.