The Giving of Orders

The Giving of Orders is a 1926 essay by Mary Parker Follett.[1] In it, she addresses issues of authority in business management, specifically how managers can gain influence over informal groups that naturally form in the workplace.[2] She found that people respond more to situations than to top-down orders and managers should give people the means and willingness to respond to given situations instead of merely giving orders: "My solution is to depersonalize the giving of orders, to unite all concerned in a study of the situation, to discover the law of the situation, and obey that."[1]

Contemporary context

Follett's work came during the height of Frederick Taylor's Scientific Management movement, which advocated the "one right way" for tasks to be performed, and Max Weber's view that direct hierarchy was the best form of leadership for larger organizations.[3] The Giving of Orders challenged both of these paradigms and presented an alternative to purely top-down hierarchy in management.[4]

References

  1. 1 2 Follett, Mary Parker. "The giving of orders." Scientific foundations of business administration (1926): 29-37.
  2. ↑ Nohria, Nitin. "Mary Parker Follett’s view on power, the giving of orders, and authority: An alternative to hierarchy or a utopian ideology." Mary Parker Follett–Prophet of Management (1995): 154-62.
  3. ↑ Wiles, David. "Human Relations and Participatory Management". SUNY Albany. Retrieved 19 December 2012.
  4. ↑ R.K. Sapru (1 June 2006). Administrative Theories And Management Thought. PHI Learning Pvt. Ltd. pp. 148–149. ISBN 978-81-203-2972-0. Retrieved 19 December 2012.


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