Of all the mounds of stuff written on the subject of change and organizations, in my view none has exceeded – and few have even approached – the ideas of the first, and very probably the greatest, management consultant of all, Mary Parker Follett. Her primary contribution in this particular area was her concept of “the law of the situation.”
An organization that operates according to this law has established procedures and a managerial culture that allows power to flow around the organization to those who both need it and have the right combination of training and position to use it. Where this point is, is determined by “the situation.” The situation is interpreted according to the corporation‘s goals, and the skills and resources required and able to be brought to bear on the situation. This situation analysis also acts as the basis for the authority to act, and the actions taken are assessed (in the organization that is managed and socialized according to this concept) by all according to what was required and what was done – not according to who did it.
This approach to management and power creates an organization that is focused on its objectives and how its procedures and actions actually realistically interact with the real world in helping the organization reach those goals. And this is the key to change – not a lot of aimless fluff about ceaseless transformation, “agents of change,” and paranoiac “change or die” style sloganeering – but frank, direct, and continuous contact between the corporation’s purpose and the real world that it, and its employees, operate in.
This sort of culture is what keeps the organization in touch with what opportunities the real world is offering, and what demands it is making on organizational attention, structure, and procedure. Furthermore, Follett’s concept acknowledges that the issue isn’t some form of paternalistic empowerment of employees; it is simply a combination of training and management of authority and power that allows the best possible combination of these flow to and from key situations the organization is addressing.
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