Mary Parker Follett

American social worker, political scientist, and management consultant who pioneered the concepts of power-sharing, participatory management, and conflict resolution in organizations — decades before they became mainstream — and who influenced Drucker and the entire human relations school of management.

Invented the democratic organization and constructive conflict — Follett's insights that power should be 'power-with' rather than 'power-over', that conflict is a normal and potentially creative organizational force to be integrated rather than suppressed, and that management requires the consent of the managed were radical in the 1920s and remain influential.