Rebirth of M. P. Follett’s Dynamic Management Thought
The purpose of this book is to reevaluate the dynamic management thought of M. P. Follett (1868–1933) and recreate it for the construction of a new society after the COVID-19 era. Here, the focus is especially on the main concept of her dynamic social process concept, “interweaving”, and showing its current applicability. It should also be noted that the time Follett created this concept was when the 1918 pandemic (“Spanish flu”) struck Boston. Based on her academic background in political science, philosophy, history, psychology, and related disciplines, Follett had many years of practical experience as a social worker in Boston and advocated a social view based on the dynamic interaction of individuals. It included “rebuilding social relations”, “social development as a continuous process”, and “creating a community experience through the interweaving of individual experiences”. One of the important issues that COVID-19 poses is the breaking and restructuring of human relations in communities and societies. The author believeｓ that such an issue could be easily resolved by information and communications technology (ICT) networks. While it is a powerful tool, we are now aware that it also has the effect of isolating individuals and inciting conflicts. The author applies Follett’s ideas to approach such problems.
In this book, her perspectives on the “interweaving process of experience” and its position are emphasized as important concepts for creating new communities for the post-COVID-19 era. Expressed symbolically, they correspond to interweaving experiences in the internet society.
Professor Izumi Mitsui
She is a Visiting Professor at the Graduate School of Business Administration, Kobe University, Hyogo, Japan. She is also an emeritus professor at Nihon University. She was a visiting professor at Yale School of Management (1998—1999). She received her Ph.D. from Aoyama Gakuin University, Tokyo.
She is a leading researcher on M. P. Follett’s management thought in Japan. She has been interested in the history of management thought, the comparative study of Western and Eastern management philosophy, and has edited (and co-edited) several books, including Cultural Translation of Management Philosophy in Asian Companies (2020) and Translating and Incorporating American Management Thought into Japan (2022). She is also a key member of the interdisciplinary study named Anthropology of Business Administration (Keiei Jinruigaku in Japanese) and co-edited Enterprise as an Instrument of Civilization (2016) and Enterprise as a Carrier of Culture (2019).
