Unity, not uniformity, must be our aim. - MPF

Did Follett say this? "Management is the art..."

A student wrote to me looking for a citation for this quote that is attributed to Follett: "Management is the art of getting things done through people." Does anyone recall reading in her works where she wrote this, if she wrote it?

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Permalink Reply by Pauline Graham on February 24, 2010 at 2:21am

My immediate reaction is that this sounds very unFollettian to me. Follett wouldn't have said 'getting things done through 'people' but 'getting things done with people'. Therefore I would say she did not write this. I stand to be corrected, but I shall be very disappointed in her if she did write it.
Pauline

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Permalink Reply by John Sarvey on February 24, 2010 at 3:48pm

She is frequently attributed this quote, but I've never seen an attribution that cites the actual source. I actually wonder whether anyone in that era even used the phrase "getting things done." I wouldn't be surprised that she said something like it but it has probably been rephrased and paraphrased over the years.

http://www.allbusiness.com/human-resources/workforce-management/120...
http://managementquotes.blogspot.com/2007/02/management-is-art-of-g...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Management
http://www.buzzle.com/articles/basic-business-management-skills.html
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Definition_of_management_according_to_mar...
http://www.introduction-to-management.24xls.com/en105