The Mary Parker Follett Network

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

Question about Follett quote - can anyone help?

Question received July 31 09:

I have just been introduced to Ms Follett's writings and would like to cite
one of her quotes.

Are you familiar with this quote?
"There are three ways of dealing with difference:domination,compromise,and integration. By domination only one side gets what it wants; by compromise neither side gets what it wants; by integration we find a way by which both sides may get what they wish"

I need the complete citation for a paper on mediation due next week.

Thank you for saving her work and writings.

Christal Welty

Views: 681

Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Hi Christal,

I can give you a few clues, or alternative quotes that get at the same concept.

Dynamic Administration: The Collected Papers of Mary Parker Follett, Henry C. Metcalf and L. Urwick, Harper & Brothers, Publishers., 1940, p. 31-32. This concept comes from Chapter I, Constructive Conflict, which was presented before a Bureau of Personnel Administration in January, 1925. The chapter begins on page 30. On page 31 a sub heading titled "Methods of Dealing with Conflict." This section starts:

"There are three main ways of dealing with conflict: domination, compromise and integration. . ." Follett goes on to explain and give examples of domination and compromise on p. 31 and 32. About a third of the way down page 32 she introduces the concept of integration. She gives the now famous story of two people in the library in the first person, the story used by Roger Fisher and William Ury in Getting to Yes. In her explanation she says, "This was not a compromise because there was no curtailing of desire; we both got what we really wanted."

So, this might be one way to give a citation. Here's another:

Freedom and Coordination: Lectures in Business Organization, Mary Parker Follett, Garland Publishing, Inc. New York • London, 1987 (first published in 1949 by Managment Publications: Trust, Ltd., London.) This book contains six lectures. Chapter I, The illusion of final authority," was given in 1926 in December in the USA. The rest were given in January and February of 1933 to the newly-formed Department of Business Administration at the London School of Economics.

On page 65, about five pages into the fifth chapter titled Co-ordination, she says, "There are three ways of settling differences: by domination, by compromise, or by integration." She goes on to describe domination and compromise. Her discussion here is briefer. She tells the story again of two people in a University Library, one wanting the window open, the other not, with the integration being the opening of a window in another room. (Maybe you can download these two books which I believe Matthew Shapiro has included in this network and search for "window.") She concludes by saying, "Integration means finding a third way which will include both what A wishes and what B wishes, a way in which neither side had to sacrifice anything.

And yet another:

Creative Experience, M. P. Follett, Longmans, Green and Co, Toronto, Bombay, Calcutta and Madras, 1924, p. 300-301. In a four page conculsion to this book titled Conclusion: Experience as Evocation, she says"

What I have tried to show in this book is that the social process may be conceived either as the opposing and battle of desires with the victory of one over the other, or as the confronting and integrating of desires. The former means non-freedom for both sides, the defeated bound to the victor, the victor bound to the false situation thus created--both bound. The latter means a freeing for both sides and increased total power or increased capacity in the world. (This quote also "sheds light," as Follett might say, on her fascinating observation, "I always feel intimate with my enemies." New State, p. 212.)

As an aside, this chapter from Creative Experience has one of my favorite Follett quotes, and I gotta give it!

"Experience may be hard but we claim its gifts because they are real, even though our feet bleed on its stones.

Since I gone this far, I better include something from The New State. I guess I'm going backward in time, and I wonder if Suzanne Martin, who did her PhD thesis by conducting a qualitative computer analysis of all of Follett's major works, might add something from The Speaker of the House!

Okay, here's a section:

The New State: Group Organization the Solution of Popular Government, M. P. Follett, Longmans, Green and Co., London, page 114. (Here in Chapter 14, The Group Principal at Work, which starts on page 105, she gives preliminary thoughts on concession and compromise in the context of collective bargaining. She says, "Nothing will ever truly settle difference by synthesis. On page 115 she says, "The integrating of ideas which comes partyl from direct interpenetration, and partyly from that indirect interpenetration which is the consequence of the overlapping membership of gorups, I see going on very largely in the groups to which I belong, and is surenly an interesting sign-post to future methods of association.

Well, Christal. Thanks, your question led me to do something I've thought about, but never done before, and that is trace those concepts in a backwards fashion. Over the years I've created my own crude indexes of her works--creative experience, the new state and freedom and coordinator moreso than others.

It's possible there is a direct quote from Follett the way you write it, but I suspect it might be a summary or condensation of her ideas.

I hope this helps.

Warmly, Albie Davis (Maine, USA)
Pretty certain I picked-up thes sense of that quote from Pauline Graham's book. I've informally quoted a paraphrase / equivalent of that from that source. I'm sure Pauline will know anyway.

I see Albie has given other near-equivalent sources.
That quote from "Freedom and Coordination" is the closest I can find.
It inlcudes all these phrases

"There are three ways of settling differences: by domination, by compromise, or by integration. [...]
In dominating, only one way gets what it wants; in compromise neither side gets what it wants. [...]
By integration something new has emerged, the third way, something beyond the either or."
Christal,

I looked up your quote before reading the replies to your question. Albie Davis is 'right on the money'. You will find the quote in Dynamic Administration: The Collected Papers of Mary Parker Follett, Henry C. Metcalf and L. Urwick, Harper & Brothers, Publishers., 1940, p. 31-32.
I hope you were able to include the Follett wisodom in your paper.

Sincerely, Sharon

Reply to Discussion

RSS

© 2024   Created by Matthew Shapiro.   Powered by

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service