Quite by chance I have discovered that a woman has written books on business management. What makes it more amazing is that what appears to be the preserve of men only was invaded as long ago as 1918. Considering how remote women were from the business world in those days, it is hardly surprising that she was relatively unknown both in her time and after. Her name, for the record, was Mary Parker Follett, born in 1868 and died in 1933 at a time when she lectured in business at the London School of Economics.

A business commentator as eminent as Peter Drucker has described her as a “prophet of management” and his “guru”. Her fundamental thesis, revolutionary at the time but commonly in vogue now, is that human relations are the key to successful business management. She conceived the concept of what she called ‘power-with’ as opposed to ‘power-over’. “Coercive power,” she wrote, “is the curse of the universe; coactive power, the enrichment and advancement of every human soul.” She argued against the traditional hierarchical organisation of business (and politics, for that matter) claiming that “the important thing about responsibility is not to whom you are responsible, but for what you are responsible.”

Many business people have found in our more enlightened times that the release of human capacity through greater recognition of an individual’s ability to contribute constructively to a team ethic has resulted in improved production and far better staff morale. The adoption of mission-directed work units, for example, has been accompanied by a reduction in absenteeism, while workers who were once thought to be good for no more than doing what they were told, have come up with suggestions that have evaded the imaginations of managers and added considerable value to production processes. Some companies have gone even further and given the workers shareholding in the business. Here they are working for their own benefit and where this has been done, companies have been transformed in terms of their successes. This strategy is in marked contrast to that which seeks a wealthy black investor to improve a BEE rating.

Ms Follett was not a businesswoman – a rare species in the early years of the twentieth century, to be sure. She was actually a social worker who understood group dynamics and advocated the power of the group rather than the power of any individual. “Individuality is the capacity for union,” she said. “The measure of individuality is the depth and breadth of true relation. I am an individual not as far as I am apart, but as far as I am a part of other men.” As I understand it, this would suffice as a definition of ubuntu, that singular African quality of which English speakers, who lack a sense of brotherhood except in secret societies, should be justifiably envious. It is my sense that ubuntu is being eroded by contemporary circumstances – a world in which individual advancement is paramount. Aspiration is all about a better salary, a larger house and an executive motor car, and even among our youth the patience required to achieve these in the course of a career has given way in many cases to resentment and frustration. This is at odds with the years of travail that are usually required to start, grow and develop a successful business. So often our young people are not willing to undertake the hard slog which is the life of a business owner. It is only at the end of this, years of challenge and sacrifice, that the business may be said to have value enough to make the owner wealthy. There are exceptions, of course, but they are just that and the rule is the hard grind.

Our politicians would also do well to heed this lady’s words: “Democracy transcends time and space; it can never be understood expect as a spiritual force. Majority rule rests on numbers;. democracy rests on the well-grounded assumption that society is neither a collection of units nor an organism but a network of human relations. To be a democrat is not to decide on a certain form of human association, it is to learn how to live with other men.” And women, of course, but she was writing before the Great Depression!

Andrew Layman: PCB CEO

This article appeared in The Mercury on the 25 June 2008