In the recently published Mary Parker Follett Prophet of Management, Graham (1995) combines selections from Follett's original work with commentaries by leading management theorists. Taken together, these essays make a persuasive argument that many of the latest insights about organization theory and management were actually anticipated by Follett's work in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Indeed, a key premise of Follett's approach was that by recognizing that they were joined in a mutual situation, managers and workers could develop a relationship that precluded the need for the "giving of orders."
This connection between the contemporary revolution in management theory and the earlier works of Follett, it seems to us, offers an opportunity to explore the utility of French philosopher Michel Foucault's analytic approach within the field of administration. More specifically, we believe that Foucault's concept of governmentality provides a lens that reveals some curious twists in the ongoing discourse about management theory. We begin by briefly summarizing some aspects of Foucault's work and then attempt to trace the contours of what might be called American governmentality in the works of Woodrow Wilson, Frederick Winslow Taylor, and Mary Parker Follett.