Fayol Management Work

Introduction

Henri Fayol was born in Istanbul in the year 1841 and died in Paris in the year 1925. He was a French management theorist and a French engineer. He was also the director of mines. He was at the classical school of management theory and was writing and exploring administration and work about the same time as F.W.Taylor in USA. He is considered as the father of modern management and was a very influential contributor to the modern concepts of management. It was not very well known outside France until in the late 40s, when Constance Storrs published her translation of Fayols in 1961. His first career began as a mining engineer. He then shifted to a research in geology and in 1888 he joined comambault as a director. When comambault was going through a tough time, he made it easier for them. On his retirement he published a theory of administration which was described and classified in the management role. The process became recognized and was referenced by others in the increasing world of management. He was seen as a key, a contributor to a classical and administrative management school of thought. His personal observation and experience of what had worked well in the organization was then put in the theory of the administration. In order to make the organizations run smoothly and successfully, his aspiration for an administrative science was applied. In 1911, F.W.Taylor published The Principles of Management in the USA. And in 1916, Fayol examined the nature of management and administration on the basis of his French mining organization experiences. Fayol was mostly interested in authority and its implementation. Taylor was more interested on work organization. He graduated from the mining academy of St. Etienne in 1860. He started working as a managing director in the mining company when he was nineteen years old from the year 1888 to 1918. He developed his concept of administration on his own management experience.

“Management is neither an exclusive privilege nor a particular responsibility of the head or senior members of a business; it is an activity spread, like all other activities, between head and members of the body corporate.” (Boddy, D., Page 12)

He published a book in 1917 which consists of the fourteen principles of management. They are:

Division of work: when people specialise in one work. When they put their full concentration in one job only, they can produce good results. The more they concentrate, the more can they produce accurate number of output.

Authority and responsibility: this is the right to issue commands. And a balanced responsibility for its function must be followed. The right to give orders and to exact obedience which is derived from a manager’s official authority or his or her personal authority. “Wherever authority is exercised, responsibility arises.”

Discipline: the employees must abide by the rules. They should obey the commands that are being put on them. But this will happen only if the management plays their role by being a good leader and having the qualities of a good leadership. If there is no discipline in the work place, the business will not grow.

Unity of command: a worker should work under only one boss. There should be no other conflicting lines of command so that there will be no confusion. For any work, an employee should receive orders only from one superior.

Unity of direction: people who are engrossed in the same activity must have the same objectives in a single plan. If there is no unity of direction, there can’t be a unity of command.

Subordination of individual interest to general interest: the interest of one employee or the interest of one group should not prevail over the organisation as a whole.

Remuneration of personnel: this should be fair and should try and afford satisfaction to both the staff and the firm.

Centralisation: it is a matter of degree depending on the condition of the business and the quality of the personnel. Decentralisation is a centralised decentralisation.

Scalar chain or line of authority: the scalar chain is a chain which is from the top executive to the bottom. Like the ordinary shop operative and the driver should be clear and should be able to understand it with a sensible mind.

Order: things should be in order. They should be kept in their respective places in order. So that there won’t be any loss and the business will run smoothly. Order implies steady evolutionary movement and not a wild, anxiety provoking, unpredictable movement.

Equity: managers should be both friendly and fair to their subordinates. Equity requires good sense, good nature and good experience. Treating an employee properly is important to achieve equity. A combination of kind nature and justice is required while running a business.

Stability of tenure of personnel: every employee needs time to get adjusted to his or her work so that he can perform it effectively. An employee works better if the job security and career progress are assured to them. But if there is an insecure tenure and a high rate of employee turnover, the organisation will get affected.

Initiative: in every organisation structure, zeal, enthusiasm and energy are enabled by people who have the scope for personal initiative. When the personnel’s show their initiative in some way, it is a source of strength to the organization. A good initiative is one who sacrifices his or her personal vanity.

Esprit de corps: here there is a need for maintaining and building of harmony among the work force, team work and sound interpersonal relationships. Fayol suggested two ways of doing it. Avoid sowing dissension amongst subordinates and it is better to be verbal instead of writing as it is more simple and fast. This communication is better.

“To manage is to forecast and plan, to organize, to command, to coordinate, and to control.” (Henri fayol)

There are five primary functions of management. They are:

Planning: when we look at the future and see predict the consequences and plan our strategy accordingly is called planning. When things are planned, only then will the business run smooth.

Organizing: to build up the structure both in a materialistic and a human way.

Commanding: here they maintain the activity among the personnel. If there is no one to give the command then the work won’t go in progress because the employees won’t know what to follow.

Coordinating: there should be coordination in the work. If there is no coordinating then the work which is done will be in a mess and not in a proper order. If a work is not coordinated then it will not be done in a proper order. The work should be bind together with harmony and unity.

Controlling: here, a manager who is controlling the organization or the company should always receive a feedback so that he can make any necessary adjustments. There should be someone to see that the work is occurring in conformity with established rule and expressed command.

Henry fayol use to manage a large coal mining company in France in the year 1916. He then published his idea about the organization and the supervision of work. And he enunciated several principles and functions of management in the year 1925. His idea of unity of command is that, an employee should receive orders only from one superior. He suggested that it is important to have a unity of command. He even suggested that management is a universal human activity that applies equally well to the family as it does to the corporation. He is known as the father of modern operational management theory. His ideas have become a universal part of the modern management concepts but some writers still continue to associate him with Fredrick Winslow Taylor. According to Claude George (1968), the only difference between Taylor and fayol was that Taylor looked at management processes from the bottom up and Fayol looked at management processes from the top down. Fayol wrote that “Taylors approach differs from the one we have outlined in that he examines the firm from the bottom up”. He said that he starts with the most elemental units of activity, the workers actions, and then he studies the effects of their actions on productivity, devises new methods for making them more efficient, and applies what he learns at lower level of hierarchy.” He even suggested that Taylor had staff and advisors working with the individuals at the lower levels of the organization so that they can identify the ways to improve the efficiency. Fayol criticized Taylor’s functional management. He said “the most marked outward characteristics of functional management lies in the fact that each workman, instead of coming in direct contact with the management at one point only, receives the most marked outward characteristics of functional management lies in the fact that each workman, instead of coming in direct contact with the management at one point only, receives his daily orders and help from eight different bosses.” The eight of them are:

Route clerks.

Instruction card men.

Cost and time clerks.

Gang bosses.

Speed bosses.

Inspectors.

Repair bosses.

Shop disciplinarian.

He said that this work was not a workable situation and that Taylor must have reconciled the dichotomy in some way not described in Taylors work.

The pros are:

Even if principles like stability of jobs and positions or division of labour are a product of their times, there are others like the need to specialise, the unity of command, the clear reporting relationships in a formal structure and the need to coordinate activities among specialised groups are relevant in this present stage.

Fayol said that without theory, teaching was not possible so he made a different language to communicate management theory. The principles that were made by him prioritised issues for the senior management and prescribed solution directions.

Fayols work was continued by Gulick and Urwick. They provided empirical evidence. A maximum span of control of seven employees per manager in US schools was most effective. This was shown by gulick.

Fayol said that managers must perceive organisations as living organisms instead of mechanical machines.

The cons are:

In 1946, Simon argued that the principles of administrative management that was described by Fayol, Gulick and Urwick were vague and contradictory. He said that these principles could not be used as guidance. After a while, contingency theory showed that structuring organizations depended on external circumstance. Systematic management takes a ‘tabula Rasa’ and ignores the older history, the context and the human behaviour.

Fayol said that an organizations size is the one differentiating factor and removed things like culture and technology.

He looked more on the issue of internal optimisation than of external adaptability. His experience was originated in a large and a formal organization and it operated in a slow and changing environment.

“Judgement demands high moral character, therefore, a good leader should possess and infuse into those around him courage to accept responsibility. The best safeguard against abuse of authority and weakness on the part of a higher manager is personal integrity and particularly high moral character of such a manager. This integrity is conferred neither by election nor ownership, 1916”. (http://www.bola.biz/competence/fayol.html)

I chose Henri fayol because we can use his principles even in our studies. His principles are much organised and in order. If we follow these principles, we can study and finish it smooth. Each principle has its own significant use. Like the division of work. In case of studies, we divide each subject and give a particular time for each. Then we get to concentrate on each and every subject. We get to study in order each and every subject and we can even use the scalar chain. No subject is at the top or the bottom. Because even the easiest subject can be the hardest so every subject should be given equal understanding too. His work is still important now because many people still use his principles. Each principle has its own importance and almost all individuals use at least 5 to 6 of his principles in his own personal life. We can even find his principles in books that are being used now in schools and colleges. It’s taken as an important part in the subject.

Conclusion:

When we use these fourteen principles in our work, we get to make things easier. We can make them in a proper manner and also in a more systematic order. We get to divide each work according to ones ability and this makes them more aware of what they are doing or suppose to do. We learn to be more responsible and the most eligible person gets to hold the authority of the organization. The work is done according to the person who is commanding us to do it. He gives the work according to the person’s capability and it’s done in a more disciplined way. The work is done in order and every person weather he is on the top or the bottom, gets the clear idea and understanding. So if we follow these fourteen principles, things gets more organised and planned in the proper order. His principles are used even now. Many books have his principles used.

References:

Websites:

1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Fayol

2) http://www.onepine.info/fayol.htm

3) http://www.analytictech.com/mb021/fayol.htm

4) http://www.bola.biz/competence/fayol.html

5) http://choo.fis.utoronto.ca/FIS/Courses/LIS1230/LIS1230sharma/history2.htm

6) http://www.britannica.com/eb/topic-202986/Henri-Fayol

7) http://www.hrmguide.co.uk/history/classical_organization_theory_modified.htm

8) http://www.provenmodels.com/4/fourteen-principles-of-management/fayol

Books:

‘Management an Introduction’, 2^nd edition, David Boddy, Prentice.

‘Management an Introduction’, 3^rd edition, David Boddy, Prentice.

Bibliography: