Modern Management Theory: Henri Fayol

Modern Management Theory:  Henri Fayol 

Henri Fayol (1841 – 1925) [1] was a French mining engineer responsible for the management wave that was known as Fayolism. He was born in Constantinople, Turkey, in 1841 to French parents, but the family returned to France in 1847. He is considered one of the fathers of modern management having developed the Administrative Theory. Fayol believed that the success of enterprise was more dependent on the Administrative ability of their leaders than on their technical ability. He developed the 14 Principles of Management which he believed would result in effective management.             

1. Division of work: division of labor. By separating work into smaller tasks it would allow workers to develop an expertise in a certain area since workers would develop a series of specific tasks instead of a larger collection. Over time, workers would become more proficient in these tasks. Workers can be then placed in areas in order to excel.  

2. Authority and responsibility: Fayol claimed that a Managers’ authority can be consistent with their level of authority. According to Fayol, Managers should be held accountable for the orders that are given.  

3. Discipline: the practice of training people to obey rules. It is about creating procedures at all levels of organization for the employees to follow. The goal is to establish order as well as ensure good behavior in the work place.  

4. Unity of command: no-one can serve two masters at the same time. These creates confusion amongst the workers and conflict amongst the supervisors, as they struggle to see whose direction should be followed. Each worker should receive orders from just one supervisor.  

5. Unity of direction: the entire organization should be performing under one common goal or objective.   

6. Subordination of individual interests to general interests: the interests of the individuals should pursue the interests of the organization as a whole.  

7. Remuneration: represents fairness in the pay practices across the organization. If an organization do not apply fair pay practices, it makes it more difficult for the employees to abandon their own interests for the sake of the organization. 

8. Centralization: refers to what degree of decision making is concentrated on the hands of a few people, or spread throughout the organizations to employees at different levels. Fayol believed that even if decision making should be concentrated in a few hands, he also believed employees should have a certain freedom to show initiative.   

9. Scalar Chain: it represents the organizational hierarchy, which is presented in the organizational chart. It shows the employees who they should report to, and who they can answer to if they have questions. 

10. Order: the creation of a clean working environment is important for productivity, but also has implications for the importance of safety on the job.  

11. Equity: workers should be treated equally by management, to achieve commitment.  

12. Stability of Tenure of Personnel: turnover can be very costly for an organization. Management should make every attempt to retain productive workers. 

13. Initiative: management should encourage worker initiative and undertaking of new responsibilities. Workers then acquire new skills, and also free up management to perform other tasks.  

14. Spirit of cooperation: Teamwork and communication will improve morale and promote a sense of unity.   

Thanks to Fayol, focus shifted towards training and educating managers for the administrative demands of today’s organizations. His principles are as valid as ever. However, I can sadly say that I have never seen them into practice. Organizations should most definitely do a greater effort to retain their key players, sponsor them and vouch for them. They should also be more transparent when it comes to salary scale, with clear rules. Central decision making is important, but it is as important not to cut the communication channels between the decision makers and the rest of the employees. And as always, training should be key both for personnel retention and to boost efficiency. In reality, managers and directors play their game. A senior doesn’t want his employees to learn their tasks fast and grow as an individual. A manager does not care about the success of his department, but is more concerned about the game of politics played at a higher corporate level. Directors want to cling to their chairs, and do not care about company results. In the end, everything is just a game of politics to the detriment of corporate interests. But we will get back to that later.     

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Fayol