Henri Fayol

Henri Fayol (1841 - 1925), France

 

1.Division of work	Reduces the span of attention or effort for any one person or group. Develops practice and familiarity
2. Authority	The right to give an order. Should not be considered without reference to responsibility
3. Discipline	Outward marks of respect in accordance with formal or informal agreements between firm and its employees
4. Unity of command	One man superior
5. Unity of direction	One head and one plan for a group of activities with the same objective
6. Subordination of individual interests to the general interest	The interests of one individual or one group should not prevail over the general good. This is a difficult area of management
7. Remuneration	Pay should be fair to both the employee and the firm
8. Centralisation	Is always present to a greater or less extent, depending on the size of the company and quality of its managers
9. Scalar chain	The line of authority from top to bottom of the organisation
10. Order	A place for everything and everything in its place; the right man in the right place
11. Equity	A combination of kindliness and justice towards the employees
12. Stability of tenure of personnel	Employees need to be given time to settle into their jobs, even though this may be a lengthy period in the case of the managers
13. Initiative	Within the limits of authority and discipline, all levels of staff should be encouraged to show initiative
14. Esprit de corps	Harmony is a great strength to an organisation; teamwork should be encouraged

Advantages

• Fayol was the first person to actually give a definition of management which is generally familiar today namely 'forecast and plan, to organise, to command, to co-ordinate and to control'.
• Fayol also gave much of the basic terminology and concepts, which would be elaborated upon by future researchers, such as division of labour, scalar chain, unity of command and centralization.

Disadvantages

• Fayol was describing the structure of formal organizations.
• Absence of attention to issues such as individual versus general interest, remuneration and equity suggest that Fayol saw the employer as paternalistic and by definition working in the employee's interest.
• Fayol does mention the issues relating to the sensitivity of a patients needs, such as initiative and 'esprit de corps', he saw them as issues in the context of rational organisational structure and not in terms of adapting structures and changing people's behaviour to achieve the best fit between the organisation and its customers.
• Many of these principles have been absorbed into modern day organisations, but they were not designed to cope with conditions of rapid change and issues of employee participation in the decision making process of organisations, such as are current today in the early 21st century.