Henr Fayol & Management

The work of Taylor and Fayol is essentially complementary. They both realized that the problem of HR and their management at all levels is the key to business success. Both applied scientific method to this problem. Taylor worked primarily on the operative level, from the bottom of the organizational hierarchy upward. Fayol concentrated on the Managing Director (his term) and worked downward.

Unlike Taylor, Fayol's work reflects a tension between his recognition that managers are not supermen and yet employees should not be allowed enough autonomy and responsibility to solve second-order problems (problems for which there are no precedents, or previous exemplary solutions).

Additionally, Fayol's work provides much more insights into the intellectual underpinnings of the approach.

On the division of labor (9, 13): The most important ability of the worker is "technical" (physical) ability. As one goes up the organization ladder, the relative importance of managerial ability increases, while that of technical ability decreases. To manage is to forecast and plan, to organize, to command, coordinate and to control (p. 6).

General Principles of Management

1. Division of work. Specialization belongs to the natural order (a religious belief!?). Management should pursue standardization of work. The object of work is to produce more and better with the same effort. The worker always on the same part, the manager concerned always with the same matters, acquire an ability, sureness, and accuracy which increase their output.

2. Authority and responsibility. The good manager should have official authority deriving from office and personal authority, compounded of intelligence, experience, moral worth, ability to lead, past services, etc. Responsibility is a corollary of authority, it is its natural consequence and essential counterpart, and where authority is exercised responsibility arises.

3. Discipline. Discipline is obedience, application, energy, behavior, and respect. Discipline is absolutely essential for the smooth running of business and without discipline no enterprise could prosper.

When a defect in discipline is apparent or when relations between superiors and subordinates leave much to be desired, responsibility for this must not be cast heedlessly, and without going further afield, on the poor state of the team, because the ill mostly results...

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...the combination of kindliness and justice (as defined by!?).

12. Stability of tenure of personnel. It seems that the whole idea of job security is really geared toward stabilizing management. Generally, the managerial personnel of prosperous firms is stable, that of unsuccessful ones is unstable.

However, he does mention employment stability re "employees." Time is required for an employee to get used to new work and succeed in doing it well. If when he has got used to it, or before then, he is removed, he will not have time to render worthwhile service. (Interestingly, there is no mention of such "soft" elements as commitment, moral, and satisfaction.)

13. Initiative. Thinking out a plan and ensuring its success is one of the keenest satisfaction for an intelligent man to experience. It is also one of the most powerful stimulants of human endeavor. Hence, it is essential to encourage and develop this capacity to the full.

14. Esprit de corps. Harmony, union among the personnel of a concern, is great strength in that concern. Effort, then, should be made to establish it (this seems to mean, making sure that front-line employees buy into his managerial system).