Henri Fayol: principles of management

Henri Fayol, mining engineer by education andpractical activity, entered the history of the world economic science as the founder of the classical school of modern management. The famous principles of Fayol have become today a fundamental guide in the planning and practical organization of the management of any company operating in a market economy. As director of a mining company, in 1916 he published a work in which he opened his 14 principles of Fayol, who received his name in recognition of his contribution to the development of the theory of management.

In this work A.Fayol summarized those practical methods of management that he himself applied, while at various senior positions in mining enterprises. Their logical processing, classification and systematization, eventually formed a harmonious management theory, which is now recognized throughout the world.

The starting point of Fayol's theory ishighlighting the basic functions of management, as a completely specific, special type of activity. These functions are treated by Fayole as autonomous directions of the managerial process, during which a qualitative change in the business process occurs. The managerial doctrine of Fayol includes the following areas (functions): planning, coordination, motivation, control and organization. Certainly, some of these provisions were known even before Fayol, but his merit is that he not only systematized and substantiated them for a fundamentally new type of economic activity, but derived from them the principles of managing economic processes and brought all this to a harmonious system concept.

The functions that Fayol called principlesmanagement, formulated by him, serve as a guide in the work to build an effective management system. To increase the efficiency of the company's management personnel, Fayol formulated 14 management principles, each of which makes a specific contribution to improving the quality of management.

The division of labor as a principle of organizationadministrative hierarchy, provides an increase in the speed of production at all its sites due to the accumulation of efforts to solve the most important task at the moment. In this case, Fayol's management principles regarding the final decision formulates in such a way that it should always be taken solely by the head.

Powers and responsibility are the principle thatemphasizes the need for strict hierarchy of company management, since the hierarchy ensures distribution of powers, a clear division of labor and responsibility.

Discipline contributes to the best management organization. As Fayol points out, the very logic of the process is the most important component of management.

One-man operation ensures promptness in decision-making and contributes to increasing the responsibility of any middle-level manager.

Unity of direction compensates in some way andrestrains the manifestation of one-man management, it involves taking into account the opinions of all participants in the task at the stage of finding optimal solutions, as Fayol said.

The principles of management, in spite of the fact that theyare aimed primarily at management, suggest that a large proportion of the work should be directed to the staff. It is this kind of work that deals with such principles as the prevalence of corporate interests over personal interests, job stability and order, initiative and corporate spirit. The most important principles linking the work of the manager and work with the staff are such as justice and reward. The stability of the whole control system is ensured by observing the principles of centralization and the need to create a scalar chain at the enterprise, that is, a situation where a drop-down replacement in a management system is painlessly possible.

As Fayol himself emphasized, the principles of management are almost universal, but in their implementation, it is still necessary to take into account the concrete situation in order to apply flexibly.