Fayolism - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Fayolism was a theory of management

Management

Management in all business and organizational activities is the act of getting people together to accomplish desired goals and objectives using available resources efficiently and effectively...

that analyzed

Analysis

Analysis is the process of breaking a complex topic or substance into smaller parts to gain a better understanding of it. The technique has been applied in the study of mathematics and logic since before Aristotle , though analysis as a formal concept is a relatively recent development.The word is...

and synthesized the role of management

Management

Management in all business and organizational activities is the act of getting people together to accomplish desired goals and objectives using available resources efficiently and effectively...

in organizations, developed around 1900 by the French

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

management

Management

Management in all business and organizational activities is the act of getting people together to accomplish desired goals and objectives using available resources efficiently and effectively...

theorist Henri Fayol

Henri Fayol

Henri Fayol was a French mining engineer and director of mines who developed a general theory of business administration. He and his colleagues developed this theory independently of scientific management but roughly contemporaneously...

(1841–1925). It was Fayol's work as a philosopher of administration that he contributed most widely to the theory and practice of organizational management.

Research and Teaching of Management

Fayol believed by focusing on managerial practices he could minimize misunderstandings and increase efficiency in organizations. He enlightened managers on how to accomplish their managerial duties, and the practices in which they should engage. In his book General and Industrial Management (published in French in 1916, then published in English in 1949), Fayol outlined his theory of general management, which he believed could be applied to the administration of myriad industries. His concern was with the administrative apparatus (or functions of administration), and to that end he presented his administrative theory, that is, principles and elements of management.

His theories and ideas were ideally a result of his environment; that of a post revolutionized France in which a republic bourgeois was emerging. A bourgeois himself, he believed in the controlling of workers in order to achieve a greater productivity over all other managerial considerations. However, through reading General and Industrial Management, it is apparent that Fayol advocated a flexible approach to management, one which he believed could be applied to any circumstance whether in the home, the workplace, or within the state. He stressed the importance and the practice of forecasting and planning in order to apply these ideas and techniques which demonstrated his ability and his emphasis in being able to adapt to any sort of situation. In General and Industrial Management he outlines an agenda whereby, under an accepted theory of management, every citizen is exposed and taught some form of management education and allowed to exercise management abilities first at school and later on in the workplace.

"Everyone needs some concepts of management; in the home, in affairs of state, the need for managerial ability is in keeping with the importance of the undertaking, and for individual people the need is everywhere in greater accordance with the position occupied. '

- excerpt from General and Industrial Management

Fayol vs. Frederick Taylor's Scientific Management

Fayol has been regarded by many as the father of the modern operational management theory, and his ideas have become a fundamental part of modern management concepts. Fayol is often compared to Frederick Winslow Taylor who developed Scientific Management. Taylor's Scientific Management deals with the efficient organization of production in the context of a competitive enterprise that is concerned with controlling its production costs. Taylor's system of scientific management is the cornerstone of classical theory. Fayol was also a classical theorist, and referred to Taylor in his writing and considered him to be a visionary and pioneer in the management of organizations.

However, Fayol differed from Taylor in his focus. Taylor's main focus was on the task, whereas Fayol was more concerned with management. Another difference between the two theorists is their treatment of workers. Fayol appears to have slightly more respect for the worker than Taylor had, as evidenced by Fayol's proclamation that workers may indeed be motivated by more than just money. Fayol also argued for equity in the treatment of workers.

According to Claude George (1968), a primary difference between Fayol and Taylor was that Taylor viewed management processes from the bottom up, while Fayol viewed it from the top down. In Fayol's book General and Industrial Management, Fayol wrote that "Taylor's approach differs from the one we have outlined in that he examines the firm from the bottom up." He starts with the most elemental units of activity—the workers' actions—then studies the effects of their actions on productivity, devises new methods for making them more efficient, and applies what he learns at lower levels to the hierarchy"...(Fayol, 1987, p. 43). He suggests that Taylor has staff analysts and advisors working with individuals at lower levels of the organization to identify the ways to improve efficiency. According to Fayol, the approach results in a "negation of the principle of unity of command". Fayol criticized Taylor’s functional management in this way. “… 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…(Fayol, 1949, p. 68.)” Those eight, Fayol said, were (1) route clerks, (2) instruction card men, (3) cost and time clerks, (4) gang bosses, (5) speed bosses, (6) inspectors, (7) repair bosses, and the (8) shop disciplinarian (p. 68). This, he said, was an unworkable situation, and that Taylor must have somehow reconciled the dichotomy in some way not described in Taylor's works.

Fayol's desire for teaching a generalized theory of management stemmed from the belief that each individual of an organization at one point or another takes on duties that involve managerial decisions. Unlike Taylor, however, who believed management activity was the exclusive duty of an organizations dominant class. Fayol's approach was more in sync with his idea of Authority, which stated, "that the right to give orders should not be considered without the acceptance and understanding of responsibility."

Noted as one of the early fathers of the Human Relations movements, Fayol expressed ideas and theories with practices which differed from Taylor in that they showed flexibility and adaptation as well as stressed the importance of Interpersonal Interaction among employees.

Effects of Written Communication

Fayol believed that animosity and unease within the workplace occurred among employees in different departments often due to communication in writing; i.e. letters, (or in current times) e-mails. Among scholars of organizational communication and psychology, e-mails and letters as a form of communication in work are said to induce or solidify the idea of importance of an individual within the workplace and furthermore give way to selfish thinking which leads to arguments and conflict among employees.

Fayol expressed this idea in his book, General and Industrial Management, by stating," in some firms... employees in neighboring departments with numerous points of contact, or even employees within a department, who could quite easily meet, communicate with each other in writing... there is to be observed a certain amount of animosity prevailing between different departments or different employees within a department. The system of written communication usually brings this result. There is a way of putting an end to this deplorable system and that is to forbid all communication in writing which could easily and advantageously be replaced by verbal ones."

Overview of Fayol's Theories

While Fayol's theories are typically referred to as rigid and inflexible, it is practices and theories such as these which show flexibility in his theories of management. Fayol believed that managerial practices were the key to predictability and efficiency in organizations. Fayol's theories argues for the equity in the treatment of workers, which included being kind to them and helping to promote justice for them.

Fayol's positioning of communication as a necessary ingredient to successful management was an important step in the early twentieth century.

Administrative Theory in the Modern Workplace

Fayol's elements and principles of management are still alive in modern organizations in several ways: as accepted practices in some industries, as revamped versions of the original principles or elements, or as remnants of the organization's history to which alternative practices and philosophies are being offered. Several of Fayol's principles of management are also followed today, to a degree that depends on the industry and the particular organization. The U.S. military is a prime example of an organization that has continued to use these principles.

Fayol's Principles of Management

During the early 20th century, Fayol developed 14 principles of management in order to help managers manage more effectively. Many organizations in technologically advanced countries interpret the principles quite differently from the way they were interpreted during Fayol's time however. These differences in interpretation are in part a result of the cultural challenges managers face when implementing this framework. The fourteen principles are: (1) Division of work, (2) Authority and responsibility, (3) Discipline, (4) Unity of command, (5) Unity of direction, (6) Subordination of individual interests to the common good, (7) Remuneration of personnel, (8)Centralization, (9) Scaler chain, (10) Order, (11) Equity, (12) Stability of personnel tenure, (13) Initiative, (14) Esprit de corps.

Fayol's Elements of Management

Within his theory, Fayol outlined five elements of management that depict the kinds of behaviors managers should engage in so that the goals and objectives of an organization are effectively met. The five elements of management are:

Planning: creating a plan of action for the future, determining the stages of the plan and the technology necessary to implement it.
Organizing: Once a plan of action is deigned, managers need to provide everything necessary to carry it out; including raw materials, tools, capital and human resources
Command: Managers need to implement the plan. They must have an understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of their personnel.
Coordination: High-level managers must work to "harmonize" all the activities to facilitate organizational success. Communication is the prime coordinating mechanism.
Control: The final element of management involves the comparison of the activities of the personnel to the plan of action, it is the evaluation component of management.

Research and Teaching of Management

Fayol vs. Frederick Taylor's Scientific Management

Effects of Written Communication

Overview of Fayol's Theories

Administrative Theory in the Modern Workplace

Fayol's Principles of Management

Fayol's Elements of Management

Further reading