Henri Fayol: principles of management

Henri Fayol, a mining engineer by training and practical 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 paper in which he revealed 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. Fajol generalized those practical methods of management, which he himself applied, being at various leading 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 is the separation of the basic functions of management as a completely specific, special type of activity. These functions are interpreted by Fayol 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 directions (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 the management principles he formulated serve as a guide in the work to build an effective management system. To increase the effectiveness of the company's management personnel, Fayol formulated 14 management principles, each of which makes its own specific contribution to improving the quality of management.

The division of labor, as a principle of organization of the administrative hierarchy, ensures an increase in the speed of production in all its sectors by accumulating efforts to solve the most important task at the moment. In this case, Fayol's management principles with respect to the final decision formulate in such a way that it should always be taken solely by the head.

Powers and responsibility is a principle that emphasizes 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 organization of management. 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.

The unity of the direction compensates and restrains the manifestation of one-man management, compensates for the opinions of all the participants in the task at the stage of finding optimal solutions, as Fayol said.

The principles of management, despite the fact that they are 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 a manager and working with personnel are such as justice and reward. The stability of the entire control system is ensured by observing the principles of centralization and the need to create a scalar chain in the enterprise, that is, a painless replacement of the retiring link in the system of passing administrative action is 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.