Henri Fayol- Administrative Thinkers

Henri Fayol

Fayol is considered to be the father of Modern Science of Management. Fayol, as a theorist, has been contemporary to Taylor. But, Taylor’s ideas got recognized much earlier to Fayol. Fayol being French wrote his ideas in French making them inaccessible to the outside world. Fayol’s idea got due recognition only when it got translated in English. What is Taylor to America is Fayol to Europe. 

Fayol has been a multi-faceted personality because he was a geologist, a mining engineer and he went on to win a Nobel Prize in metallurgy in 1921. At the same time, he was a very successful administrator and a renowned administrative philosopher. He penned down his ideas out of his successful experience as being a functionary in a private industrial organization. Unlike Taylor, Fayol did not have the experience of whole of the organization. Fayol started his career as a Manager and went on to occupy the highest position in the organization. This difference in experience contributed towards difference in orientation towards the Organizational Management.

Fayol, as a theorist, considered management and administration to be the same. According to him, in essence, both of these words represent same type of activity. Fayol believed that whatever mechanism works in the context of the private organizations works in the same manner in the context of government organizations. The manner of managing a private organization is same as that of manner of managing a government organization. He developed a generic view of administration or management. Fayol promoted this generic view of administration.

“Administration is administration, nothing public about it.”- Anonymous- Wherever there is administration (small organization or big organization), administration carries essentially the same meaning and the same character. In this statement, public refers to government. The statement is trying to emphasize that if administration is being carried out in the context of the government, it won’t make any difference and the nature and character of the administration shall remain unchanged.

Fayol says that every organization carries on six essential functions.

1.      Segmental- These activities can be undertaken with relative isolation from each other.

a.       Technical- Manufacturing, Production etc.

b.      Commercial- Sales, Purchase, Exchange, Trade etc.

c.       Financial- Optimal Utilization of the Financial Resources.

d.      Accounting- Systematized Keeping of Records of Daily Expenditure and Revenue.

e.       Security- Protection of Life and Property of the Organization and its Members.

2.      Integral- None of the functions can be undertaken in isolation from administration. Administration pervades all other functions, Administrative activities are activities Involving the Management of the Human Resource and enabling them to achieve their Potential.

When an individual, moves up in the hierarchy or up in the layer, from the bottom of the organization towards the middle of the organization, the share of the segmental activities keeps on increasing.

At the mid-level, maximum segmental activity takes place.

But, when an individual moves from the middle of the organization to the top of the organization, the share of the integral activities keeps on increasing. At the top level, the activities are only integral and not segmental.

Out of the six activities mentioned above, the most important activity is administration. If administration weak, everything will be weak and if administration is efficient, everything will be efficient.

Fayol on Administration

Fayol emphasizes that administration to be successful requires undertaking five important functions (POCCC).

1.      P- Planning- He refers planning as prevoyance. Planning is the process that involves envisioning the future goals and laying down the strategy or plan of action to achieve that goal. Planning provides purpose to the organization. Without it, the organization will become directionless.

2.      O- Organizing- Organizing is a process that involves creating a dual structure of men and material within the organization. It is a process of systematizing the human resources and material resources within the organization. Without organizing, the organization will lack systematization, efforts and activities will be chaotic and ultimately, there will be a loss of purpose.

3.      C- Commanding- It is a process which involves issuing instructions or passing authoritative communications in order to maintain the performance or activities among the personnel.

4.      C- Coordinating- It is a process of bringing about harmonious operation among various activities and efforts within the organization. The process through which complementarity is achieved among various activities and efforts are referred to as coordination.

5.      C- Controlling- It is a process that involves ensuring the compliance of the personnel towards the activities through the threat of punishment and the allurement of reward.

Fourteen Flexible Principles of Administration

Fayol believed that there are some hidden levels in the management of an organization. These hidden levels or laws can be derived through experience and close observation. He refers to these laws as principles of administration. These principles explain, equally, the success of every organization.

He calls them flexible because Fayol believes that these principles have the capacity to adjust and accommodate itself to every kind of organization irrespective of the nature and the size of the organization.

1.      Division of Work- Fayol believes that division of work or division of responsibilities among the individuals within the organization results into increase in the ability and accuracy, thereby, increasing the overall productivity. Thus, every organization should bring about division of work. Division of Work belongs to the Natural Order. As the organization increases in size and operation, the division of work emerges spontaneously or naturally. But, the division of work should not be overdone; rather, it should be maintained at the right proportion. Overdoing will lead to overlapping of the responsibilities, confusion, conflict of interest and inefficiency in the organization.

2.      Authority and Responsibility- Within the organization, there should be a rational distribution of duties among various positions within the organization. Along with that, there should be allocation of a co-equal amount of authority. When authority is more than responsibility, it leads towards authoritarianism or dictatorship. On the other hand, when the responsibility is more than authority, it leads towards anarchism.

3.      Discipline- It refers to compliance by personnel towards the laws, rules and regulations of the organization. Adequate mechanism should be put in place to ensure discipline and penalties should be imposed on behaviour which violates the code of conduct.

4.      Remuneration- The payment should be made on the basis of fairness i.e. the performance should be rewarded.

5.      Unity of Command- It is a kind of supervision which provides that a subordinate should receive command only from one superordinate. If there is more than one boss, it would lead to confusion, conflict of responsibility and possibly, the subordinate playing one superordinate against the other.

6.      Unity of Direction- He says that as far as group of activity is concerned, there should be one single established goal. In the absence of a clearly established goal, the activities will lose direction and might operate at cross- purpose. Unity of Command cannot be there without Unity of Direction but does not flows from it.

7.      Centralization- Centralization belongs to the natural order. When an organization grows in size and operation, numbers of intermediaries emerge between the management and the workers which result into the tendency on part of the management to standardize the jobs and activities, thus giving rise to centralization. The degree of centralization or decentralization should depend upon the nature of workers. Here, standardization of work means defining the work in advance. If employees are sincere and competent, the manager should give them freedom and space to work.

8.      Equity- Equity as a principle on the same plane is a broader concept than remuneration. He emphasizes that management should treat the functionaries of the organization on the basis of fairness. The overall approach of the management towards the functionaries should be based on fairness.

9.      Order- He refers to the idea of placement i.e. the right man at the right position. Management should recruit on the basis of the skill and the job should be assigned on the basis of the person’s skill.

10.  Scalar Chain- The communication within the organization should always follow the lines of hierarchy. The communication should not break or jump the hierarchy as that will create indiscipline, insubordination and mismanagement. The formal line of communication should not be followed at the cost of organizational interest. In such cases, there should be level jumping.

Gang Plank- If information arises at Level A and requires communication to Level D. Fayol says the communication must travel through proper channel. The communication should go to level B, from level B to level C and from Level C to level D. But, sometimes, this time consuming process might jeopardize the interest of the organization. As a normal rule, this line should be followed but in cases of urgent information, an exception needs to be created. A horizontal line of communication should be built across the departments between the concerned positions provided the required approval or permission is obtained from the respective immediate bosses.

11.  Initiative- Management should encourage the functionaries to undertake voluntary decisions and comply with those decisions.

12.  Stability of Tenure- The managers should allow functionaries to occupy and operate in their position for a considerable period of time. This is required not for emotional but professional reasons.

13.  Esprit de Corps- Managers should strive to maintain harmony within the organization. They should not go for divide and rule because it weakens the organization.

14.  The Subordination of the Individual Interest to the General Interest- In case of the contradiction of the views between various units or entities within the organization. The view of the higher unit will prevail over the lower unit or the view of the lower unit has to be sacrificed for the view of the higher unit.

Fayol says these fourteen principles are not exhaustive in nature. Through further observations, new principles can be generated. Fayol wrote his theory at a time when there was a concept of Engineer Managers i.e. engineers themselves were the managers. At that point of time, a separate cadre of managers or administrators did not exist. The general belief was that any individual with an able mind can handle administration or management. Fayol rejected this view while emphasizing that administration or management is a specialized area of activity and thereby, an individual without adequate training and education in management cannot manage an organizational effectively. Thus, he emphasised on the training and education for administration or management. He was one of the initial theorists to emphasize on the professionalization of administration.

Fayol v. Taylor

1.      Both have penned down their theories out of their experiences as successful functionaries.

2.      Both are from Private Industrial Undertakings.

3.      Both believed in the generic view of administration (administration as a activity is same in every organization (private and public).

4.      Both emphasized on science of management or administration.

Differences

1.      Taylor while focusing upon the organizational efficiency, he focused on the efficiency on account of production (efficiency in doing the activities). Thus, Taylor focused on the shop floor level of the organization. In order to explain the efficiency, he has referred to the knowledge of engineering (use of stop watch, time and motion study, high speed cutting of steel etc.) 

2.      Fayol while trying to explain organizational efficiency, he believed that organizational efficiency is dependent on the administration i.e. the art of getting things done. Thereby, he focused on the higher level of the organization. Thus, he has referred more to the knowledge of management.