Henri Fayolle, mining engineer by education and practical activity, went down in the history of world economic science as the founder of the classical school of modern management. Today, Fayol’s famous principles have become a fundamental guideline in the planning and practical organization of management of any company operating in a market economy. As the director of a mining company, in 1916 he published a work in which he revealed his 14 principles of Fayol, who received his name in gratitude for his contribution to the development of management theory.
In this work, A. Fayol summarized those practical management methods that he himself applied while being at various senior positions in mining enterprises. Their logical processing, classification and systematization, eventually developed into a coherent theory of management, which is now recognized throughout the world.
The starting point of Fayol’s theory is the allocation of the basic functions of management as a completely specific, special type of activity. These functions are interpreted by Fayole as autonomous areas of the management process, during which a qualitative change in the business process occurs. The management doctrine of Fayol includes the following areas (functions): planning, coordination, motivation, control and organization. Of course, some of these provisions were known even before Fayol, but his merit lies in the fact that he not only systematized them and justified them for a fundamentally new type of economic activity for his time, but derived from them the principles of managing economic processes and led all this to harmonious system concept.
The functions that Fayol called, the management principles formulated by him, serve as a guide in the work on building an effective management system. To increase the effectiveness of the company's management staff, Fayol formulated 14 management principles, each of which makes its own concrete contribution to improving the quality of management.
The division of labor, as the principle of organizing a managerial hierarchy, provides an increase in the speed of work in all its sectors due to the accumulation of efforts to solve the most important problem at the moment. At the same time, Fayol formulates the management principles in relation to the final decision in such a way that it should always be taken solely by the head.
Authority and responsibility is a principle that emphasizes the need for strict hierarchization of company management, as the hierarchy provides a distribution of powers, a clear separation of labor and responsibility.
Discipline contributes to better management. As Fayol points out, the very logic of the process is the most important component of control.
One-man management ensures prompt decision-making and enhances the responsibility of any mid-level manager.
The unity of direction in some way compensates and restrains the manifestation of unity of command in management, it involves taking into account the opinions of all participants in the task at the stage of searching for optimal solutions, as Fayol claimed.
Management principles, despite the fact that they are aimed primarily at management, suggest that a large proportion of the work should be directed to staff. Such principles are the subject of such principles as the predominance of corporate interests over personal ones, the stability of the workplace 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 remuneration. The stability of the entire management system is ensured by the observance of the principles of centralization and the need to create a scalar chain at the enterprise, that is, such a position where a painless replacement of the retiring link in the system of passing the managerial action is possible.
As Fayolle himself emphasized, the management principles are almost universal in nature, but in their implementation it is still necessary to take into account the specific situation in order to apply it flexibly.