Henry Fayol


Henry Fayol

Fayol was one of the most influential contributors to modern concepts of management, having proposed that there are five primary functions of management: planning, organizing, commanding, coordinating, and controlling. Many of today’s management texts including Daft (2005) have reduced the five functions to four: planning, organizing, leading, and controlling. Fayol believed management theories could be developed, then taught. His theories were published in a monograph titled General and Industrial Management (1916). This is an extraordinary little book that offers the first theory of general management and statement of management principles..Fayol suggested that it is important to have unity of command: a concept that suggests there should be only one supervisor for each person in an organization. Like Socrates. Fayol has been described as the father of modern operational management theory. In the classic 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..

What is Management Five elements?

Fayol's definition of management roles and actions distinguishes between Five Elements:

(1 Prevoyance. (Forecast & Plan). Examining the future and drawing up a plan of action. The elements of strategy.

(2 To organize. Build up the structure, both material and human, of the undertaking.

(3 To command. Maintain the activity among the personnel.

(4 To coordinate. Binding together, unifying and harmonizing all activity and effort.

(5 To control. Seeing that everything occurs in conformity with established rule and expressed command.