Henri Fayol Management Principals Through Experience Analysis Essay Example

the ongoing debate continues as to whether or not Fayol’s work holds relevant today. Included in this debate are his theories and ideas in the field of management, which holds significance for students of management today if for nothing else but their historical value. As Wren notes, “Fayol gave us a starting point, a framework for us to teach, study, and refine…” (Wren, 1990, p. 140). Background Family

Henri Fayol (1841-1925), son of French parents Andre and Eugenie Fayol, was born in Constantinople, Turkey on July 29, 1841, where his father was temporarily posted on military assignment. The son of an architectural engineer (Sasaki, 1995) of modest means (Breeze, 1985), Fayol “was educated in a missionary school in La Voulte, France.

He is believed to have been greatly influenced in his character development by this education” (Sasaki, 1995, p. 14). Fayol next attended school at the Lycee at Lyon in preparation for his attendance at the National School of Mines at St.

Etienne, “where he graduated as a qualified mining engineer” (Breeze, 1985, p. 45).

In 1875, Fayol married Adelade Celeste Marie Saule; the couple had three children, Marie, Madeleine, and Henri Joseph. Although the family tree had modest beginnings, Fayol’s family included a variety of influential people through birth and marriage within and outside the mining industry, including several graduates of the Saint-Etienne Mining School (Sasaki, 1995). French Society and Industry The late nineteenth and early twentieth century was the period of dawning for all things scientific.

Scientific theory was prevalent in everything from medicine to management; urban planning to education; simply stated, the scientific method was the answer for every problem.

Through this

time period, Henri Fayol’s life was shaped by the influences of the time. Much of Fayol’s work in management has its basis in the scientific method of observation, examination, and implementation. Changes in France were equally fluid, beginning with the separation of church and state in France’s educational system.

Likewise, French industry during this time was in a state of flux. A strong state was giving way to strong industry.

Mergers and acquisitions began to span geographical regions, leading to industrial giants within specific industries. These powerful industries led to the formation of trade unions, which were becoming more and more influential. And yet, while the rate of earnings for companies was slowing, the cost of living had remained relatively constant, leading to a moderate level of economic prosperity.

Fayol believed that while the industrial, political, and social tides were changing, a strong administrative regime was necessary to provide stability. At the same time Fayol believed that “many of the authoritarian elements of nineteenth-century industrial paternalism” (Reid, 1995) were no longer necessary with the rise of unionism. Putting his thoughts into action in accordance with his beliefs as well as in accordance with the changes in the power bases, Fayol promoted policies that were worker-friendly.

Despite the fact that during this period the concept of the “company controlled town,” prevailed and was heavily entrenched in the French mining industry, Fayol implemented changes in policy by which his company would no longer monitor church attendance or set up “company stores” where existing businesses were already established to serve the needs of the local population (Reid, 1995). Small changes like these were a major departure from business

control of every aspect of employee life, both professional and private.

Work History Henri Fayol began is professional career as a mining engineer at the Commentry Mine of Boigues Rambourg and Company in 1860 at the age of 19 years old. At the time of his employment, “the most urgent managerial problem for the Commentry Mine was the mine fires and subsidence of the ground at the Commentry and Motivicq Pits” (Sasaki, 1995, p.

16). As an engineer, one of Fayol’s responsibilities was in dealing with the problem of these fires.

In fact, according to Henri’s son, Henri Junior (as cited in Breeze, 1985), the elder Fayol’s first assignment was dealing with fires in the mines. Fayol’s technical expertise as well as his scientific method of observation and experimentation led to marked advancement and improvements in the field of firefighting within the mines, making it possible to begin to prevent and eventually reclaim the mines from such fires. A technically competent engineer, Fayol’s interests and expertise were not limited to the area of fire control and suppression.

In addition to this important work on fires and fire prevention, he published studies of the design of mine shafts and safety at the workface, on rock formations and their movements that affected production, and on the geological structure of the entire Commentry region” (Breeze, 1985, p. 43). By a combination of Fayol’s success in his work as well as in other technical areas of mineral engineering, and the sudden death of the prior manager, six years after his first bout with mine fires Fayol was promoted to manager of the mine in 1866.

In 1888, Fayol was

promoted to the position of managing director of the Society de Commentry-Forchambault, the entity that managed the conglomeration of mines of which Fayol’s Commentry mine was a part. While it is unknown as to why Fayol was offered this opportunity, the task given to him as managing director was clear: “conduct a study of the operation in anticipation of selling of the remaining assets and liquidating the company” (Breeze, 1985, p.

46) which was near bankruptcy. As a young engineer and mine manager, [Fayol] kept a diary and recorded the experiences that he would later collect and condense for his colleagues.

Upon is retirement from the mining industry, Fayol spent the remainder of his life “promoting his theory of administration” (Fells, 2000, p. 345). This “promoting” included several studies of management in the public service sector, including a study in 1919-1920 of the French Postal Service, as well as a study of the tobacco and match monopoly. In both instances, Fayol promoted the implementation of management practices that he had developed during his tenure in the iron and steel industry.

Unfortunately, “Fayol was almost completely insensitive to the political realities of actually introducing significant changes into public sector operations and was, therefore, extremely frustrated in his attempts to promote and provoke positive changes, at least during his lifetime” (Breeze, 1995, p. 40). Principles of Management Henri Fayol’s years of experience as first an mining engineer and later in management as a mine director and what would be considered the CEO of an iron and steel conglomerate in today’s terms, provided Fayol a wealth of nowledge in the management arena, leading to the development of his

theories and ideas of management. Fayol’s ideas and theories can be broken down into four separate parts: 1.

Definition of Management 2. Management Processes 3. Principals of Management 4. Management Tools Definition of Management Fayol (1949) presents six activities that encompass his definition of management: •Technical activities: Activities that relate production and manufacturing, as well as adaptation to a particular situation. Fayol notes that, “Nevertheless, the technical function is not always the most important.

Even in industrial undertakings there are circumstances where some one of the other functions may exercise a much greater influence” (Fayol, 1949, p.

3). •Commercial activities: The buying of raw materials (New Straits Times, 1998) as well as the selling of products, including issues of pricing. •Financial activities: Acquiring and use of capital. Fayol notes that “Nothing is done without this function entering into it” (Fayol, 1949, p. 4).

•Security Activities: Safeguarding property and employees from harm or loss. Accounting activities: Keeping an up-to-date, current financial record of the company’s assets, as well as being able to forecast future trends; “Stock taking, balance sheet, costs, and statistics.