Henri Fayol

Jules Henri Fayol Le Maire (Constantinople, July 29, 1841-Paris, November 19, 1925) was a French mining engineer, mining executive, author, and mining director who developed classical management theory sometimes referred to as Fayolism. He and his colleagues developed this theory independently of management science, but more or less contemporaneously. Like his contemporary, he is widely recognized as the founder of the modern method of management.

Biography

Fayol was born in 1841 in a suburb of the Ottoman Empire. (present-day Istanbul). He was born into a middle-class French family. His father (an engineer) was in the army at the time and was appointed superintendent of works to build the Galata Bridge, which spanned the Golden Horn. The family returned to France in 1847. He attended the Lyon Lyon from 1856 to 1858, and from 1858 to 1860 he graduated from the mining academy "École Nationale Supérieure des Mines" in Saint-Étienne in 1860.

In 1860, at the age of nineteen, Fayol began working at the mining company called "Compagnie de Commentry-Fourchambault-Decazeville" at Commentry as a mining engineer he was hired by Stéphane Mony, who had decided to recruit the best engineers from the Saint-Étienne Mining School. Fayol joined the company as an engineer and manager trainee. Mony made Fayol his protégé, and Fayol succeeded him as manager of the Commentry Mine and finally as managing director of Commentry-Fourchambault and Decazeville.In 1872 he was general manager of the Commentry, Montirco and Berry Group of Mines. During his time at the mine, he studied the causes of underground fires, how to prevent them, how to fight them, how to recover mining areas that had burned, and developed an understanding of the structure of the basin. In 1888 he was promoted to director general. of the Commentry-Fourchambault Company. During his time as manager, he made changes to improve work situations in the mines, such as allowing employees to work as a team, and changing the division of labor, Later, more mines were added to his tasks. His success was such that he managed to acquire for the Commentry-Fourchambautl company, the mines of Bressac, those of Decazeville, as well as those of Joudreville, in the coal fields of eastern France.

In 1900 Fayol became a member of the Comité Central des Houillères de France, a board member of the Comité des forges, and a trustee of the Société de Commentry, Fourchambault et Decazeville. Eventually, the junta decided to abandon its iron and steel business and the coal mines. They chose Henri Fayol to oversee the business as the new CEO. Upon receiving the position, Fayol presented to the council a plan to restore the company. The board accepted the proposal. When he retired in 1918, the company was financially strong and one of the largest industrial combine harvesters in Europe.

Drawing heavily on his own management experience, he developed his management concept. In 1916 he published these experiences in the book Administration Industrielle et Générale , more or less at the same time that Frederick Winslow Taylor published his book The Principles of Scientific Administration.

In 1918 he retired as chief executive of the Commentry, but remained its editor.

He died at the age of 84, having written only two major works: the most notable, published in 1916, was Industrial and General Administration, which unfortunately was not translated into English, and therefore little known in the United States for more than 30 years. later. In 1921 he wrote the book The Industrial Incapacity of the State and the Awakening of the Public Spirit.

Work

Fayol's work became more widely known with the 1949 publication of "Administración industrial y general", the Spanish translation of the 1916 article "Administration industrielle et générale&# 3. 4;. In this work Fayol presented his theory of administration. Before Fayol he wrote several articles on mining engineering, beginning in the 1870s, and some preliminary articles on management.

Mining Engineering

Henri Fayol, ca. 1870-80 (age 30-40)

Beginning in the 1870s, Fayol wrote a series of articles on mining subjects, such as the self-heating of coal (1879), the formation of coal beds (1887), the sedimentation of the Commentry, and on plant fossils (1890).

His first articles were published in a Bulletin de la Société de l'Industrie minérale' French, and beginning in the early 1880s in the Comptes rendus de l'Académie des sciences, the proceedings of the French Academy of Sciences.

Classical Management Theory

Fayol's work was one of the first comprehensive statements of a general theory of management. He proposes that there are five primary management functions and fourteen management principles.

Before making an outline of the basic ideas or, rather, of the structure of Fayol's theory on administration, it is convenient to point out what in our opinion is the most important: those principles that, although not all invented For him, they received from this French author -considered by some as the true father of the administration- their full consecration and strength. In the first place, Fayol points out, with great precision that the principles of administration are applicable not only to companies, but to any activity or institution in which there is coordination of human efforts to achieve an end effectively. It can be said that he establishes the principle of universality: for this reason it has been said that many consider this school with the name of & # 34; universalist & # 34;. Fayol establishes that the administration is based on the techniques and principles of other disciplines, but that it is something different from them, as well as from the activities on which it is applied. Thus, he affirms its "specificity". Fayol also maintains that the administration derives its rules from the experience of the greatest administrators. It is not, therefore, merely theoretical, but arises from experience in the manner indicated in the previous principle. Fayol points out that the administration theory is a means or a scheme to organize the experience that has been acquired. Consequently, it does not give it a purely theoretical or purely empirical character; The theory is mainly given the role and value of serving to organize and apply that experience that has been acquired. He also establishes that administration is something capable of being taught, and that it does not arise merely from the personal capacity of a certain head of a company or other institution. This is an enormous advance that leads towards the definitive incursion of it in the schools and in the universities as a special career. The following principles or rather insinuated ideas are perhaps the most personal of Fayol, and express explicitly that the administration rests on the formal organization, that is, on the structure of authority and responsibilities of each one. For this reason, he takes care to specify the functions that belong to each work unit, which is why he tries to identify those that correspond to each executive. It could be said that this is a principle of "impersonality of administrative functions".

Fundamental areas of administration

Fayol begins by establishing that the administration of a company comprises the fundamental operations:

• Technical area (production, manufacturing, transformation).
• Commercial area (purchase, sales, permutas).
• Financial area (search and capital administration).
• Security area (protection of goods and persons).
• Accounting area (inventory balance, cost price, statistics, etc.).

Functions of the administration

In his original work, Administration industrielle et générale; prévoyance, organization, commandement, coordination, controle, five primary functions were identified:

1. Planning
2. Organization
3. Command
4. Coordination
5. Control

The control function, from the French controller, is used in the sense that a manager must receive information about a process in order to make necessary adjustments and must analyze deviations. Lately, management scholars have combined the function of command and coordination into a function of direction.

Regarding the latter, which are the ones analyzed in his book General and Industrial Administration, he points out that administration consists of "foreseeing, organizing, commanding, coordinating and controlling". The most important section of his book establishes what he understands for each of these activities, their rules, and why they are important. Two clarifications can be made in this regard: a) In the first of these operations, forecasting -pre, before, and vision, what is seen-, Fayol points out that it consists of "scrutinizing the future and making action plans". With those who separate -as we do- the planning forecast, it must be taken into account that in Fayol's time these two divisions were already indicated in the same definition, as already explained. b) Likewise, it is necessary to emphasize that the fourth function that he puts (coordination) is actually the essence of the administration; forecasting is coordination of the facts that can be investigated with the means available to them. Thus, planning is a coordination of the different activities that are going to be carried out, for which reason it has been preferred to change it to direction, which already includes in practice the final and concrete coordination that must always be carried out when adjusting the plans to the specific cases.

Management principles

1. Labor Division - In practice, employees are specialized in different areas and have different skills. Different levels of specialization can be distinguished within the areas of knowledge (from generalist to specialist). Personal and professional developments support this. According to Henri Fayol, specialization promotes the efficiency of the workforce and increases productivity. In addition, the specialization of the workforce increases its accuracy and speed. This management principle of the 14 management principles applies to both technical and management activities.
2. Authority and responsibility - According to Henri Fayol, the power or authority accompanying him gives the direction the right to give orders to the subordinates.
3. Discipline - This principle refers to obedience. It is often part of the core values of a mission and vision in the form of good conduct and respectful interactions.
4. Command Unit - Each employee must receive orders from a single superior or on behalf of the superior.
5. Management Unit - Each group of organizational activities that have the same objective should be led by a manager using a plan to achieve a common goal.
6. Subordination of the individual interest to the general interest - The interests of any employee or group of employees should not have priority over the interests of the organization as a whole.
7. Remuneration - All workers must receive a fair wage for their services. Salaries paid must be according to a certain standard of living for the employee at the same time that is within the company's capacity to pay.
8. Centralization and Decentralization - This refers to the extent to which subordinates are involved in decision-making.
9. Scaling Chain - The line of authority from high management to lower ranges represents the scaling chain. Communications must follow this chain. However, if someone needs to communicate with someone else in case of an emergency, they can use "Gang Plank".
10. Order - this principle refers to the systematic disposition of men, machines, material, etc. There must be a specific place for each employee of an organization. That is "a place for everything (persons) and everything has a place."
11. Equity - All employees of the organization must be treated equally with respect to justice and goodness.
12. Staff Stay Stability - The high rotation of employees is inefficient. Management should provide orderly staff planning and ensure that replacements are available to fill vacancies.
13. Initiative - Employees who are allowed to originate and carry out plans will exercise high levels of effort.
14. Group/ Team Spirit - Promote the team spirit will build harmony and unity within the organization.

While Fayol devised his theories nearly a century ago, many of his principles are still represented in contemporary management theories.

Contributions of Henri Fayol to the administration

1. Division of work
2. Use of the administrative process globally
3. Technically professionalizing administrative functions

Posts

Books, translated

• In 1930, "Industrial and General Administration." Translated by J.A. Coubrough, London: Sir Isaac Pitman & Sons.
• 1949. "General and Industrial Administration." Translated by C. JULIA Storrs, Sir Isaac Pitman & Sons, London.

Articles, translated, a selection

• 1900. "Henri Fayol addressed his colleagues in the mining industry on June 23, 1900." In: Fayol (1930) Industrial and General Administration. pp. 79-81 (Reproduced in: Wren, Bedeian & Breeze, (2002) "The Basics of Henri Fayol's Administrative Theory")
• 1909. "L'exposée des principles generaux d'administration". Translated by J.D. Breeze. published in: Daniel A. Wren, [Arthur G. Bedeian], John D. Breeze, (2002) "The foundations of Henri Fayol's administrative theory", Management DecisionVol. 40 Iss: 9, pp. 906-918
• 1923. "The administrative theory in the state." Translated by S. Greer. In: Gulick, L. and Urwick. L. Eds. (1937) "Papees sobre la Ciencia de la Administración, Instituto de Administración Pública". New York. pp. 99-114

Awards

He was awarded the Delesse prize of the Academy of Sciences with the Gold medal from the Society of Incentives for the National Industry and with the Gold and Honor medals from the Society of the Mining Industry. He was also made a Knight of the Legion of Honor in 1888, an officer of the Legion of Honor in 1913, and achieved the rank of Commander of the Order of the Crown of Romania in 1925.