While Frederick Taylor focused on the planning of work and the management techniques of foremen and managers, Henri Fayol looked at management from a top management perspective. Henri Fayol’s book, General and Industrial Management, published in 1916, is based on his long work experience.
The Management Process Approach, just like the Scientific Management Approach, focused on the principles of efficiency and rationality and tried to develop principles related to all areas of management. It can be said that this study makes two main contributions to management thought: First, it characterizes the functions of management or the manager’s jobs, and the other is to create a set of principles for managers who will fulfill these functions.
Henri Fayol handled all the activities in the enterprises in 6 groups. These:
– Technical (production) activities,
– Commercial (buying, selling) activities,
– Financial (finding capital and searching for the most appropriate usage opportunities) activities
– Security (protection of employees and workplace) activities
– Accounting (including statistics) activities
– Management (planning, organization, direction, coordination and control) activities.
Management was defined by Henri Fayol as “seeing ahead (planning), organising, commanding, coordinating and controlling”.
Henri Fayol, based on his personal experiences and observations, put forward 14 basic principles for successful management and claimed that with the proper application of these principles, businesses will achieve success. These principles can be listed as follows.
- Division of Labor: To use the workforce effectively and to increase the productivity of the employees in line with their knowledge, experience and abilities is to go to the division of labor. Fayol states that this principle should be applied to all kinds of work, even technical work as well as managerial work.
- Authority and Responsibility: Fayol sees authority and responsibility as interrelated and states that as the position of the employee rises, his authority and responsibilities will increase to include those in his previous position. It would be appropriate to define authority and responsibility here. Authority is the “right to command” that the manager has. Fayol expressed authority as a function of the “position” of the manager and his “personality characteristics” (intelligence, experience, moral values, past services, etc.). The use of authority creates responsibility. The user of that authority is responsible for the consequences of the authority used.
- Discipline: It is the establishment of a system that will ensure that the works are carried out in a certain order. It refers to a unity of decision about how to do things, how to use resources, and what the results will be. According to Fayol, discipline is essential for the success of managers at all levels.
- Unity of Command: It means that each subordinate is subordinate to a single superior. That is, subordinates should take orders from a single manager and be accountable to a single manager. It is necessary to create a system suitable for this with the arrangements made for the success of the business. However, it is seen that this principle is not applied in some organizational structures today.
- Union of Management: According to this principle, all activities for the same purpose should be carried out by a single manager, depending on a plan. What is meant to be expressed here is not that all decisions should be made by the top manager. This principle is related to the establishment of organizational structure. Thus, the planned management of the activities of each organizational unit under a single manager in order to achieve common general objectives will create a unity of command.
- The Supremacy of General Interests over Individual Interests: If there is a conflict or difference between personal interests and general interests, the management should provide a compromise between them, while keeping the general interests at the forefront.
- Fairness: One of the duties of the manager is to treat the employees fairly and to allow the performance of activities that will provide maximum satisfaction to both the employer and the employee.
- Centrality: Fayol did not use the term centralization of authority, but this is what he is describing in his explanations.
- Hierarchical Structure: It has been determined as a chain of managers from the top to the bottom. This chain, which follows each other, should be used in all kinds of transactions and communication. The hierarchical structure and the principle of unity of command complement each other. In a hierarchical structure, subordinates can clearly know from whom to take orders and to whom they will be responsible. Communication is very slow in hierarchical structures. Fayol proposed a model to fill this gap.
- Order: Fayol states in this principle that there are two groups as material and social order. Naturally, this principle is associated with determining the location of each job and employee well. Fayol explains this principle as a place for everyone and everything and everything or everyone in its place.
- Equality: Employees’ loyalty and commitment can only be possible if the manager treats them fairly and equally.
- Employee Retention: Unnecessary workforce turnover and poor management increase costs and reduce productivity. Therefore, effective methods of recruiting and onboarding employees avoid unnecessary costs.
- Initiative: It can be defined as the ability to plan and implement. Employees should be expected to concentrate all their talents and efforts on their work, and to push conditions to seize opportunities. The manager, who sets an example for the personnel with these behaviors, should strive to develop the same characteristics in his subordinates.
- Spirit of Unity: It can be said that this principle is the exact equivalent of the saying that strength comes from unity. Emphasizing the need for teamwork as an extension of the principle of unity of command, the importance of communication is undeniable. For this reason, managers should take the necessary measures to strengthen the unity among the employees, to create their loyalty to the enterprise and to ensure internal harmony.
