Henri Fayol’s management

Write the following article on Henri Fayol. The work is to be 2 pages with three to five sources, with in-text citations and a reference page. Running head: Henri Fayol An advice to today’s mangers based on Henri Fayol’s management theory My advice for managing people today is to use lessonsfrom the practical experiences rather than heavily relying on the theoretical management principles. Henri Fayol did exactly that. Henri Fayol, the famous French engineer, believed that planning, organizing, co-coordinating, commanding and controlling were the main elements of management. (Fells) Planning is the starting process of every management task. The manager must have clear strategies for the successful execution of the project. He should have planned alternate options in case of failure of the current strategy. Organizing is the next step of management after planning. The materials or resources required for the project must identified at the planning stage itself which should be arranged at the organizing stage. The next step is to co-ordinate between different players of the project. For example, different types of works may be required for a project which may be done partly at different places. There should be a co-ordination between the members of the project in order to ensure the success of the project. The manager must act as a link in the co-ordination process. Commanding and controlling are the last step in management action. If the project is done partly at different places, nobody, except the manger knows about the final outcome of the project. So commanding and controlling of the project must be done by the manager. For example, in tire manufacturing industry, various parts of the tire, tread, beads, plies, etc. are manufacturing at different places of the plant. These parts have different specifications for different types of tires like car tire truck tire etc. The manager is the only person who has better idea about which tire should be manufactured with priority and for that purpose which parts need to be manufactured at other locations. Based on that, he has to advice the workers at different sections like bead section, tread section, and ply section.“Henri Fayol, an advocate of the experimental method, built his administrative theory from his experiences” (Wren). Today’s managers heavily depend on academic credentials for solving problems. They are totally wrong. They must realize that as in the case of every other segment of life, practice makes a person perfect. No academy or institution can give us readymade solutions for everyday problems face by the mangers. Education can only guide a manager to arrive at conclusions rather than taking decisions. Decisions of managers must be custom made for the organization he is working for. For example, the management strategy which was successful in one organization need not be a better one for another organization. Henri Fayol has formulated 14 principles for successful management which are. specialization/division of labor, authority with corresponding responsibility, discipline, unity of command, unity of direction, subordination of individual interest to the general interest, remuneration of staff, centralization, scalar chain/line of authority, order, equity, stability of tenure, initiative and spirit (Jarvis, 2005). Most of the modern managers are failing to allocate the work based on the skills of the employees which ultimately result in big failures. In short the current mangers failed miserably in analysing the employee potentials. Another drawback of the current managers is that they will allocate only the responsibility, but they will forget to allocate the authority needed to execute the responsibility. An employee with only responsibility and no authority can be a waste in an organization. Discipline is an all important function of every organization. The manager should know that not only the employees but the manger themselves, also should exhibit high standards of discipline. The employee should never be confused with contradictory instructions from different superiors/managers. The instructions given to the employees must be clear and unidirectional. Individual interests should never be given priority over the organizations interest. Many modern mangers use the organization for their own self interests rather than the organization’s interest. The compensation of the employees must be fair. Moreover fair treatment and assurance of stability of job will increase the loyalty of the employees towards the organization. The manger should take initiative for every action in the organization rather than waiting for the employees to start at their own way. The spirit of the employees must be kept high and for that purpose the mangers must try to avoid demoralization of employees. In short, the modern mangers have lots of lessons to be learned from Henri Fayol. Out of the all management theories he formulated, in my opinion, the theory of experience is the most important and relevant one for the current mangers. References1. Fells, Michael J. Fayol stands the test of time, Retrieved on 1 July 2009 from http://www.emeraldinsight.com/Insight/viewContentItem.do.jsessionid=29D54A6FDB97DBD00340BC06A5770414?contentType=Article&contentId=8719952. Wren, Daniel A. Henri Fayol: learning from experience, Retrieved on 1 July 2009 from http://www.emeraldinsight.com/Insight/viewContentItem.do.jsessionid=29D54A6FDB97DBD00340BC06A5770414?contentType=Article&contentId=8718783. Jarvis, Chris,(2005), Fayol (1841-1925) Functions and Principles of Management, Retrieved on 1 July 2009 from http://www.bola.biz/competence/fayol.