Friday, January 25, 2008

Henri Fayol – Fun Facts, Questions & Answers Information

Henri Fayol made his observatiosn on general management in his book, Administration Industrielle et Generale:

1.“Employees should receive orders from one superior only”. How did Fayol define this principle?

Unity of Command. Unity of command states that every worker should have only one immediate superior – he or she is responsible to that person and should ideally receive orders from that person only. This helps to pin responsibility in case of faults and fix errors in the system more easily. It also helps prevent chaos.

2. "Respect for agreements which are directed at achieving obedience, application, energy and the outward marks of respect”. What was Fayol defining?

Discipline. Discipline was one of the most important principles (according to Fayol). He declared that discipline requires good superiors at all levels.

3. Fayol emphasised on the need for team work in completing objectives and in the principle “In union, there is strength”. What term did Fayol use for expressing this? this

Esprit de Corps. Fayol was a Frenchman. He made his observations on general management in his book, “Administration Industrielle et Generale.”

4. To avoid wastage of time and resources while communicating in the formal chain (following the organisational chart), Fayol introduced a concept. What is it better known as?

Gang plank Policy. Suppose a supervisor in the service sector (of a firm) wanted to communicate something to his or her counterpart in the production sector. Following the formal line of communication would mean that he/she had to communicate to his/her superior who contacts theirs and so on till the person who is head of both the departments is contacted; from the latter, the message is routed downwards till it reaches the required person. As per the “Gang plank policy”, the supervisor can contact a counterpart in any department directly (subject to approval from his/her superior).

5. “Each group of activities with the same objective must have one head of one plan (to achieve the objective)”. What was Fayol defining?

Unity of Direction. Every department in an organisation must move according to specified plan – it is not only necessary that the plan optimises the working of the department; it should also be made considering the organisation as a whole (to prevent plans of different departments from clashing).

6. Fayol talks about “Division of Labour”.

Fayol believed that it is necessary to have division of labour to improve efficiency. He wanted this principle to all kinds of work – both managerial as well as technical.

7. “Order” was an important principle for Fayol. He broke down “Order” into two types – Material and what?

Social. Order was defined as “a place for everything (everyone) and everything (everyone) in its (his or her) place”.

8. Another important principle of Fayol was “Authority and Responsibility”. According to Fayol, Authority was a combination of official power as well as what?

Personal. Official authority was derived from the manager’s position while personal authority was obtained from a combination of factors like intelligence, past service, moral worth, experience, informal relationships etc.

9. Fayol advocated the need for subordination of general interest to individual interest.

He advocated that both ‘interests’ should be met but when these interests collide (or differ), then the overall interest (general interest) must prevail. Management must also try to reconcile the differences.

10."The extent to which authority is concentrated or dispersed”. This principle is known in the management fields as _______?

Centralisation. Fayol maintained that individual circumstances will degree (of centralisation) that is needed to “give the best overall yield”.


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