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Henri Fayol's Theory Of Management

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The theory of management has been developing since time began – in the tribal days, hunts had to be organised, in the Victorian era the construction of the railways had to be managed; and nowadays every organisation globally has to be organised. One of the first ‘schools’ of management was the Classical Theory – this focused on getting the most out of each employee following a strict structure of management – Henri Fayol is one of the most famous Classical Theorists and his quote - “to manage is to forecast and plan, to organize, to command, to co-ordinate and to control” – summarises his main points of how managers should remain in authority and carry out their jobs. Although there are also other schools of management such as the Human Relations Theory. This is a far softer approach and concentrates on each employees emotional and physical needs – it looks at them as a valuable resource to the business – not just as a means to an end.

Henri Fayol, was a French mining engineer by trade for a company called Commentry-Fourchamboult-Decazeville, before becoming a managing director at the same firm. He wrote a short publication ‘General and Industrial Management’ – which was translated by Constance Storrs and printed in 1949. Within this publication, Fayol laid out a rational outlook as to what management is; which entailed 5 fundamentals: to forecast and plan – to come up with a “plan of action”; to organise – arranging a task; to command – directing those involved with the

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