Principles of Management
Core rules
- Fayol offered 14 principles: division of work, authority and responsibility, discipline, unity of command, unity of direction, subordination of individual interest, remuneration, centralisation, scalar chain, order, equity, stability of personnel, initiative and esprit de corps.
- Taylor gave four principles: science, not rule of thumb; harmony, not discord; cooperation, not individualism; development of each person to greatest efficiency. Techniques include functional foremanship, standardisation and simplification, method, motion, time and fatigue studies, and differential piece wage.
- Unity of command means one boss per employee. Unity of direction means one head and one plan for a group with the same objective.
- Scalar chain is the formal line of authority; a gang plank permits direct contact between equals in an emergency.
Worked example
A worker receives conflicting instructions from the production supervisor and the sales manager. Diagnose this as a violation of unity of command, causing confusion and indiscipline. Remedy: assign the worker to one supervisor and route sales requests through the production supervisor. If speed is essential, a gang plank can authorise direct contact, but the supervisor must be informed. Reasoning: Fayol separates one boss from one plan; the problem here is command, not direction.
Traps
Functional foremanship uses eight specialists, not one. Taylor's differential piece rate pays a lower rate below standard and a higher rate above standard; it is not a flat bonus. Do not confuse harmony, not discord with cooperation, not individualism: harmony concerns employer-worker relations; cooperation concerns teamwork and sharing gains. Esprit de corps means unity, not discipline.