Principles of Management
Taylor's scientific management
Principles: science, not rule of thumb; harmony, not discord; cooperation, not individualism; development of each person to greatest efficiency and prosperity. Techniques: functional foremanship (eight bosses - four planning: route clerk, instruction card clerk, time and cost clerk, disciplinarian; four production: speed boss, gang boss, repair boss, inspector), standardisation and simplification of work, method/motion/time/fatigue study, and differential piece wage.
Fayol's fourteen principles
Division of work, authority and responsibility, discipline, unity of command, unity of direction, subordination of individual interest to general interest, remuneration, centralisation and decentralisation, scalar chain (with the gang plank shortcut), order, equity, stability of personnel, initiative, esprit de corps.
Worked example
Standard output is 20 units per day. Piece rate is ₹10 above standard and ₹8 below. Worker A makes 25 units → 25 × ₹10 = ₹250. Worker B makes 18 units → 18 × ₹8 = ₹144. The ₹106 gap is the differential piece wage deliberately pushing efficiency; explain the gap, not just the arithmetic.
Traps that cost marks
- Unity of command (one boss per employee) versus unity of direction (one head and one plan per group of activities).
- Functional foremanship belongs to Taylor, not Fayol.
- Esprit de corps means 'union is strength' in the team, not general morale-boosting talk.
- Centralisation in Fayol is about concentration of authority, not about delegation.