Principles of Management
This domain tests both schools: Taylor's scientific management (principles and techniques) and Fayol's general principles, plus the contrast between them.
Taylor's scientific management
Principles: science, not rule of thumb; harmony, not discord; mental revolution; cooperation, not individualism; development of each person to greatest efficiency; maximum, not restricted, output. Techniques: time study, motion study, method study, fatigue study, differential piece wage system and functional foremanship with eight bosses.
Fayol's 14 principles
Division of work, authority and responsibility, discipline, unity of command, unity of direction, subordination of individual interest, remuneration, centralisation and decentralisation, scalar chain, order, equity, stability of tenure, initiative, esprit de corps.
Worked example
A clerk receives orders from both the sales manager and the accounts manager. This violates unity of command (one employee, one boss), producing confusion and buck-passing. If two departments instead pursue separate plans with no common goal, unity of direction is violated (one head, one plan per group of activities). The gang plank lets same-level managers communicate directly in an emergency without routing up the scalar chain.
Traps
- Unity of command concerns people; unity of direction concerns activities.
- Techniques are time, motion, method, fatigue and differential piece rate; principles are the six listed above.
- Functional foremanship contradicts unity of command, a favourite comparison question.
- Gang plank is an exception to the scalar chain, not its abolition.