Henry Fayol's Management Theories - Essay Example

The principles act as guide to thinking, practice, and represent the sum total of management truths. Fayol further simplified the fourteen principles of management into five including planning, organising, controlling, commanding, and coordinating. According to Fayol, organisations need to plan, document and schedule all industrial processes. Planning helps in smooth running of an organisation, which needs capital, work force, and time. Production is a long process that needs forecasting of resources, to provide them as and when required by different departments.

After planning, organising functions allows materials to get to the right departments on time. Fayol suggested that personnel need direction and guidance in their work to increase productivity. The commanding function of management helps carry out this function. Coordinating function makes certain that personnel work together towards a single goal. The final management function Fayol’s suggests is the controlling function where managers evaluate their subordinates work to ensure that it is in line with the given commands.

Despite many criticisms, Fayol’s theories still form the basis of management practices and teachings in the 21st century. Principles of Management and Competitive Strategies: Using Fayol to Implement Porter is an article by Yoo, Lemak, and Choi. The paper presents the usefulness of Fayol’s principles of management to Michael Porter’s current competitive strategies. According to Yoo, Lemak, and Choi, “Fayol’s principles of management provided and continue to provide a general management perspective for practicing managers and an instructional tool for academicians teaching in the field of management” (Yoo, Lemak, and Choi 2006, p.353). The adaptability of Fayol’s principles of management is possible because he views management as flexible and adaptable to every need and change.

Porter’s competitive strategies theory posit that businesses should put into serious consideration policies that enhance quality products to sell at high prices in the markets. Competitive advantage occurs when a company produces differentiated products that make consumers willing to pay higher for them. A company gains competitive advantage on acquiring resources and ideas that make it perform at a higher level. Additionally, a company can gain competitive advantage by supplying similar products in the market but at a lower cost.

Michael Porter’s theory of competitive advantage is in use by many companies today who want to operate at a higher level than their competitors do. Some researchers have ignored the work of Porter arguing that it requires different resources, tactics, corporate cultures, and atmosphere to implement. However, a closer examination of Fayol’s principles reveals that some of them can be matched to Porter’s implementation framework. Research done by Waren et al proves that eight of the fourteen principles by Fayol fit in well in the implementation of Porter’s cost strategy of competitive advantage.

These include division of work, authority, responsibility, unity of command, unity of direction, scalar chain, stability of tenure of personnel, and initiative. Three of these that will fit in the differentiation strategy include stability of