Relevance of Henry Fayols Management Today - Case Study Example

Relevance of Henry Fayol’s Management Today Student’s Name: Instructor’s Name: Course Code: Date of Submission: Introduction Management is almost a constant in human life. This is because it affects the way one lives and operates to achieve his ambitions. Management is considered a global phenomenon. The management concept is popular and very widely used in human life. Starting from personal life to other economical and social aspects of life like in organizations, businesses, cultural and social, management is being applied to provide direction for various efforts towards achieving a common goal. According to Fells (2000), “management is termed as an art that is aimed at getting done following a particular way which involves people are organized in a particular way.” In that way management is referred to a process of creating an environment that is conducive for the people to co-operate and work together for a common purpose. On the other hand, F.W Taylor, “management is responsible for knowing what to do, when and make sure that it’s done in the best way possible with very minimal resources (Pryor and Taneja 2010). The purpose of this essay is to discuss the relevance of Henry Fayol’s Management in the contemporary society. The essay will start by stating if Henry Fayol’s theory of management is relevant today by giving an overview of what is theory is about, the management principles and functions of his theory and perhaps the area where his theory exhibits some weakness and the general view of this theory. Despite the numerous changes that have been witnessed in the management aspect of organizations, Fayol’s Theory of management is still relevant even to today not because of the management principles and functions it has addressed but because it has helped built on the foundation of management where contemporary managers can always refer from. For example, the 14 principles of management that have been identified by Fayol are very instrumental in creating an environment where work is well organized and people allowed to participate in the operations of the business and more especially where they are best suited. Take an example of the “division of work” clearly provides leeway on how people at work should be organized for maximum production (Pryor and Taneja 2010). This principle as provided for by Fayol was aimed at addressing on the best way people can be allocated duties at work for enhanced productivity. In the contemporary society, people are specialized in various areas and are expertise in performing certain functions as opposed to others. What this means is that people at work will only be productive if they are organized in such away that they are assigned those tasks that they are more skilled and efficient in. This will not help in increasing efficiency but will also be important in allowing the staff to utilize their abilities in those tasks that they are most suited in. while developing the fourteen principles, Fayol was interested at showing how the top management in organization should incorporate them with the five management functions identified in his theory for increased productivity and performance of business. Authority is also an important management principle that Fayol had presented to show the importance of being in a position to take charge of a team through giving orders. However, responsiveness is what Fayol has played more emphasis on while trying to explain the concept of authority (Wren 2001). This is after realizing being in a position to give orders alone is not sufficient as this must done in the most acceptable way that the team members do not feel underlet or undermined by their seniors. The other management principles that have been identified by Henry Fayol and that are very important even upto today include discipline, unity of command, and unity in command, subordination, remuneration, centralization, scalar chain, order and equity. The others are equity, security of employee tenure, freedom and team spirit (Berdayes 2002). The “14 principles of management” by Henry Fayol have had very significant influence in management in the contemporary society. In the 20th century his list of principles was used by managers in to learn on various ways to organize and also interact with their juniors in a very productive way. Even though these principles are not very common in the contemporary management society, they still provide very important guidance to the managers. Many of these principles are considered to be common sense and they are important in a work environment and are mostly incorporated by the managers into the five management functions that have been identified by Henry Fayol and which include: planning, organizing, commanding, coordinating and controlling (Pryor and Taneja 2010). To ensure that managers are effective in their managerial functions and responsibilities, he went further to identify six qualities and competencies that are important for all managers and which include physical qualities, mental qualities, moral qualities, general education, special knowledge and work experience (Wren et al 2002). The existence of these qualities and management principles provides the managers with the required competencies to carry out their management functions as required. Planning is a very important function of management according to Henry Fayol since it entails developing appropriate strategic actions that the business will have to use in future and the activities that will have to be performed in order to realize organizational goals and objectives. According to Fayol the essence of planning in an organization is to ensure that future objectives have been identified and that the organizations are well aligned to achieving them. The role of the managers in this case is to try and evaluate the contingencies that are likely to affect the organization in realizing it is future goals so as to try and shape different operational activities and strategies to manage them and define the landscape of the business (Yukl and Lespringer 2005). In the contemporary management environment the workplace is changing steadily and this might be as a result of change in the way people interact and communicate that has been enabled with new technology. To the management this means that the staff is always informed of their rights and very much aware of what is happening in their respective industries. Take the hospitality industry for example, the staff is always in direct contact with the outside world and turnover is likely to be high as staff will be looking for better paying jobs. The role of the management is to identify this contingency and find ways of making the staff motivated and committed to the business (Wren 2001). Organizing is also a management function that has been learnt from Henry Fayol’s theory of management and that has continued to be relevant even in the 21st century. The organizing as a management function ensures that the organization activities are done in an orderly manner and that no deviation from the company core objectives. Organization is especially outlined in the company structure and it shows how communication takes place and how instructions are made and taken. In the contemporary society, organization is important in ensuring scarce resources that are available are well utilized for maximum productivity (Kruger 2011). Leading is a management function that has continued to be very important aspect in the contemporary management society when it comes to providing direction for people at work. Leading entails guiding and motivating people to work as one team towards attaining organizational goals and objectives. Even though this concept may seem to be a bit different from ‘commanding’ as used by Fayol, it has got its grip from his theory. This is because in the contemporary society, leading has replaced commanding to show how people should be involved in contributing to say on how they want to be led. This is important in ensuring that all people are reading from same script and are involved in decision making processes (Yukl and Lespringer 2005). Managers also have the responsibility to coordinate their teams. The process of coordination entails harmonizing all the procedures and activities within the organization. What this means is that each and every manager is expected to ensure that the unit under him is part of the larger orgnisation and is working towards supporting the other functions. In the contemporary management society, coordination is being used to ensure that all new disciplines that have continued to emerge are well incorporated into the business and have a stake in promoting organizational performance and productivity (Parker and Ritson 2005). Finally, controlling is also a management function that had been identified by Henry Fayol and has continued to be very instrumental even in today management world. The essence of control is to ensure that all activities and company procedures are aligned with its goals and objectives. Controlling require that managers always monitor organizational progress and report any deviations initiate any challenges that may be appropriate in correcting the situation. In the contemporary society, this function is important especially when it comes to making sure that the organization has developed the required potential to meet the ever changing demands of the customers through diversification of products and services for the market (Kruger 2011). Conclusion This study has established that Henry Fayol’s five functions of management is a very normative view as does not take into account the management complexities that managers face in their day to day activities. It is therefore noted that Fayol’s management functions pays very little attention to the informal relationships that exist between the managers and their subordinates and further, do not talk much on how the management can develop and sustain a motivated staff. With this regard, it has therefore been established that the theory is not comprehensive on what the managers are expected to do in the contemporary society even it gives an overview from which managers can determine what is required of them in their daily work. References Berdayes, V 2002, Traditional Management Theory as Panoptic Discourse: Language and the Constitution of Somatic Flows, Culture & Organization, Vol. 8, No. 1, p. 35-45. Fells, M 2000, Fayol stands the test of time, Journal of Management History, Vol. 6, No. 8, p 345-360 Kruger, W 2011, Value Based Management, viewed 26th Sept. 2012 from http://www.valuebasedmanagement.net/methods_change_management_iceberg.html. Parker, L and Ritson, P 2005, “Revisiting Fayol: Anticipating Contemporary Management”, British Journal of Management, vol. 16, p. 175-194. Pryor, M and Taneja, S 2010, “Henri Fayol, Practitioner and Theoretician – Revered and Reviled”, Journal of Management History, vol. 16, no. 4, p. 489-503. Wren, D 2001, “Henri Fayol as strategist: a nineteenth century corporate turnaround”, Management Decision, Vol. 39 No. 6, p. 475-87. Wren, D., Bedeian, A & Breeze, J 2002, The foundations of Henri Fayol’s administrative theory, Management Decision, Vol. 40, No. 9, p. 906-918. Yukl, G and Lespringer, R 2005, Why Integrating the Leading and Managing Roles is Essential for Organisational Effectiveness, Organisational Dynamics, vol. 34, No 4, p. 361-75. Read More