Business Studies Project
Principles of Management: Project 1
Management Thinkers and Companies
© 2005
Aditya Anupkumar
1
Principles of Management:
An Analysis of the contributions of various thinkers to the field of Management, and a review of the management practices of five companies.
#3 Aditya Anupkumar
Principles of Management: Project 1
Management Thinkers and Companies
© 2005
Aditya Anupkumar
2
Section I: Management Thinkers
Principles of Management: Project 1
Management Thinkers and Companies
© 2005
Aditya Anupkumar
3
Henri Fayol (1841-1925): Principles of Management
One of the first persons to sit down and try to work out what managers do (and what they should do) was a Frenchman called Henri Fayol. Fayol was a mining engineer who became the managing director of an ailing coal mining firm and turned it into a highly successful coal and steel business. All this took place between 1888 and 1918, when he retired. In 1916, after many years ofthinking about the job of the manager, he published a small book called General and Industrial Management.
Henry Fayol was years ahead of his time in linking strategy and organizational theory and in emphasizing the need for management development and the qualities of leadership. Igor Ansoff, in Corporate Strategy (1965) said that Fayol ‘anticipated imaginatively and soundly most of the more recent analyses of modern business practice,’ although Peter Drucker in his great compendium Management: Tasks,
Responsibilities and Practice (1973), criticized the application of Fayol’s functional approach to larger and more complex organizations than the one he knew and managed.
Oddly enough, it was years before a translation appeared in English, even though it contains a great deal of wisdom and sense.
Part of the book deals with the ‘elements’ or ‘functions’ of management, and
Fayol identifies five such functions. They are:
• Forecasting and Planning
• Organizing
• Command
•
Management Thinkers and Companies
© 2005
Aditya Anupkumar
1
Principles of Management:
An Analysis of the contributions of various thinkers to the field of Management, and a review of the management practices of five companies.
#3 Aditya Anupkumar
Principles of Management: Project 1
Management Thinkers and Companies
© 2005
Aditya Anupkumar
2
Section I: Management Thinkers
Principles of Management: Project 1
Management Thinkers and Companies
© 2005
Aditya Anupkumar
3
Henri Fayol (1841-1925): Principles of Management
One of the first persons to sit down and try to work out what managers do (and what they should do) was a Frenchman called Henri Fayol. Fayol was a mining engineer who became the managing director of an ailing coal mining firm and turned it into a highly successful coal and steel business. All this took place between 1888 and 1918, when he retired. In 1916, after many years ofthinking about the job of the manager, he published a small book called General and Industrial Management.
Henry Fayol was years ahead of his time in linking strategy and organizational theory and in emphasizing the need for management development and the qualities of leadership. Igor Ansoff, in Corporate Strategy (1965) said that Fayol ‘anticipated imaginatively and soundly most of the more recent analyses of modern business practice,’ although Peter Drucker in his great compendium Management: Tasks,
Responsibilities and Practice (1973), criticized the application of Fayol’s functional approach to larger and more complex organizations than the one he knew and managed.
Oddly enough, it was years before a translation appeared in English, even though it contains a great deal of wisdom and sense.
Part of the book deals with the ‘elements’ or ‘functions’ of management, and
Fayol identifies five such functions. They are:
• Forecasting and Planning
• Organizing
• Command
•
Bibliography: • Carol Kennedy: Guide to the Management Gurus (ISBN 0-09-174810-0) • Carol Kennedy: The next big idea (ISBN 0-7126-8444-1) • Roger Oldcorn: Management (ISBN 0-333-59360-X) • Tom Peters and Bob Waterman: In Search of Excellence (ISBN 0-06-054878-9) • Peter Drucker: Managing for Results • Joel Kurtzman: MBA in a Box (ISBN 0-609-61088-0) • HenryMintzberg.com • Harvard Business School: Faculty Profiles: Michael Porter