DEVELOPMENT OF THE FUNCTIONAL
APPROACH TO MANAGEMENT
Henri Fayol was the first person to identify elements or
functions of management in his classic 1916 book Administration
Industrielle et Generale. Fayol was the managing director of a
large French coal-mining firm and based his book largely on his
experiences as a practitioner of management. Fayol defined five
functions, or elements of management: planning, organizing,
commanding, coordinating, and controlling. Fayol argued that these
functions were universal, in the sense that all managers performed
them in the course of their jobs, whether the managers worked in
business, military, government, religious, or philanthropic
undertakings.
Fayol defined planning in terms of forecasting future
conditions, setting objectives, and developing means to attain
objectives. Fayol recognized that effective planning must also take
into account unexpected contingencies that might arise and did not
advocate rigid and inflexible plans. Fayol defined organizing as
making provision for the structuring of activities and
relationships within the firm and also the recruiting, evaluation,
and training of personnel.
According to Fayol, commanding as a managerial function
concerned the personal supervision of subordinates and involved
inspiring them to put forth unified effort to achieve objectives.
Fayol emphasized the importance of managers understanding the
people who worked for them, setting a good example, treating
subordinates in a manner consistent with firm policy, delegating,
and communicating through meetings and conferences.
Fayol saw the function of coordination as harmonizing all of the
various activities of the firm. Most later experts did not retain
Fayol’s coordination function as a separate function of management
but regarded it as a necessary component of all the other
management functions. Fayol defined the control function in terms
of ensuring that everything occurs within the parameters of the
plan and accompanying principles. The purpose of control was to
identify deviations from objectives and plans and to take
corrective action.
A challenge for the manager in the 21st century is to
merge the traditional functions of a manager with the new demands
of workplace life. The change of value regarding human resources to
the organization coupled with technology is shifting the design of
organizations towards “boundaryless” and flat organizational
structures. In this theme we examine Fayol’s five functions of
management upon which most management models are based today and
how they are bumping up against the constructs of 21st
century management to create tension in the workplace.
Examine the role of Fayol’s pillars of management and how they
may conflict or conversely fit with contemporary organizations and
management theories. Explain comprehensively why or how a manager
might reconcile happily the two approaches to management.
