Fayol's 14 principles of management, with examples

Who Fayol was

Henri Fayol (1841–1925) was a French mining engineer who rose to be managing director of the mining and metallurgical company Commentry-Fourchambault-Decazeville, and turned it around from near-bankruptcy. In 1916 he published Administration industrielle et générale, translated into English in 1949 as General and Industrial Management. Where F. W. Taylor studied the worker’s task, Fayol studied the manager’s job. His approach is called administrative management.

The five functions of management

1. Planning (prévoyance): looking ahead and drawing up a plan of action.
2. Organising: building the structure of people and materials to carry out the plan.
3. Commanding: directing people so that the organisation runs.
4. Coordinating: binding together and harmonising all activities and efforts.
5. Controlling: checking that everything happens according to the plan and the orders given.

Modern textbooks usually list planning, organising, staffing, directing and controlling, but the structure comes from Fayol.

The 14 principles

#	Principle	What it means	Example
1	Division of work	Specialisation raises efficiency and skill.	In a bank, separate staff handle loans, deposits and foreign exchange.
2	Authority and responsibility	Authority to give orders must go with responsibility for results, in balance.	A project lead who answers for a deadline must have the authority to assign the work.
3	Discipline	Obedience, respect for agreements and fair penalties, which need good superiors at every level.	Clear attendance rules applied the same way to everyone.
4	Unity of command	Each employee takes orders from one superior only.	A sales executive reporting to two managers with conflicting targets breaks this principle.
5	Unity of direction	One head and one plan for each group of activities with the same objective.	A single marketing plan, under one head, for a product launch.
6	Subordination of individual interest to general interest	The organisation’s interest comes before any individual’s or group’s.	A manager does not hire a relative over a better-qualified candidate.
7	Remuneration	Pay should be fair and satisfy both employer and employee.	A transparent salary structure with performance-linked incentives.
8	Centralisation	The right degree of concentration of decision-making depends on the situation.	A chain store centralises purchasing but lets branch managers set staff rosters.
9	Scalar chain	A clear line of authority from top to bottom, through which communication flows, with a gang plank for urgent lateral contact.	See the figure above.
10	Order	A place for everything and everyone, and everything and everyone in its place.	Organised stores and clearly defined roles.
11	Equity	Kindness and justice in dealing with employees.	Equal treatment regardless of caste, religion, gender or region.
12	Stability of tenure of personnel	High staff turnover is costly; people need time to learn a job.	Induction and reasonable job security reduce attrition.
13	Initiative	Employees should be allowed to think out and carry out plans.	A suggestion scheme that rewards improvements from staff.
14	Esprit de corps	Union is strength: build harmony and team spirit.	Managers say “we” rather than “I”, and avoid dividing staff.

The scalar chain and the gang plank

In Fayol’s own illustration, two chains of authority run down from A: A–B–C–D–E–F on one side and A–L–M–N–O–P on the other. If F needs to deal with P, the formal route climbs all the way to A and back down, ten steps, which is slow. Fayol’s answer was the gang plank: F and P may deal directly, provided their superiors E and O agree and are kept informed. The chain of authority is respected, and the work is not delayed.

Fayol and Taylor compared

Basis	Fayol	Taylor
Approach	Administrative management	Scientific management
Perspective	Top management, the whole organisation	Shop floor, the individual worker
Focus	General principles of management	Efficiency of tasks through work study
Unity of command	Strictly followed	Not followed (functional foremanship)
Applicability	All organisations	Mainly production and factories
Known as	Father of modern management theory	Father of scientific management

Relevance today

The principles still describe much of how organisations run: job descriptions (division of work), reporting lines (unity of command, scalar chain), HR policies (remuneration, equity, stability of tenure) and team culture (esprit de corps). Critics note that Fayol’s view is top-down and assumes stable conditions; matrix structures and agile teams deliberately break unity of command. Fayol anticipated this in part: he insisted his principles were flexible and to be adapted to circumstances.

Practice questions

1. Explain Fayol’s 14 principles of management with examples. (15 marks)
2. Distinguish between unity of command and unity of direction.
3. What is the scalar chain? Explain the gang plank with a diagram.
4. Compare the contributions of Fayol and Taylor to management thought.
5. “Fayol’s principles are as relevant today as when they were written.” Discuss.