B.Com. LL.B. (Five Years) Sem 2 Principles and Practice of Management 2013 Dec Question Paper with Solutions

For full marks, cover: who Henri Fayol was and his book (1916, English translation 1949); his major contributions, each explained (management as a separate activity; its universality; management can be taught; the six groups of activities of an industrial undertaking and the changing importance of managerial ability by level; the qualities a manager needs; the five elements of management explained in turn; the fourteen principles in brief; the gang plank); a comparison with Taylor in a table; an assessment of his contribution and its limits; and a conclusion.

Henri Fayol

Henri Fayol (1841 to 1925) was a French mining engineer and executive. He joined the Commentry-Fourchambault mining company in 1860 and rose to become its managing director, a post he held from 1888 to 1918. When he took over, the company was in serious financial difficulty. Under his leadership it recovered and prospered. From this long experience at the top, Fayol wrote Administration industrielle et générale (1916), translated into English as General and Industrial Management (1949).

Contribution 3: Management can be taught

Fayol argued that managerial ability is not simply inborn. It can be developed through education and training. He regretted that technical schools taught only technical subjects and urged that management be taught in schools and colleges. This view laid the base for management education as we know it.

Contribution 4: The six groups of activities

Fayol divided all the activities of an industrial undertaking into six groups.

1. Technical activities: production, manufacture and adaptation.
2. Commercial activities: buying, selling and exchange.
3. Financial activities: the search for and best use of capital.
4. Security activities: the protection of property and persons.
5. Accounting activities: stock-taking, balance sheets, costs and statistics.
6. Managerial activities: planning, organising, commanding, co-ordinating and controlling.

1. Planning (prévoyance). Looking ahead and drawing up a plan of action. Fayol held that a good plan should have unity, continuity, flexibility and precision.
2. Organising. Building up the structure of the undertaking, both material and human. It means providing the undertaking with everything useful to its working, such as materials, tools, capital and personnel.
3. Commanding. Getting the best out of the employees, so that the organisation works. A manager who commands well knows the staff, sets a good example and removes incompetence.
4. Co-ordinating. Binding together, unifying and harmonising all activities and efforts, so that departments work in step.
5. Controlling. Seeing that everything occurs in conformity with the plan adopted, the instructions issued and the principles established. It also points out errors so that they can be corrected.

Later writers renamed and extended these elements as planning, organising, staffing, directing and controlling. But the idea of management as a cycle of functions comes from Fayol.

Contribution 8: The gang plank

Fayol saw that strictly following the scalar chain can cause delay. He proposed the "gang plank": a direct contact between two people at the same level in different departments. It needs the consent of their superiors, who are kept informed. This allowed quick co-ordination without breaking the chain of authority.

Fayol and Taylor compared

1. His principles were drawn from personal experience, not tested research.
2. Some are vague, such as the right degree of centralisation.
3. He gave less attention to human and social factors, later stressed by the Hawthorne studies.
4. Some principles conflict with modern structures, such as matrix organisation.

How Fayol's contributions are used today

1. Management education is built around his functions: courses on planning, organising, staffing, directing and controlling follow his framework.
2. Organisation charts and job descriptions apply his scalar chain, unity of command and division of work.
3. Personnel practices such as fair pay, grievance handling, low turnover and suggestion schemes reflect his principles of remuneration, equity, stability and initiative.
4. Selection and training of managers use lists of qualities much like his.
5. Cross-departmental co-ordination through direct contact follows his gang plank.