Administration Industrielle et Générale
-H. Fayol
Swapnil Barmase, 1st year MRM
Administration Industrielle et Générale by Henry Fayol in my opinion must have been one the most influential and pioneering digest for setting up foundations of management tutelage. The entire book as well as most of the inscribed concepts and supporting examples is arranged in a tree format. The provided reading is divided into two main parts, 'Necessity and possibility of teaching management' and 'Principles and elements of management'.
The first part starts with underlining and defining all the activities to which industrial undertakings give rise into six groups: Technical Operations (production, manufacturing, processing), Commercial Operations (purchases, sales, exchanges), Financial Operations (research and management of capital), Security Operations (protection of property and persons), Accounting Operations (inventory, balance sheet, cost, etc.), Administrative operations (foresight, organization, command, coordination and control). After which the second chapter describes a set of special abilities that are essential for proper functioning of every group of the above mentioned activities like Physical attributes, intellectual, moral, general education, Special knowledge and Experiment.
The activities of each group are present in any job but to varying degrees: for example, a worker in a large industrial company, the author believes its technical activities to 85% of its total activities and for a general manager administrative operations to 50%, and financial techniques, commercial activities, and safety and accounting for 10% each. To summarize, the author reports that, "In firm of every kind the most important ability of the lower grade is the technical ability characteristic of the firm and the most important ability of higher management is managerial ability. Therefore there is widespread need for the conception of management". Thereafter, the author puts forward questions as to Why the administration is not included in the curricula of colleges of engineering programs.