Any business enterprise will need a management for it to be able to run smoothly and utilise it resources efficiently. Management can be describe as a process by which scarce resources are combined to achieve given ends (Appleby, 1994, p5). Functions of the manager include planning, organising, directing and controlling. One of the earliest people who gave deeper thought on management was Henry Fayol.
Henry Fayol (1841-1925) is one of the pioneers of management thought and is acknowledged as the founder of the Classical Organisation Theory (Chan, 1999, p2-2). His background was in mining and was also a managing director of a large French company. (Appleby, 1994, p13) He published his book Administration Industrielle et Generale in 1916 in an attempt to help colleagues "manage better" in the face of unprecedented change in business and commerce.
One of Fayol's famous contributions was his 14 principles of management, namely Division of Labour, Authority and Responsibility, Discipline, Unity of Command, Unity of Direction, Subordination of Individual Interest to the Organisation's Interest, Remuneration, Centralisation, Hierarchy, Order, Equity, Stability of Staff, Initiative, Esprit de Corps.
Betonwerksteinskulptur "Lehrer-Student" von Reinha...
Henri Fayol
Hrvatski: Fayolova načela upravljanjaThese will be further elaborated and examined later in the discussion.
Fayol's 14 principles have made planners aware that there are certain management principles that make for effective management in all fields and some of these principles are being used up till today. Though many of his principles may not be universally applicable to the wide variety of organisation that exists today, they become a frame of reference against which many current concepts have evolved. We shall now examine how relevant some of the principles are in the education ministry in Singapore and also in the school that I used to study in.
The Ministry of Education (MOE) in Singapore controls and regulates all that is taught in schools...