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The Theory Of Management By Henri Fayol Essay

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The section of business labelled as management has been a cause of debate which began centuries ago and still has no clear winner, with several theories being proposed on the basic question of ‘what is management?’. Discussions of this kind led to the creation and development of various teachings and schools of thought on the subject. One such teaching is that of the classical approach, under this approach theorists would consider management to be a topic that one could study, and be seen as a structural activity. A theorist who followed this approach was Henri Fayol, who published his ideas in the early twentieth century. At this time people believed that the activity of management revolved around key principles which could guarantee managerial success. However as time passed and people continued to study management, theorists such as Weber, Mintzberg and many others proposed the idea that management should be studied empirically by analysing what managers actually do. Therefore this essay will be analysing what theorist offers the most effective analysis of what management actually is.

The perspective of management taken by Fayol (1841-1925) and the rationale behind his argument.
Fayol’s approach to management was centred on his own personnel experiences which is one of the main contrasts between Fayol and other theorists who use empirical methods. Fayol spent his working life in the French mining industry. Until his early thirties, Fayol worked as an engineer before

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