The following essay aims to compare the works carried out by Henri Fayol and Frederick W, Taylor and the contributions of the studies they carried out in their time and define who of the two is considered the father of administration.
1. Introduction
Whenever you talk about administration; Someone is credited with being the father of the administration, some authors and essayists give that role to Taylor, and some other authors lean more towards Fayol, some authors point to both in that way, the present essay aims to analyze to these two people, part of their life trajectory and to analyze the contributions that both gave to the administration, to conclude the hypothesis of who or who of the two are considered as the father of the administration; This is the core of this essay.
Some people may not share the same point of view, but this is about generating controversy and in the end to conclude, but always convincing with valid arguments the support of why and to whom or who of these two people are attributed to be the father of the administration.
2. Argument
The classical school of management from the 1900s to the 1920s, this school focused on efficiency, from it two branches emerged: The Theory of Scientific Management, promoted by Frederick W. Taylor and Frank and Lilian Gilbreth, and the classical theory of organization, based on the work of Henri Fayol.
Some describe Frederick W. Taylor as the father of Scientific Management. Because he was the one who conducted research on human work, he developed a method to study times and movements at work. (one)
Some describe "Henri Fayol, as the father of Classical administration, Fayol defines the act of managing as: Plan, organize, direct, coordinate and control" (2).
2.1. Who was Frederick W. Taylor:
Frederick Winslow Taylor (March 20, 1856 - March 21, 1915) was an American mechanical engineer and economist, promoter of the scientific organization of work and is considered the father of Scientific Administration. (3) In 1878 he made his first observations on the industry of labor in the steel industry. They were followed by a series of analytical studies on work execution times and remuneration. His main points were to scientifically determine standard work, create a mental revolution and a functional worker through various concepts that are intuited from a work of his published in 1903 called Shop Management.
According to Antonio Serra Moneda, (4) “Taylor began to lose his sight since his adolescence, in addition, his body was weak and he could not participate in the games that others organized such as baseball and tennis. "Forced to be degrading, for a boy, the role of spectator, he dedicated his life to conceiving how to improve the performance of the physical effort wasted by the players through a more adequate design of the instruments used by them." This attitude would mark him for life, for him the important thing was to measure the effort, the place and the movements to obtain a vast amount of information and, from there, take advantage of it in a way that gave the greatest possible efficiency both in sport and in sports. production.His biographers also describe him as a person with an inflexible attitude towards the rules of the game "even a game of cricket represented for him a source of study and analysis."
What is Frederick W. Taylor's theory?
Before Taylor's proposals, workers were responsible for planning and executing their jobs. They were entrusted with production and given the "freedom" to carry out their tasks in the way they believed was correct. The author describes it this way: “Managers and shop managers know better than anyone that their own personal knowledge and skills fall far short of the combined knowledge and skills of all the men under their command. Consequently, even the most experienced managers leave it up to their workers to select the best and most economical way to get the job done. " Hence, its principles "seen in their historical perspective, represented a great advance and a new approach, a tremendous innovation against the system."(2) It must be recognized here that Taylor represents the dream of an era, such as the United States of the first years of the 20th century where it was imperative to achieve the highest possible efficiency, taking care of the environment (3) coupled with an accelerated population explosion in cities, a growing demand for products.
There is a very particular difference between the theory of Taylor and Henri Fayol, it is the use of time, since Fayol focuses more on the general structure of the organization, while Taylor focused more on the method and tools of the work for a better effectiveness. Another difference between Taylor and Fayol is the area of the organization pyramid that they studied, one is the operative level that is Taylor's area of study while Fayol was dedicated to the study of the upper area of the organization, as he said "the statesmanship"
Now, it is necessary to return to the four principles of the author that would turn around the way work was done at that time, this is how the people who manage production must acquire new responsibilities as will be seen below. According to him, managers:
- They elaborate a science for the execution of each one of the work operations, which replaces the old empirical model. They scientifically select the workers, train them, teach them and educate them, while in the past each worker chose his own work and self-taught how he could improve Collaborate cordially with workers to ensure work is done according to the principles of science that has been developed Work and responsibility are shared almost equally between management and workers. Management takes under its responsibility all the work for which it is better qualified than the blue-collar workers, whereas, in the past, almost all the work and most of the responsibility was placed on the backs of the workers (Taylor, p. 43).
The study of work is done in consultation with the worker, but in association with him.
Taylor's desire to apply his revered "scientific management" went in the noble direction of achieving maximum prosperity for the employer, as well as maximum prosperity for the worker (Taylor p. 21), yet he later contradicts this statement by saying that He has seen how workers who begin to have increases in their salary by more than 60% become "drinkers" and begin to decrease their production and, thus, their quality of life; hence the 60% increase in salary is for him the maximum limit to be paid to what he qualifies as an ox-type worker. (5) Taylor describes a profound difference between those who must think and those who must execute “A mentally awake and intelligent man is, for this very reason,completely unsuitable for the work of this kind… the most suitable man… is incapable of understanding the real science of this type of work "(Page 61), later he nicknames this type of vigorous people but without any academic training as" employees ox type ”(page 63), that is, people suitable for jobs that involve the greatest muscular strength.
To finish with the text, some of Taylor's arguments for the application of his proposals should be cited. For him, man is, by nature, lazy and tries to hide behind it to slowly carry out his work, making the businessman believe that he is giving the best of himself. Hence, the times and movements of these workers must be measured to study them and find the best combination of muscular movements to increase production and, also, give uniformity to the processes, which was not the case in the old system. For this it was necessary to divide between those who think the best ways to do the work and those who have the physical strengths to do it, the former were given the responsibility of training the latter until they obtained the best performance their body could give.It also talks about the specialization of tasks, because in this way, the worker gains more time and skill doing the same thing every day. The scientific organization of work according to Taylor.
"The author affirms, without fear of being denied, that this laziness constitutes the most acute of the evils that affect the workers of England and America" Taylor himself explained that the stages to put into operation his new scientific organization of the job:
- Find ten to fifteen workers (if possible in different companies and from different regions) who are particularly skilled in the work to be analyzed Define the exact series of elementary movements that each of the workers carries out to carry out the work analyzed, as well as the tools and materials they use Determine with a timer the time necessary to carry out each of these elementary movements and choose the simplest mode of execution Eliminate all ill-conceived, slow or useless movements After having eliminated all the useless movements, putting together in a sequence the fastest movements and those that best allow the use of the best materials and tools.
FW Taylor: Principles of scientific direction, management (1891)
Who was Henri Fayol:
Henry or Henri Fayol (Istanbul, 1841 - Paris, 1925) was one of the main contributors to the classical approach to administration, he was born in Constantinople (5) into a bourgeois family, he lived the consequences of the Industrial Revolution and later, the first World War. He graduated in mining engineering at age 19 (5) in 1860 and joined a metallurgical and coal company, where he developed his entire career. At the age of 25 he was appointed manager of the mines and at the age of 47 he became general manager of the Compagnie Commantry Fourchambault et Decazeville, which was then in a difficult situation. His administration was very successful. In 1918 he handed over the company to his successor, in a situation of remarkable stability.
In 1878 at the Paris Congress of the Industrial Mining Society, held on the occasion of the World's Fair, Fayol presented a report on the alteration and spontaneous combustion of coal exposed to the air. This work had a great reception and established Fayol as a man of science. By 1888 he had already reached the post of director general of the Ferdinan Commentry. He retired in 1918.
He is especially known for his contributions in the field of administrative thought. He presented his ideas in the work General and Industrial Administration, published in France in 1916. After the contributions made by Frederick Winslow Taylor in the field of scientific organization of work, Fayol, using a positivist methodology, consisting of observing the facts, carrying out experiences and extracting rules, he developed an entire administrative model of great rigor for his time. In another of his works, The industrial incapacity of the state (1921), he made a defense of the postulates of free enterprise against the intervention of the State in economic life.
What is Henri Fayol's theory?
Fayol's administrative model is based on three fundamental aspects: the division of labor, the application of an administrative process and the formulation of the technical criteria that should guide the administrative function. For Fayol, the administrative function is intended only for the social body: while the other functions affect raw materials and machines, the administrative function only works on company personnel. Fayol summarized the results of his research in a series of principles that every company should apply: the division of labor, discipline, authority, unity and hierarchy of command, centralization, fair remuneration, staff stability, work as a team, the initiative, the general interest, etc.
He made great contributions to the different administrative levels. He wrote Administration industrielle et générale, which describes his philosophy and proposals.
The six basic functions of the company
Fayol divided the industrial and commercial operations into six groups:
- Technical Functions: Related to the production of goods or services of the company Commercial Functions: Related to the purchase, sale and exchange Financial Functions: Related to the search and management of capital Security Functions: Related to protection and preservation of people's assets. Accounting Functions: Related to inventories, balance records, costs and Statistics. Administrative Functions: Related to the integration of the other five functions. The administrative functions coordinate and synchronize the other functions of the company, always on top of them.
This school is contemporary to that of the Scientific Administration, whose founder was Frederick Winslow Taylor.
Principles of Administration
He is also considered the founder of the classical school of business administration, he was the first to systematize managerial behavior and established the 14 principles of administration:
- Division of labor: specialization of people's tasks to increase efficiency. Authority and responsibility: The manager is the Authority is the right to give Orders and the power to expect obedience from Employees; responsibility is a natural consequence of authority and implies the duty to be accountable. Both must be balanced with each other. Discipline: obedience, dedication, energy, behavior and respect for established norms. Unity of command: each employee must receive orders from a single superior. It is the principle of single authority.Unit of management: assigning a boss and a plan to each group of activities that have the same objective.Subordination of individual interests to general ones: general interests must be above particular interests Staff remuneration:there must be (as compensation) just and guaranteed satisfaction for the employees and for the organization. Centralization: concentration of authority at the top of the organization. Scalar chain: line of authority that goes from the highest to the lowest echelon. It is the principle of command. Order: there must be a place for everything and everything must be in its place, it is the material and human order. Equality between whites and blacks: kindness and justice to achieve the loyalty of the staff. Stability of the staff.: rotation has a negative impact on the efficiency of the Organization. The longer a person stays in a position, the better for the company Initiative - Ability to visualize a plan and personally ensure its success Team Spirit:harmony and union between people are great strengths for the organization.
3. Conclusions
Frederick W. Taylor is considered the father of scientific administration, and Henri Fayol is considered the father of classical administration, both people contribute their theories, the first is based on studying human work and elaborates a method to study the times and movements at work; the second defines the act of managing as: planning, organizing, directing, coordinating and controlling.
Taylor is based on a series of analytical studies on job execution times and compensation. His main points were to scientifically determine standard work, create a mental revolution and a functional worker through various concepts that are intuited from a work of his published in 1903 called Shop Management.
Fayol is based on three fundamental aspects: the division of labor, the application of an administrative process and the formulation of technical criteria that should guide the administrative function. For Fayol, the administrative function is intended only for the social body: while the other functions affect raw materials and machines, the administrative function only works on company personnel. Fayol summarized the results of his research in a series of principles that every company should apply: the division of labor, discipline, authority, unity and hierarchy of command, centralization, fair remuneration, staff stability, work as a team, the initiative, the general interest, etc.
It is difficult to decide who to point out as the father of the administration because the two contributions that these people make are important for any company since Taylor focuses more on human work and Fayol on the business structure, if we combine these two theories and apply them Currently there are many companies that handle these two models comprehensively. Taylor's theory is more linear where the worker is taken into account for his experience and his skill and ability, while Fayol groups the functions and results in a structure with well-defined divisions.
As a final verdict, I consider the two theories as important in their contributions, so I cannot specify as the winner either of the two of being the father of the administration, rather in the set of these two theories that are important for the administration, these two being visionary people for the time in which they published their work, some do not conceive it as something scientific but as necessary processes that is why they are theories but we are not going to fall into that discussion, because the two contributions are very valuable at the time they were published and In the current era, for many companies, although human contact has been polarized by robotization and the management of systematic processes.
If some attribute to Fayol being the father of administration, it is also valid that others attribute it to Taylor. So I better leave it in a business tie, analyzing the contributions of the two, each one has well-earned merit.
Support inquiries:
- https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Fayolhttps://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Winslow_Taylor
Footnotes
- (2010, 09). The Father Of Administration. BuenasTareas.com. Recovered 09, 2010, from http://www.buenastareas.com/ensayos/El-Padre-De-La-Administracion/789722.html(2012, 07). The Father Of Administration. BuenasTareas.com. Recovered 07, 2012, from http://www.buenastareas.com/ensayos/El-Padre-De-La-Administracion/4754945.htmlMünch, «Administration: Schools, administrative process, functional areas and entrepreneurial development» Editorial Pearson, Primera edition, 2007, pp. 75-76 Antonio Serra Moneda. In the Foreword to Taylor's book, p. 11-12 Chiavenato, Idalberto. Introduction to the General Theory of Administration. Mc Graw Hill.
Through the following series of video lessons (4 videos, 20 minutes) you can see a synthesis of the main contributions of both Taylor and Fayol to the administration and for which they are recognized by many scholars on the subject, such as parents of this discipline.
