Principles of Management Test - 29

Unity of direction is concerned with one head one plan because:

• All the units of an organisation should be moving towards the same objectives through coordinated and focused efforts.
• Each group of activities having the same objective must have one head and one plan.
• This ensures unity of action and coordination.
• For example, if a company is manufacturing motorcycles as well as cars then it should have two separate divisions for both of them. Each division should have its own in charge, plans and execution resources.

Henry Fayol was a mining engineer.

He graduated from the mining academy of St. Etienne in 1860 in mining engineering.

The19 year old engineer started the mining company ‘Compagnie de commentary-Fourchambean Decazeville, ultimately acting as its managing director from 1888 to 1918.

Equity emphasizes treating all employees fairly and avoiding undue favoritism or punishment.

Principles of management are not absolute rather than they are :

Flexible - Principles of management are not rigid as these can be modified as per the situation.

Universal applicable -  The principles of management are intended to apply to all types of organizations, business as well as non-business, small as well large, public sector as well as private sector, manufacturing as well as the services sectors.

Mainly behavioral - Management principles aim at influencing behavior of human beings. Therefore, principles of management are mainly behavioral in nature.

Giving authority without assigning responsibility may lead to arrogance and fear of misuse of power.

Henri Fayol (1841-1925) was a French management theorist whose theories concerning scientific organisation of labour were widely influential in the beginning of twentieth century.

An imbalance between authority and responsibility can lead to decreased accountability and disinterest in discharging duties.

Henry Fayol is considered as father of General Management.

• Fayol was the first to identify four functions of management – Planning, Organising, Directing and Controlling although his version was a bit different – Plan, Organise, Command, Coordinate and Control.
• Based largely on his own experience, he developed his concept of administration.

Pure or Exact science principles can be tested in laboratories as these are not applied on human behavior.

• Pure or Exact science principles are applied on objects.
• The phenomenon of an apple falling from a tree towards the ground is explained by the law of gravity which was tested in laboratories also. In the same way Principles of  Physics chemistry and other subjects of science can be tested in laboratories.

Responsibility refers to the obligation to complete the job assigned on time.