Cameron Guthrie

The private life of Henri Fayol and his motivation to build a management science

Purpose – The aim is to identify Henri Fayols motivations as an accomplished business manager to publish his management theory at the age of 75.Design/methodology/approach – The authors retrace Henri Fayols private life using primary sources from various French public archives including civil registry records, military and diplomatic archives, schooling records, publications from learned associations and inheritance declarations. They then use a psychological theory, namely equity theory, to interpret this new information about Fayols private life and construct an explanation of his efforts to theorise his management experience.Findings – Henri Fayols schooling and his fathers military career respectively influenced his perception of mathematics teaching in management training and the functioning of the army. His motivation to found a science of management was not financial but instead most probably a response to the obstacles his father encountered during his career.Research limitations/implications...

Henri Fayol, the Manager

Foreword Introduction 1 The Industrial Context: The Coal and Steel Industries in Nineteenth-Century France 2 The Financial Function and Corporate Governance 3 Planning 4 Organizing: The Managers Working with Henri Fayol 5 Organizing: The Management of Workers 6 Coordinating, Commanding, Verifying: Information Systems and the Accounting Function 7 The Commercial Function: Sales and Pricing 8 The Technical Function 9 The Security Function 10 Conclusion Appendix 1 The Third Part of Industrial and General Management Appendix 2 Henri Fayols Final Interview Works Cited Index