Classical Management Theory

Henri Fayol (1841–1925) was a French mining engineer who spent his entire career with Commentry-Fourchambault, rescuing the vast combine as its managing director from 1888 to 1918. He distilled that experience into the first general theory of management — five functions and fourteen principles — insisting that administration was a teachable discipline distinct from technical work.

Fayol codified management as a discipline: five functions — plan, organize, command, coordinate, control — and fourteen principles. Management became something that could be taught, not just possessed.

The era: Time, Place & Circumstance — Leadership emerges as a result of time, place & circumstance; the number of great leaders is proportional to the number of conflicts engaged.

Plan, organize, command, coordinate, and control.

This theory sits in the Time, Place & Circumstance era of the map: Leadership emerges as a result of time, place & circumstance; the number of great leaders is proportional to the number of conflicts engaged.

• Fayol, H. (1916). Administration industrielle et générale. Bulletin de la Société de l'Industrie Minérale. Google Scholar ↗
• Fayol, H. (1949). General and Industrial Management (C. Storrs, Trans.). London: Pitman. Google Scholar ↗
• Wren, D. A., & Bedeian, A. G. (2020). The Evolution of Management Thought (8th ed.). Wiley. Google Scholar ↗