Explaining the difference between principles and

elements he makes it clear that the principles of

management are fundamentally true and establish a
relationship between cause and effect, while the
elements of management point towards its functions.
While presenting the principles of management Fayol
has kept two things in mind. Firstly, the list of the
principles of management should not be long but
should be suggestive and only those principles should
be explained which become applicable in most of the
situations.
Secondly, the principles of management should be
flexible and not rigid so that changes can be made in
them in case of need. The fourteen principles given by
Fayol are as under:
(1) Division of Work:

This principle of Fayol tells us that as far as possible

the whole work should be divided into different parts
and each individual should be assigned only one part
of the work according to his ability and taste rather
than giving the whole work to one person.
When a particular individual performs the same job
repeatedly, he will become an expert in doing that
particular part of the whole job. Consequently, the
benefits of specialisation will become available.
For example, a furniture manufacturer gets an order
for manufacturing 100 lecture stands. He has five
workers who will do the job. There are two ways to
complete this order. First, every worker should be
asked to complete 20 lecture stands.
The second method can be distributing different parts
of the lecture stand-legs, top board, centre support,
assembling and polishing-to all the five workers in a

manner that only one worker does the same job for all
the 100 lecture stands. Here, Fayols indication is to
the second way to do this job and not the former one.
The principle of division of labour applies not only to
the workers but also equally to the managers. For
example, if a manager is tuned to work on the same
kind of activities for a long period of time, he will
certainly be an expert in his particular job.
Consequently, more and beneficial decisions can be
taken in a comparatively less time by him.
Positive Effect advantages of specialisation are
obtained, such as increase in the quality of work,
increase in the speed of production, decrease in the
wastage of resources.
Violating Effect the above-mentioned positive effects
of specialisation will not be available.
(2) Authority and Responsibility:

According to this principle, authority and responsibility

should go hand in hand. It means that when a
particular individual is given a particular work and he
is made responsible for the results, this can be
possible only when he is given sufficient authority to
discharge his responsibility.
It is not proper to make a person responsible for any
work in the absence of authority. In the words of
Fayol, The result of authority is responsibility. It is the
natural result of authority and essentially another
aspect of authority and whenever authority is used,
responsibility are automatically born.
For example, the CEO of a company has doubled the
sales target of the sales manager for the coming year.
To achieve this target, authority for appointing
necessary sales representatives, advertising
according to the need, etc. shall have to be allowed.

In case these things are not allowed the sales

manager cannot be held responsible for not
(3) Discipline:
Discipline is essential for any successful work
performance. Fayol considers discipline to mean
obedience, respect for authority, and observance of
established rules.
Discipline can be established by providing good
supervision at all levels, clearly explaining the rules,
and implementing a system of reward and
punishment. A manager can present a good example
to his subordinates by disciplining himself.
For example, if the employees break their promise of
working up to their full capacity, it will amount to the
violation of obedience. Similarly a sales manager has
the authority to do business on credit.

But in case he allows this facility not to the general

customers but only to his relatives and friends, then it
will amount to ignoring his respect to his authority.
(Note: Both these examples give a message of
indiscipline which is an undesirable situation.)
(4) Unity of Command:
According to the principle of unity of command, an
individual employee should receive orders from only
one superior at a time and that employee should be
answerable only to that superior. If there are many
superiors giving orders to the same employee, he will
not be able to decide as to which order is to be given
priority. He thus finds himself in a confused situation.
Such a situation adversely affects the efficiency of the
subordinates. On the other hand, when there are
many superiors, every superior would like his orders
to be given priority. This ego problem creates a

possibility of clash. Consequently, their own efficiency

is likely to be affected.
(5) Unity of Direction:
Unity of direction means that there should be one
head for one plan for a group of activities having the
same objective. In other words, there should be one
plan of action for a group of activities having the same
objective and there should be one manager to control
them.
For example, suppose an automobile company is
manufacturing two products, namely, scooters and
cars, hence having two divisions.
As each product has its own markets and problems
therefore each division must have its own targets.
Now each division must plan its target as per its
environmental conditions to get better results. It is

necessary to distinguish between the meaning of the

unity of command and the unity of direction.
Unity of command means that there should be only
one m