A century old and still visionary: Fayol's innovative theory of management

Date01 June 2019
Published date01 June 2019
DOIhttp://doi.org/10.1111/emre.12292
AuthorBlanche Segrestin,Armand Hatchuel
A century old and still visionary: Fayols
innovative theory of management
ARMAND HATCHUEL and BLANCHE SEGRESTIN
CGS i3 UMR CNRS 9217, Mines ParisTech, PSL ResearchUniversity, Paris, France
Based on historicaldata and a seminal text never translated into English, we present an original interpretation of
Henri Fayols(18411925) administrative theory. This interpretation, which is consistent with the comments that
Fayol later presented about his General and industrial administrationtreatise, brings out his pioneering
contribution to management studies. Fayolmade the unknownintroduced byscience into industry the central tenet
of modern administration. He foreshadowed major aspects of todays innovation management. More fundamentally,
Fayol laid new foundations for the fieldof management sciences. He drewfrom the political and philosophical works
of the Enlightenment to develop a series of original concepts (in French: prévoyance,perfectionnement, programme,
inconnu, corps social) that were difficult to interpret and to translate. We maintain that Fayols administrative
science is a theory of a creative/politicalrationality that still, today, offers better theoretical and explanatory
support for management science than economic and bureaucratic theory.
Keywords: Fayol, administrative theory; organization theory; management history; innovation management
Introduction
Based on historical data and a seminal text that has never
been translated in English, we present an original
interpretation of Henri Fayols(18411925)
administrative theory. This interpretation brings out the
pioneering nature of his contribution to management
studies. Advancing a symbiotic relationship with science,
Fayol conceptualized the company (or any modern
organization) as a new and specific form of collective
value creation and administration as the capacity to
prepare the organization to cope with the unknown
generated by the close collaboration with science.
Finding no theoretical support for these ideas in the
conventional administrative or economic theory of his
time, Fayol drew from the political and philosophical
language of the Enlightenment to develop a series of
original, but sophisticated, concepts (in French:
prévoyance [foresight], perfectionnement [advancement],
programme [program], inconnu [unknown], corps social
[corporate body]). The purpose of the administration is,
in Fayols view, to pursue the highest standards of
scientific discovery and industrial productivity, while
securing the support of the organization and building
social cohesion.
Fayol laid the foundations for a new administrative
science: this science was not limited to the application of
scientific methods to existing administrative processes
but very early addressed the organizational challenges of
a dynamic, science-driven world. In this way, Fayol not
only paved the way for todays innovation management
but he also interpreted management theory as an original
theory of a creative/politicalrationality, independent of
both bureaucracy theory and economics.
From the old to the new Fayol
In 1916, Fayol published Administration générale et
industrielle [General and industrial administration],
hereafter referred to as the GIA. The text was translated
into English by Coubrough (Fayol, 1930) and by Storrs
(Fayol, 1949) and became a stan dard reference in
management handbooks. The GIA earned Fayol
recognition as a pioneer of administrativescience, usually
interpreted as the application of scientific rationality to
administrative processes (Gulick, 1937; Gulick and
Urwick, 1937; Urwick, 1937). Fayol became the victim
of his own success, however, when the list of his
administrative prin ciples extracted f rom GIA was shrunk
into well-worn acronyms, such as POSDCORB (in
Coubroughs translation: planning, organization, staffing,
Correspondence: Armand Hatchuel, CGS i3 UMR CNRS 9217,Mines
ParisTech, PSL Research University, 60 boulevard Saint Michel, 75006
Paris, France, Tel.: +33 140 51 91 09. E-mail armand.hatchuel@mines-
paristech.fr
European Management Review, Vol. 16, 399412, (2019)
DOI: 10.1111/emre.12292
©2018 European Academy of Management

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