GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF MANAGEMENT
Thinkers, experts and writers on scientific management have evolved useful principles to have practical guidance for management operations. In this section some basic principles provided by F.W Taylor, Henri Fayol and Charles Barnard, respectively representing scientific management school, operational management theory and systems theory, are presented.
Taylor's Principles : The fundamental principles that Taylor saw underlying the scientific approach to management may be summarized as follows:
- Replacing rules of thumb with science (organized knowledge);
- Obtaining harmony in group action, rather than discord;
- Achieving cooperation of human beings, rather than chaotic individualism;
- Working for maximum output, rather than restricted output;and
- Developing all workers to the fullest extent possible for their own and their company's highest prosperity.
It may be noted that these basic precepts of Taylor are not far from the fundamental beliefs of the modem manager, even though some of the techniques Taylor and his colleagues and followers developed in order to put his philosophy and principles into practice, had certain mechanistic aspects.