In this essay, I will compare five different management theorists including: Henri Fayol (1841- 1925), Frederick Winslow Taylor (1856-1915), Elton Mayo (1880-1949), Daniel Bell (1919-2011) and Henry Mintzberg (1939-present). I'll also discuss the organizational functions of management and how their implementation affects the efficiency of companies. .
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One of the most important authors who wrote about management strategies is Sun Tzu. His book, .
"The Art of War" emphasizes the efficiency of military strategy. "With the army focused,/ The brave will not/ Advance alone,/ Nor will the fearful/ Retreat alone./ This is the Art of/ Managing Many." (Sun-tzu, 2002:43). .
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Henry Fayol was the first to formulate a theory defining six management functions; the necessity for a clear plan, effective commanding, operative co-ordination, efficacious organizing, forecasting and control within firms. Fayol's list of managerial principles: division of work, authority and responsibility, discipline, unity of command, unity of direction, subordination of individual interest to general interest, remuneration of personnel centralization, scalar chain, order, equity, stability of tenure of personnel, initiative, esprit de corps (David A. Buchanan and Andrezej Huczynski, 2010:115) which provided good foundations of management. Henry Fayol credited his success to the methods he used, not to his personal qualities. He believed that managers should use certain principles in their work, in contradiction with Frederick W. Taylor who focused on the worker on the shop floor, known as the bottom-up approach ( David A. Buchanan and Andrezej Huczynski, 2010: 485), Henry Fayol was focused on management. "However, like Taylor, he too believed that a manager's work could be reviewed objectively, analyzed and treated as a technical process which was subject to certain definite principles which could be taught"(David A.