Management is the core in any organisations, it is the fundamental force to operate the business. Managers are finding solutions within problems, and they have their responsibilities and abilities to deal with it. The science of management is introduced via different perspectives and methodologies. Henri Fayol (1949) is the pioneer to introduce the idea of management, his classical approach has been widely used in business over years. The more recent theorist, Mintzberg (1973), whose famous work, "The Manager's Job: Folklore and Fact," advocate that managers' job is not just about what Fayol described; however, he showed evidence about what managers really do from different aspects. The aim of this paper is to introduce different perspectives from both theorists, and carry out a discussion between them, then a conclusion. .
The classical approach is the beginning of the management. Henri Fayol (1961) was the first person who introduced it. He believed that organisational and business life combined these six activities- technical; commercial; financial; security；accounting and management (Fayol, 1949, Mildred Golden Pryor, 2010, Lee D Parker 2005). Then Fayol came up with five elements that a manager needs to process in an organisation in order to be efficient. They are planning, organising; coordination; command; and control (Fayol, 1949, Mildred Golden Pryor, 2010, Lee D Parker 2005). Lastly, Fayol advocated fourteen principles (Appendix 1) to guide the successful managers (Lee D Parker 2005).
Mintzberg showed his understanding for management from a different perspective. The focus of his research is on characteristics of managerial work, where managers work, who they are working with and what media they use.(Lamond, 2003). He says, "Managerial work is enormously complex, far more than so than a reading of traditional literature would suggest" (Mintzberg, 1975). He described the classical theory as 'folklore' and indicated that the evidence of research does not support them.