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The Foundations of Henri Fayol's Administration

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Submitted By iamjerome
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The foundations of Henri Fayol’s administrative theory

Daniel A. Wren David Ross Boyd Professor Emeritus and Curator, Harry W. Bass Business History Collection, University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma, USA Arthur G. Bedeian Boyd Professor, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA John D. Breeze Independent Scholar and Business Owner/Manager, Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Keywords
Management theory, History

Abstract
Among modern scholars and students there is an increasing distance between the fundamenta l thoughts of early management writers and contemporary , often secondary , accounts of how these pioneers develope d their ideas. This shortcomin g can be remedied by seeking original sources from when a pioneer’s ideas were being formulated and from the context within which this occurred. We examine examples of how others have furthered our understandin g of management history by the discovery and translation of pioneerin g writings and present a rare, out-of-prin t translation and a previousl y untranslate d and unpublishe d presentatio n from the French pioneer, Henri Fayol. These presentation s to his colleague s in the mineral industr y reveal Fayol’s early reflection s as they would later evolve into his classica l book, Administratio n Industriell e et Ge Ârale. Âne

Management Decision 40/9 [2002 ] 906±918 # MCB UP Limited [ISSN 0025-1747] [DOI 10.1108/0025174021044110 8]

As management historians, we are seldom able to trace the formative thinking of our field’s major contributors, especially its founders. McMahon and Carr (1999, p. 228) noted the ``increasing distance between students and scholars of today and the early writers in the development of management thought . . . The current generation of students are reading less of the actual writings of the early scholars and more what those writing current texts are attributing to

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