Running Head: PRINCIPLE MILESTONES 1 PRINCIPLE MILESTONES 8 Edwin Villa Rivera Prof. Teresa Buehler-Rappold Management Theory and Principle Milestones American Military University 20 JAN 2019 Management Theory and Principle Milestones Introduction The management of people and employees barely existed before the industrial revolution as most tasks were handled by the business owners themselves. Industrial revolution sparked innovation management theories that gave business owners and managers insight into the best managerial practices to manage people and employees. The field of management has evolved over time, with managers now having unlimited resources at their disposal to learn new skills and scale their businesses and companies to greater heights (Rose, Spinks & Canhoto, 2014). This paper provides an overview of the key management theory and principle milestones over time, their significance, their highlights and also their limitations. Fayol’s Principles of management Henry Fayol was the founder of the 14 principles of management. He was at one point the director of a mining company which was facing a deep financial crisis. Fayol had to figure a way to undo the mess and this led him to develop the 14 principles of management to revive the mining company. These principles of management included the successful strategies that put the company back on its feet. The significance of Fayol’s principles of management during that time was to create personal and professional development within companies and business by giving managers the opportunity to develop and work on their management practices. These principles also gave managers the tools they needed to lead, making the management process more efficient. On top of these 14 principles, Fayol also came up with a list of the primary functions of management which complement the 14 principles. The 14 principles of management are the division of work, authority, discipline, remuneration, the unity of command, centralization, order, initiative, team spirit, the stability of tenure of personnel, scalar chain, equity, the unity of direction and lastly subordination of individual interests (Morden, 2017).  Fayol identified the primary functions of management to be planning, forecasting, controlling, coordinating, organizing and commanding. The highlight of Fayol's principles of management was that they have defined the true meaning of management. They brought positive change to organizations as they led to excellent decision making. These principles also made managers equipped managers with skills that made them more effective. In as much as the principles brought about efficiency in organizations, they had their own limitations. They were criticized for not being flexible and they could only be applied.

1. Running Head: PRINCIPLE MILESTONES
1
PRINCIPLE MILESTONES
8
Edwin Villa Rivera
Prof. Teresa Buehler-Rappold
Management Theory and Principle Milestones
American Military University
20 JAN 2019
Management Theory and Principle Milestones
Introduction
The management of people and employees barely existed before
the industrial revolution as most tasks were handled by the
business owners themselves. Industrial revolution sparked
innovation management theories that gave business owners and
managers insight into the best managerial practices to manage
people and employees. The field of management has evolved
over time, with managers now having unlimited resources at
their disposal to learn new skills and scale their businesses and
companies to greater heights (Rose, Spinks & Canhoto,
2014). This paper provides an overview of the key management

2. theory and principle milestones over time, their significance,
their highlights and also their limitations.
Fayol’s Principles of management
Henry Fayol was the founder of the 14 principles of
management. He was at one point the director of a mining
company which was facing a deep financial crisis. Fayol had to
figure a way to undo the mess and this led him to develop the
14 principles of management to revive the mining company.
These principles of management included the successful
strategies that put the company back on its feet. The
significance of Fayol’s principles of management during that
time was to create personal and professional development
within companies and business by giving managers the
opportunity to develop and work on their management practices.
These principles also gave managers the tools they needed to
lead, making the management process more efficient. On top of
these 14 principles, Fayol also came up with a list of the
primary functions of management which complement the 14
principles. The 14 principles of management are the division of
work, authority, discipline, remuneration, the unity of
command, centralization, order, initiative, team spirit, the
stability of tenure of personnel, scalar chain, equity, the unity
of direction and lastly subordination of individual interests
(Morden, 2017). Fayol identified the primary functions of
management to be planning, forecasting, controlling,
coordinating, organizing and commanding. The highlight of
Fayol's principles of management was that they have defined the
true meaning of management. They brought positive change to
organizations as they led to excellent decision making. These
principles also made managers equipped managers with skills
that made them more effective. In as much as the principles
brought about efficiency in organizations, they had their own
limitations. They were criticized for not being flexible and they
could only be applied by companies in specific sectors
especially manufacturing and construction where grading of
results can be done immediately. The principles also put more

3. focus on management and paid little attention to the problems
of employees and workers. Moreover, the principles to do not
touch on the important aspects of management, for example,
motivation and communication (Anheier, 2014).
Scientific management theory
The scientific management theory was founded by Frederick
Taylor. Taylor defined the techniques of scientific management
as he felt that the creation of an efficient division of labor could
be well determined through scientific management techniques as
opposed to the informal rule of thumb knowledge. Taylor was
once a manager at a certain machine shop where he noted that
some of his employees were not putting in the effort required
resulting in production inefficiencies. This pushed him to create
a system whereby each job the desired outcome for each job was
stated, and the progress of the work being done was measured.
His techniques of scientific management were significant as
they were able to look into ways the different ways a company
could save time and money when its employees worked at peak
performance. Taylor's major focus was, therefore, improving
work performance through specialization and division of labor.
He came up with four major principles to improve workplace
efficiency. The first principle is studying how workers handle
their tasks and formulating new ways of improving task
performance. The second principle is codifying new methods of
task performance into standard operating procedures and written
rules. The third principle is carefully selecting employees so
that their skills match the needs of the task and training them to
handle and perform tasks according to the set standards and
procedures. The fourth and last principle is formulating an
acceptable level of task performance then coming up with pay
system to reward employees who performance exceeds the
acceptable level.
The highlight of Taylor's scientific management theory was that
they become so popular and many organizations adopted them
and put them into practice. The limitations of this Taylor's
scientific theory were that managers used the scientific

4. principles for their selfish gains. After noting an increase in
performance by their employees, most managers instead of
rewarding these employees with bonuses, chose to add them
more work, leaving many employees dissatisfied with their jobs.
To add to that, increase in work performance led to layoffs
because only a few employees were needed. Thus, Taylor's
scientific management theory resulted in the exploitation of
employees. This theory also gives too much importance to
individual work performance and neglects the importance of
group performance.
The Bureaucratic management theory
The bureaucratic management theory was funded by a German
Sociologist, Max Weber. Max came up with the bureaucratic
style of management, whose significance was ensuring that
organizations treated employees equally and each employee was
given a clear description of the organization's division of labor.
Max Weber emphasized that bureaucracy contributed to an
organization's efficiency and economic effectiveness. He
formulated systematic processes and organizations hierarchies
to maximize efficiency and eliminate favoritism. Max developed
the bureaucratic management of approach following the old
organizational structures during the industrialization period,
which he intended to displace. He started his work so as to help
Germany manage its industrial enterprises at a time when the
country was struggling to become a world power. He placed
emphasis on the need for organizations to operate and govern
employees in a rational manner. His principles of bureaucratic
management, included a chain of command, application of
consistent and complete rules, selection and promotion of
employees based on qualification, separation of personal and
official property and lastly proper division of labor. The
highlight of this management theory was that it structured large
organizations making them work more effectively. The
limitations of this theory were that it demotivated and
demoralized employees because employees in a bureaucratic
organization had no chance to voice their opinion or even

5. participate in decision making. In addition, decision making
was quite slow in bureautic organizations because of the many
rules and formalities that these organizations had to follow.
Human relations theory of management
The human relations theory of management was founded by
Elton mayo during the industrial revolution period. During this
period, the main focus of the business was productivity and so
Elton started carrying out experiments in order to prove the
importance of people in productivity, as compared to machines.
This theory became significant at this time as it emphasized the
need for employers to encourage their employees in order to
make them more motivated resulting in high work performance.
Mayo's human relations approach had a number of features.
One, it stated that managers ought to have a clear and basic
understanding of human behavior in all aspects. Secondly, it is
required for managers to study the interpersonal relationships
among their employees at work. Third, it is only through good
human relations that higher production and high levels of
motivation can be attained. Lastly, management must draw
concepts of the various behavioral sciences. The highlight of
this theory was that it had a major impact on management
thinking and even practices. More researchers began to pay
attention to the human element in organizations. The major
limitation of this theory was that it was quite difficult to predict
human behavior in the workplace and research on the human
behavior approach failed to address this.
X and Y theory of management
The X and Y theory of management was founded by Douglas
Mcgregor. It was after the second world war that several studies
conducted revealed how assumption concerning employee
attitudes and their behavior affected the behaviors of managers.
Mcgregor developed this influential approach by proposing that
two different sets of assumptions about workers behavior and
attitudes influence how managers think and behave in an
organization. Theory X assumes that the average employee is
lazy and does not like putting an effort in the tasks they have

6. been given. This pushes the managers to monitor these
employees much closely so as to improve their performance.
The managers also control the behaviors of these employees by
issuing punishments or rewards. The assumption of theory Y is
that employees are not generally lazy and if given the chance,
they will do what is best for the organization. The Work setting,
according to theory Y, determines whether employees will work
hard or not and so managers do not have to keep an eye on them
to control their behavior because employees will be self-driven
to commit to the organizational goal. Therefore, managers strive
hard to create a work setting that is favorable to the employees.
The highlight of the X and theory is that organizations were
able to monitor the performance of their employees, leading to
high standards of performance. The limitations of this
management theory is that does not encourage innovation
among employees as the majority of them become reluctant to
organizational change.
Conclusion
These management theories and principles elaborated how the
external environment affected the ways in which organizations
and managers operated. It is seen that these theories and
principles served as a guideline for management actions and
even decision making. Many modern-day organizations still
apply these theories and principles in governing their employees
creating room to increase employee performance (Geisler,&
Wickramasinghe,2015). The works of these theorists have
continued to impact organizations in a great way.
References
Anheier, H. K. (2014). Nonprofit organizations: Theory,
management, policy. Routledge.
Geisler, E., & Wickramasinghe, N. (2015). Principles of

7. Knowledge Management: Theory, Practice, and Cases: Theory,
Practice, and Cases. Routledge.
Morden, T. (2017). Principles of management. Routledge.
Rose, S., Spinks, N., & Canhoto, A. I. (2014). Management
research: Applying the principles. Routledge.