Henri Fayol

French mining engineer and executive, developer a general theory of business administration Fayolism (1841-1925) · France · Academics · Died at 84

Henri Fayol is read about 479 times a day, in 48 languages.

A typical day, 30 days to 16 September 2026

The middle day of the days counted, so one week of news cannot move it. The line under it is the last 361 days, one point a day.

Something wrong?

Compare

He pulled management theory out of the mineshaft. A French mining engineer who rose to executive, then wrote the blueprints for how organizations actually run - and made "administration" a discipline you could teach.

Academics Academic Economics France Europe 19th Century

A life in dates

1925Died19 November 19251924Order of the Crown of RomaniaAward1917“There is no one doctrine of administration for business and another for affairs of state; administrative doctrine is universal.”In their wordsHenri Fayol (1917) "Préface à Administration industrielle et générale" in: Dunod and Pinat eds. (1918) l’éveil de l’esprit public. p. 6Read the whole statement

1913Officer of the Legion of HonourAward1908“According to the dictionary, to administer is to govern, or to manage a public or private business.”In their wordsp. 911Read the whole statement

“ensuring that unity of action, discipline, anticipation, activity, order, etc., exist in all parts of the enterprise”In their wordsL’exposé des principes généraux d’administration, 1908Read the whole statement

1900“The technical and commercial functions of a business are clearly defined, but the same cannot be said of the administrative function.”In their wordsp. 907-908Read the whole statement

“Every employee in an undertaking, then, takes a larger or smaller share in the work of administration, and has, therefore, to use and display his administrative faculties.”In their wordsp. 908Read the whole statement

“Would you like to know, for instance, to what extent higher mathematics is used in our two great industries? Well, it is never used at all.”In their wordsp. 909Read the whole statement

1888Knight of the Legion of HonourAward1841Born29 July 1841

Also in Deutsch

Photos 4

In their own words 10

Henri Fayol

10 statements, newest first

There is no one doctrine of administration for business and another for affairs of state; administrative doctrine is universal.
1917, Henri Fayol (1917) "Préface à Administration industrielle et générale" in: Dunod and Pinat eds. (1918) l’éveil de l’esprit public. p. 6, Own words
To manage is to forecast and plan, to organize, to command, to coordinate and to control. To foresee and plan means examining the future and drawing up the plan of action.
1916, Henri Fayol (1916) cited in: Russell C. Swansburg (1996) Management and Leadership for Nurse Managers, p. 1, Own words
According to the dictionary, to administer is to govern, or to manage a public or private business.
1908, p. 911, Own words

Wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0

Awards

Order of the Crown of Romania1924

Officer of the Legion of Honour1913

Knight of the Legion of Honour1888

About this person

Henri Fayol was born on 29 July 1841 and spent his career in French mining, working his way from engineer to director of mines. While Frederick Winslow Taylor was developing scientific management across the Atlantic, Fayol and his colleagues independently built what became known as Fayolism - a general theory of business administration drawn from the operational realities they'd lived. He published his framework and shifted management from intuition to method, giving structure to how organizations coordinate, command, and control. Fayol died on 19 November 1925, widely acknowledged as a founder of modern management methods.

Country

France

Academics from France 6

Jean-Luc Nancy56.5

Cornelius Castoriadis56.5

Jean Charles Léonard de Sismondi56.5

Antoine Meillet56.5

Raymond Aron56.5

Claire Voisin56.5

Fame.am measures public visibility signals. It does not measure human value, talent, morality, or credibility.