Posthumous publications of Henri Fayol: a new look at his administrative theory

Abstract

The French engineer Henri Fayol (1841-1925) is usually introduced to the students of Management as the Father of Classical School, which however, would be a misrepresentation of the breadth of his contribution to management. In addition, he is often associated with his contemporary, the American theorist Frederick Taylor, both credited with having advocated an authoritarian model of management. Recent researchers, however, have found, through examining unpublished and rare documents, an unknown portrait of this pioneer. This paper comes out from extensive available bibliographic sources, published and unpublished, which include studies developed by researchers from France, United States, Canada, Australia and Japan. These researchers make up a small group of scholars, here called “new fayolists” because, after years of almost amnesia in academia, they resumed interest in the contributions of Henri Fayol. These studies uncover concepts, developed by Fayol, which anticipated aspects of coming management theories like human relations movement, systems-based contingency theory and strategic planning. By presenting this recent research about the man and theorist Henri Fayol, this study allows, to the Portuguese language students and scholars, access to writings and speeches of Henri Fayol that remain untranslated and unpublished until now.