A contemporary definition of personnel management, some of its critical assumptions and their relevance to the university organisation

Abstract

"To manage is", Henri Fayol said, "to forecast and plan, to organise, to command, to co-ordinate and to control." As to the soundness and good working order of the organisation, these depend, he believed, on certain "principles". He stressed that these principles were not immutable laws, but rather rules of thumb to be used as the occasion demanded. These principles number - although the list has no precise limit - some fourteen in all and include division of work, authority, discipline, unity of command, unity of direction, subordination of individual interests to general interests, remuneration, centralisation, the scalar chain order, equity, stability of tenure of personnel, initiative and, finally, esprit de corps.