Principle of Management

The principles of management are the important factors that contribute to the success of any organization. It has a tremendous impact on the practice of management in increasing the efficiency of the organization. The responsible administrator must know these principles and apply them with judgment in terms of his immediate situation. In view of its importance, scholars or management scientists have offered some views and propounded some fundamental principles. The principles of management are generalizations based on experience and careful analysis of case studies and are universally applicable.

Henri Fayol was the first to put forward a list of general administrative principles. His principles are:

1. Division of work: In a small one-man library, one person would be carrying out all the functions such as ordering, classification, cataloguing, preparation, shelving, servicing of documents, etc.; there would be no division of work. But in a large library if all the professional assistants carry out all the functions, then this would lead to inefficiency and confusion. As the library grows, there should be a division of duties, and the activities. As division of work takes place it will lead to specialization. This is desirable in a large set up. Division of work should be carried out up to a point.

2. Authority: Authority can be either statutory or personal. Statutory authority belongs to a person due to his position. Personal authority is achieves due to qualities of leadership. Possession of authority means responsibilities for action. Actual work in the library may be done by different persons but the ultimate responsibilities lie with the chief Librarian for all that goes on. He can delegate authority for a certain job. If the same is misused, then it can be withdrawn. An individual should be given authority equal to his responsibility. In case a person is given responsibility for a given job/task, then he should also be delegated authority to take necessary action to make it possible to fulfill the job/tasks successfully.

3. Discipline: In the best interest of the organization, there should be complete obedience, diligence, energy and outward marks of respect. This is equally applicable to everybody. The best way of establish and maintain discipline is to provide good leadership to staff, dissolve disputes with justice and enforce penalties prejudice.

4. Unity of command: An employee should be responsible to and also receive orders from only one superior. Any order by the chief librarian to a professional assistant should be transmitted through an assistant librarian, who is incharge of the section. Thus, an organizational structure should be such that each employee is supervised by only one supervisor. He should be responsible for giving assignments to him and also assess his work. This principles protects an employee from awkward situations if he is supervised by two or more supervisors.

5. Unity in direction: According to Fayol, there should be “One manager and one plane for all the operations which have the same objectives in view”. Unity of command depends on working of staff together properly but unity of direction is provided by means of properly arranging the organization so that there is one head and one plan to make it sure that coordinated effort would be achieved.

6. Subordination of Individual Interest to general Interest: According to the principle individual interest must be subordinated for the same of common good. Thus primary concerned of the employee should be growth and development of the organization. Hade of the order selection should not be permitted to take long leave during the last days of the financial year, if funds remain to be spent and bills have to be have to passed before the end of the financial year.

7. Remuneration: Salaries to employees and method of payment should be enough comparable to other staff of the parent body with equivalent qualifications. Employee should be given incentives for successful efforts.

8. Centralization: Centralization of administration may be carried out in varying degrees, depending upon the local situation. Anything that increases the importance of the role of a subordinate should be decentralized. On the otherhand any thing that decreases the importance of the role of a subordinate should be centralized. In a university library, system of book selection should be highly decentralized because of heads of departmental libraries know more about their fields of specialization than librarian of the central library. But ordering should be centralized so that there is no duplication of bibliographical tools, records and books. Managerial function should be decentralized to a limited extent. As a result, the operation would improved and it would be possible to take advantage of the special knowledge acquire by the member of the staff working in the departmental library.

9. Scalar Chain: This principle implies that authority and responsibility should flow in a clear unbroken line from the highest executive to lowest rank. This refers to hierarchy, which consist of a series or steps, extending in a unbroken line from chief librarian to the lowest employee or an attendant. This line service as a means of communication. Authority flows from superior to subordinates throughout the entire organization. Order go down alone the line traveling from top to bottom. However information and appeal travel in the reverse direction.

10. Order: Order refers to the best possible arrangement to achieve the most efficient operation of the organization. As regards movement of the materials, it would be economical if order section and cataloging section are located side by side.

As regards employees, a right person must be given a right job most suitable to him. It would be a wrong decision to put an expert classifier in the maintenance section. A right place or job must be identified for everything and every individual.

11. Equity: In dealing with employees treatment of equality must be put into practice. Justice must be combined with friendliness and kindness by those in executive towards staff. Salary scales must be based on education, ability, experience and level of responsibility. Preferential treatment should be based on the question of superiority of a person in terms of the factors mentioned above.

12.  Stability of Tenure: The principle is related to the staff’s benefit. There should be stable and efficient work force for the survival of an organization. Frequent leveling of person is expensive for the organization and reflects bad management. It must be corrected to ensure stability of efficient employees for longer duration in the organization.

 In the library, it will better of fill up some positions in a library with mediocre persons, who will stay with the library relatively for long period. At the same time there should be promotional avenues for competent person also.

13.  Initiative: It is concerned with thinking out and execution of a plane on the part of a manager or a worker. It minimizes the period for completion of a particular project or a task. It promotes innovation, creativity and efficiency in the organization. As a positive gain, initiative must be encouraged at all levels in the organization.

14.  Esprit De Crops: This principles refers to ‘Strength in unity’ being an extension of principle of unity of command. Library administration should create environment which leads to harmony and unity. Equity, initiative, unity of command and leadership qualities of the senior staff can do match to promote esprit de crops. It requires team work. Communication is considered as the key to the satisfaction of a working group, resulting in team work.