Science and Administration

Abstract

THE growth in the magnitude and in the complexity of modern industrial and commercial undertakings has in recent years caused attention to be directed to the methods of management in connection therewith, and a vast amount of knowledge on the subject has been accumulated, co-ordinated, and arranged. In consequence, a great volume of literature, constituting the science of administration, has been brought into existence. To this an interesting addition has very recently been made by the publication in the number for the first quarter of 1918 of the Bulletin de la Société d'Encouragement pour l'Industrie Nationale of a paper read by M. Fayol on November 24, 1917, in Paris on “L'importance de la,.Fonction Administrative dans le Gouvernement des Affaires.” We learn therein that the Société des Ingénieurs civils de France has recently made a strong recommendation that courses of instruction on “administration” shall be introduced forthwith into all the higher schools of civil engineering in France. M. Fayol, on the occasion mentioned, expressed a hope that instruction in this subject might be made part of the curriculum of every school in France, even a part of those of primary schools; he is convinced that widespread instruction in “administration” must result in immense benefit to the French nation.