ACCA Applied Knowledge · Business and Technology · Leadership, management and supervision
A junior clerk at Marlow Ltd receives conflicting instructions from the finance manager and the operations manager about which task to complete first. Which of Fayol's principles has been broken?
The principle broken is unity of command. Fayol said an employee should receive orders from one superior only. The clerk is getting conflicting instructions from two managers, which causes confusion and weakens authority and discipline. Unity of direction relates to a single plan for related activities, not individual reporting lines.
- AUnity of direction
- BUnity of commandCorrect
- CScalar chain
Explanation
Unity of command means an employee should receive orders from only one superior. Here the clerk has two bosses giving conflicting orders. Unity of direction concerns one plan and one head for a group of activities with the same objective, which is a different idea.
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