4 governing principles of Direction given by Follett

Follett gives the following governing principles of Direction:

(1) Prepared-in-Advance Behaviour Patterns:

If the necessary/indoctrination of the employees in attitudes conforming to the business purpose is already done, then education and training within the organisation will be necessary. Such education should also form a part of the daily activities of those who are engaged in direction.

(2) Minimum Distance from the point of origin to the Destination of the Order:

Since orders are the vehicles for directional activities it is safe and economical for them to traverse the minimum distance wherever possible. Such proximity between the origin and destination of order minimises the chance of delays, confusions and distortions likely to occur if the order filters down through many levels. The strength of an instruction varies inversely with the distance it traverses.

(3) Integration of Disassociated Paths:

An order or instruction leaves a recipient very often in two minds. He either tries to avoids it or modify it or, he may reluctantly abide by it. The process of direction should pay attention to the existence of these conflicts in the recipient’s mind and should resolve these divergent tendencies of his main. Such reconciliation would lead to easier acceptance of orders.

(4) Orders should obey the Law of the Situation:

Orders and instructions should be depersonalised as far as possible. Men are generally averse to taking orders from others they do not like to be subordinate to other men. As such, those who direct should make appear to emanate not from them but employees can be convinced that the orders arise inevitably out of the particular variable of the situation, and then acceptance would be much easier.