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1. Introduction
Much has been written about Henri Fayol's work, but little is known of his motivations. What could have motivated Henri Fayol to formalise and publish his management theory at the age of 75 after a long and successful business career? He had successfully managed the Commentry-Fourchambault company, a 10,000-employee strong metallurgy and mining endeavour for 28 years before he published his management theory in 1916. He collected and recorded observations throughout his career and spent the last 15 years of his tenure as managing director writing and promoting his doctrine. His contribution was a major one and is still considered relevant today ([32] Pryor and Taneja, 2010).
Henri Fayol's motivation would not have been financial as he had already made his fortune and was a part of the French bourgeoisie as managing director of a large enterprise. We suggest that his motivation may be found in his private life. In the first parts of our text, we reconstruct his extra-professional life based on available official sources. The last part uses a psychological theory, equity theory to offer an explanation of his motivations to build a new science.
One motivation may have been a quest for intellectual success to avenge his father's restricted military career. Henri Fayol's father had a career in the military. He joined as a simple soldier and quickly rose through the ranks. He remained however a non-commissioned officer. His speciality was the artillery and to become an officer he had to attend the Ecole Polytechnique. It was no doubt a rebuff for the Fayol family. Henri Fayol junior sought to surpass these limits within the institutional and social context of nineteenth century France. We look more closely at Henri Fayol's family background, his schooling and his extra professional activities to improve our understanding of his motivations.
Very little is known about (Jules) Henri Fayol's private life. Only two documents broach the subject. In his authorized biography of Henri Fayol, Henri Verney only notes that he came "from a lower middle-class family in all circumstances so admirable in its understanding of the worth of its children and always knowing what sacrifices to make for strongly asserted callings" ([44] Verney, 1925, p. 3). Henri Fayol himself had told Verney what to write....