'A sales person is asked to clinch a deal with a buyer and is allowed to give 10% discount by the marketing manager. But finance department tells him not to offer more than 5% discount'.

Which principle of management is violated here?

Unity of Command

The correct answer is option 2- Unity of Command.

Unity of Command is violated in the given statement.

In this case, the salesperson is receiving conflicting instructions: the marketing manager gives the authority to offer a 10% discount, while the finance department restricts it to 5%. This creates a situation where the salesperson is uncertain about which direction to follow, violating the Unity of Command principle.

Unity of Command- According to Fayol, there should be one and only one boss for every individual employee. If an employee gets orders from two superiors at the same time the principle of unity of command is violated. The principle of unity of command states that each participant in a formal organisation should receive orders from and be responsible to only one superior. Fayol gave a lot of importance to this principle. He felt that if this principle is violated “authority is undermined, discipline is in jeopardy, order disturbed and stability threatened”. The principle resembles military organisation. Dual subordination should be avoided. This is to prevent confusion regarding tasks to be done. Suppose a sales person is asked to clinch a deal with a buyer and is allowed to give 10% discount by the marketing manager. But finance department tells her/ him not to offer more than 5% discount. Now there is no unity of command. This can be avoided if there is coordination between various departments.