Luther Gulick and Lyndal Urvick's Principals of Administration

The culmination of the Principles of Administration Approach was the publication of Luther Gulick and Lyndall Urwick's Papers on the Science of Administration. In that time, 1937, public administration scholars had come to believe in a static set of principles by which any organisation could be designed or its function improved. These principles, implied that organisations were very much like machines, and that managers could follow a set of formulae to maximise their efficiency. Luther Gulick and Lyndall Urwick are known in the world for the work "Notes on a Theory of Organization" issued in 1937. They developed the acronym POSDCORB to describe the administrative functions of managers. POSDCORB stands for: Planning - Preparing methodical plans for managing programs; Organising - Creating the different sub-units of the organisation; Staffing - Hiring competent employees to fill vacancies; Directing - Issuing directives with time and performance criteria; Co-ordinating - Interrelating employees' effort efficiently; Reporting - reports for superiors; Budgeting - Preparing and executing budgets.