POSDCORB

In 1937, Luther Gulick in his paper “Notes on the Theory of Organization”  submitted to Brownlow Committe draw the remarkable concept of "POSDCORB" from French industrialist, Henry Fayol. The short form, POSDCORB, stands for steps that he suggested a manager should take in any administrative process. POSDCORB stands for: Planning, Organizing, Staffing, Directing, Coordinating, Reporting and Budgeting. POSDCORB was Glick's response to this question: "What is the work of the chief executive? What does he do?"  His response that created this acronym was in detail as follows:

·         Planning, that is working out in broad outline the things that need to be done and the methods for doing them to accomplish the purpose set for the enterprise;

·         Organizing, that is the establishment of the formal structure of authority through which work subdivisions are arranged, defined, and co-ordinated for the defined objective;

·         Staffing, that is the whole personnel function of bringing in and training the staff and maintaining favorable conditions of work;

·         Directing, that is the continuous task of making decisions and embodying them in specific and general orders and instructions and serving as the leader of the enterprise;

·         Co-Ordinating, that is the all important duty of interrelating the various parts of the work; OR that means is a common thread that run through all the activities of the organisation.

·         Reporting, that is keeping those to whom the executive is responsible informed as to what is going on, which thus includes keeping himself and his subordinates informed through records, research, and inspection;

·         Budgeting, with all that goes with budgeting in the form of planning, accounting and control.

Gulick also suggested that some functions can be delegated to others in organization and he tried to explain limitations of this division of work. POSDCORB fits classical management definition and has influenced management and public administration within the years.

But no idea goes without critics. Among other criticisms,  Herbert A. Simon states that the POSDCORB principles are an oversimplification of administration. Simon's criticisms largely center around span of control and unity of command, stating that sometimes it is necessary for a subordinate to receive guidance or directives from more than one source, as well as Gulick's division of labor concepts.