POSDCORB

POSDCORB is an acronym widely used in the field of management and

public administration that reflects the classic view of organizational theory.
It appeared most prominently in a 1937 paper by Luther Gulick (in a set
edited by himself and Lyndall Urwick). However, he first presented the
concept in 1935. Initially, POSDCORB was envisioned in an effort to develop
public service professionals. In Gulick's own words, the elements are as
follows:

 Planning
 Organizing
 Staffing
 Directing
 Co-Ordinating
 Reporting
 Budgeting

Planning
Planning is the hallmark of intelligent behaviour. An organization, in order to reach its goals, must
first set them and set them right. It is deciding the direction in which all the efforts and all the
manpower of the organization will be directed over a fixed tenure of time in order to strive for a
predetermined outcome. This outcome must be challenging enough to motivate but not daunting
so as to scare and frustrate the workforce.
E.g. In ABC Ltd., a toy manufacturing company, the plans for the next financial year are set at a
meeting of all the departments such as marketing, purchase & procurement, design &
engineering, manufacturing & operations, and IT at an annual conference. Here, the Chairman or
Managing Director will present his vision for the upcoming year. After deliberation and discussion
upon it, the final vision with concrete milestones such as 25% growth in sales, 12% growth in
EBITDA (Earnings before Interest, Tax, and Depreciation), cutting down costs of distribution by
5% etc. will be accepted by all the departmental heads and managers.

Organising
Here, the manager has been advised to arrange for all the necessary resources i.e. raw materials,
monetary resources, human resources, and technology as well as the managerial expertise to
help achieve the goals set under planning process.
Here, Luther Gulick warns against some practical problems that may arise while deciding upon
the procedures that would be followed to carry out the plans. Here, he says that division of work
amongst the workers and specialization is required to ensure efficiency. However, certain
problems may arise due to the division of work:
 1. It may result in the worker being occupied for only a limited number of hours leading to
less productivity.
2. It may result in certain workers doing the certain type of work only
3. It sometimes leads to two complementary and essential tasks being cut off which leads to
discordant progress.
In order to overcome these problems, POSDCORB theory suggests that the division of labour and
organization of their duties should be done by working out an optimum mix between purpose,
process, clientele served or materials used and job location.
Gulick described how the organization of workers could be done in four ways. According to him,
these are related and may be multi-level. Specifically, they are:

 By the purpose the workers are serving, such as furnishing water, providing education, or
controlling crime. Gulick lists these in his organizational tables as vertical organizations.
 By the process the workers are using, such as engineering, doctoring, lawyering, or
statistics. Gulick lists these in his organizational tables as horizontal organizations.
 By the clientele or material: the persons or things being dealt with, such as immigrants,
veterans, forests, mines, or parks in government; or such as a department store's
furniture department, clothing department, hardware department, or shoe department in
the private sector.
 By the place where the workers do their work.
Gulick stresses how these modes of organization often cross, forming interrelated structures.
Organizations like schools may include workers and professionals not in the field of education
such as nurses. How they are combined or carefully aggregated into a school — or a school
system — is of concern. But the early work of Gulick was not limited to small organizations.
E.g. In the above-mentioned example, ABC Ltd. will then source necessary raw materials, buy
new delivery trucks or outsource delivery function altogether to a transport corporation in order
to cut down distribution costs. It would also invest in new designs in order to boost sales. Here,
all the departmental heads will have reshuffle their internal goals and procedures in achieving the
bigger, organizational targets.

Staffing
This principle signifies the importance of human resource for any organization. It outlines the
procedures such as recruitment, training and retaining the right kind of employees for the
specific jobs. It also involves preparing them for their roles in the organization.
E.g. ABC Ltd. will recruit new designers to introduce in the markets or it will have to retrench its
delivery staff if it’s zeroing in on the outsourcing of distribution mechanism.
Directing
Here, after the plans have been laid out; necessary materials been sorted and employees hired to
perform the jobs; the manager has to direct their efforts towards the ultimate goals of the
organization by dividing those ultimate strategic goals into small, workable, time-bound targets.
He has to perform the role of mentor and motivator as in telling them how to do their jobs in the
best possible manner and encouraging them to perform better by overcoming the challenges.
E.g. The new designer will need some time to adjust to the organizational culture and understand
what’s expected of her. Hence, the Head of Design and Engineering department will constantly
guide her and solve her problems so that she can start contributing to the visions of the
company.

Coordinating
Here, the Chief Manager would have to take steps to coordinate the efforts by various
departments so as to ensure that they are moving in tandem with each other. If one department
moves out of sync, the efforts of all the departments will collapse.
For this, the manager has to arrange for the following two things:
1. He has to appoint managers for each department/workstation/project who will
coordinate the efforts of the employees under their charge with those under other
managers. This delegation of authority has to exist for seamless coordination.
2. Each and every employee has to be made aware as to how his role fits into the larger,
organizational whole. This gives him a clear idea as to his responsibility and prepares him
to take necessary efforts for doing his part of the job.
E.g. A quarterly meeting of production, sales and design department would achieve the objective
of coordination between their efforts and if required, they will redesign some of their initiatives
such as revising the design that has been able to get only a lukewarm response in the market or
pumping up production in order to capitalize on robust demand for toys.

Reporting
Reporting refers to keeping the channels of communication open both the ways throughout the
organization. This helps in reporting the progress of the work to the superior authorities and lets
them make modifications to the plan if required. Similarly, all the essential exchange of
information such as problems of employees, new regulations, appreciation etc. can be easily
shared with the concerned parties thin very less time and minimal distortions.
E.g. There will be weekly or bi-weekly meetings held in each of the departments where the
progress of the period will be reported to and discussed with the departmental head.
Budgeting
Finance is the lifeblood of any organization. Appropriate and consistent account of every penny
spent is crucial for the survival and prosperity of any organization. Resources – man, money,
material and time – should be allocated to each and every work centre or project in advance and
the employees responsible should be held accountable for their stipulated usage. This is
necessary to gauge the estimates for any such future requirements and also to investigate any
source of mistake or fraud.
E.g. Continuing the same example, in ABC Ltd. there is separate department named as ‘Budgeting
and Controlling’ that will frame the budgets and allocations for all the departments after the
departmental heads have submitted their goals for the year and requirements in terms of money,
human resource, materials, and technology.

Luther Gulick, one of the Brownlow Committee authors, states that his statement of work of a
chief executive is adapted from the functional analysis elaborated by Henri Fayol in his "Industrial
and General Administration". Indeed, Fayol's work includes fourteen principles and five elements
of management that lay the foundations of Gulick's POSDCORB.

Criticisms:
POSDCORB has been a very effective and concrete theory in administration and management
elucidating very clearly the roles and duties of any chief manager. However, POSDCORB has also
been facing some criticising remarks on the following grounds:

 Too simple a concept: A major criticism against POSDCORB is that it is too simple a
theory – a mere list – of some of the duties of the higher managing authorities. Many of
the functions listed in POSDCORB have already been delegated to various departmental
managements under modern management practices.
 Unity of command - A debatable principle: The assumption of Unity of Command also
seems out of context as it is a common occurrence to have more than one reporting
authorities in today’s complex organizational systems. Many times, the critical insight
received from more than one line managers enhances the performance of the employee.
 Ignores the role of Leadership: POSDCORB as a theory is overly fixated on a routine set
of duties that are administrative and mechanical in nature. POSDCORB ignores the vital
area where any chief manager can actually make the significant contribution to the
organization. This area is Leadership skills. Being a visionary, the leader has the capability
to think something different than routine managerial functions and led the organization
towards uncharted territories successfully. POSDCORB doesn’t focus on leadership skills
at all.
However, despite the criticism, a unanimous voice of consent and appreciation rings in favour of
POSDCORB as being a much-needed framework that has laid the foundation of modern
managerial POSDCORB practices.