Luther Gulick and Lyndall Urwick(Administrative Thinker)
Luther Gulick and Lyndall Urwick
In Brief
The contribution of Gulick and Urwick to the administrative theory are summarized below :
- Luther Gulick, an acknowledged founder of administrative thought, and Lyndall Urwick, an outstanding management consultant with their rich experience in civil and military administration made contribution to the synthesis of classical administrative theory.
- The papers on the Science of Administration, edited by them, is considered a landmark in the development of the science of administration. In their view the process of development in engineering science, which is based on empirical observations and analysis, is equally applicable to the development of science of administration.
- Gulick and Urwick emphasised the importanceof structure in administration. They considered structure as a designing process and devoted their attention to the discovery of principles based on which the structure may be designed. They considered principles as a framework of thought and arrangements of ideas to help in the development of science of administration.
- Gulick discussed in detail the executive functions and coined POSDCORB By incorporating the first letters of all the functions of the executive. The acronym, though not comphrensive, helps in understanding and analysing the functions of the executive.
- Gulick considered division of work as the basis of organization. His theory of departmentalization addresses the basis of division of work for the creation of departments. The four basis of departmentalization viz., purpose, process, persons and place, popularly known as the "4Ps", are extensively used in the creation of departments/units in organizations. Gulick and Urwick in their writings in detail the application of many other principles like single executive, staff principles, delegation, span of control, etc.
- Gulick, in his later writings focused on human factors in administration. Based on his fifty years of analysis, Gulick observes:"after all governments are constituted of human beings, are run by human beings and have as their main job, helping, contributing and serving human beings". He considered the human being as the dynamic factor intrinsic in the study of administration.
- Gulick also emphasised time as the crucial factor in the organizations. He identified five aspects of time, viz., time as input, time as an output, time as the flow of events and time as a gap between two or more significant events or processes and finally timing as a management policy. He consisders time factor as critical in public administration.
- The principles of organization of Gulick and Urwick were criticised for their contradictions and inadequacy to answer practical organizational questions and also for their neglect of role of human element in organizational processes. In his later writings Gulick emphasised the role of human beings in organizations; and
- There can not be any serious of the science of administration without reference to the principles of organization. Understanding and theorising the dynamic nature of application of these principles in different administrative situations is the major challenge of administrative studies today.
