‘POSDCORB’ Explained! Meaning, Full Form, Coined by, and 7 Functions of Management

What is POSDCORB?

POSDCORB is an administrative acronym that stands for Planning, Organizing, Staffing, Directing, Coordinating, Reporting, and Budgeting. It was coined and developed by the co-work of Luther Gulick and Lyndall Urwick In the Administrative Management Theory, it is a management framework that is used to help organizations accomplish their goals. The full form of POSDCORB are as follows –

Luther Gulick identified the executive function and coined the new word “POSDCORB”, incorporating all the functions. Each letter in this work represents one important functions of the managers.

P – Planning

The first of these letters, ‘P,’ stands for Planning. Planning means working out in broad outline the things to be done and the methods to be adopted to accomplish the purpose. Terry and Franklin argue that ‘Planning is selecting information and making assumptions regarding the future to formulate activities necessary to achieve organizational objectives (IGNOU Publication, 2001).

Every organization does some form of planning to prepare for the future. Planning is a highly specialized area, and several factors must be considered. Planning involves identifying the various activities required to reach the goal and arranging them in terms of priorities and sequence so that the organization’s objectives may be achieved systematically and efficiently.

In other words, it is the function of planning to estimate the human and material resources available to the organization and discover ways and means while aiming at economy and efficiency (Prashad and Prashad: 2000, p. 92-95).

O – Organization

‘O’ stands for Organization; after planning the activities of administration, one should think of the structure of administration, namely, the organization through which the activities are operationalized and objectives achieved. Organization means establishing effective behavioral relationships among persons. They may work together efficiently and gain personal satisfaction in doing selected tasks under given environmental conditions to achieve goals or objectives.

The need for an organization emerges when one individual cannot perform all the necessary tasks. As the number of individuals increases, they are further divided into groups, each given a specific set of functions. How and on what basis these tasks are divided among individuals and group is the role of ‘organization’ in management. The problems of formal organization are related to matters like levels of the organization, delegation of authority, hierarchy, the span of control, and work division.

S – Staffing

‘S’ stands for Staffing, and staffing is concerned with all aspects of personnel administration. Staffing is the management function that deals with organization members’ recruitment, placement, training, and development. Any organization is as good as its employees’ performance shows. The organization’s staff should be selected, retained, and promoted based on the organization’s needs and performance (J. Verghese:153-173). However, the motivational factors behind employees’ behaviors have yet to receive the attention of classical theorists.

D – Directing

‘D’ stands for Directing and relates to the orders issued by the managers to the subordinates directing the administration’s activities. Directing is the managerial function of guiding, supervising, and leading people. Sometimes directing and leading are seen as one function. Often, the success or failure of this function will determine whether the organization will achieve its objectives. Leading also determines the levels of satisfaction the employees of the organization experience.

CO – Coordination

‘CO’ stands for Coordination, which relates to avoiding conflict and duplication in the organization and securing cooperation and teamwork between the various units and employees. Coordinating means an inter-relationship of the work of various divisions, sections, and other parts of the organization. It is the process of integrating the objectives and activities of two or more units or departments of an organization in order to achieve organizational goals efficiently.

R – Reporting

‘R’ stands for Reporting. It means informing the superiors within the agency to whom the executive is responsible about what is going on. It means keeping the superiors informed about the various aspects of work, including the progress of the various programs, implementation problems, and staff-related problems. Reporting is done at every level.

B – Budgeting

‘B’ stands for Budgeting which covers the entire field of financial administration. Budgeting means fiscal Planning, control, and accounting. Budgeting is a specialized activity, and persons involved should possess considerable knowledge in accounts, economics, costing, etc., to prepare a proper budget. Any organization developing a budget for the first time does many guess estimates, as more than available information may be needed to prepare a budget.

Subsequent budgets can be made on the information collected from previous experiences. A budget is much like a plan because it is forward-looking and aims to make things happen. A budget contains the expenditure, income, and outcome planned for a specific period. Usually, budgets are made for a year, that is, annually. Through the budget, the manager controls the activities of the organization. Therefore budgeting refers to controlling the organization based on a budget (J. Verghese: 153-173).

In this book, they have introduced a popular acronym, ‘POSDCORB,’ to the administrative theory containing the central point of administration. But individually, both contributed a lot to the organization theory in the field of Public Administration (Chakrabarty and Chand, 2012).

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