In the pantheon of administrative theory, few works have cast as long a shadow as Luther Gulick and Lyndall Urwick’s Papers on the Science of Administration. Published in 1937, this seminal collection emerged during a transformative era when both government and industry were grappling with unprecedented scale and complexity. The Great Depression had challenged conventional wisdom about organizational management, while the looming specter of global conflict would soon test administrative capacities to their limits.

Gulick and Urwick didn’t merely document the administrative practices of their time—they articulated fundamental principles that would shape organizational thinking for generations. Their work bridged the mechanistic efficiency studies of Frederick Taylor with the emerging understanding of organizations as human systems. By synthesizing diverse perspectives from contributors across government, business, and academia, they created what many consider the foundational text of modern public administration.

As you explore these passages, you’ll discover that while the language may echo from 1937, the challenges and insights feel remarkably contemporary. In an age of digital transformation and global networks, Gulick and Urwick’s emphasis on coordination, human relationships, and organizational adaptability speaks with renewed urgency to our own administrative complexities.

Primary Sources

Notes and quotes are gathered from the Continuity in Administrative Science – Ancestral Books in the Management of Organizations – edition of ‘Papers on the Science of Administration’ by Garland Publishing, a facsimile series reproducing classic works in the field. While ‘Papers on the Science of Administration’ was originally published in 1937 by Columbia University and edited by Luther Gulick and Lyndall Urwick, the Garland reprint edition was published in 1987 and edited by Arthur P. Brief. Let’s get to it!

‘Papers On The Science Of Administration’ By Gulick & Urwick

What follows is a curated collection of the most illuminating passages from this landmark work, drawn from the 1987 Garland Publishing facsimile edition. These quotes reveal the authors’ prescient insights into coordination, leadership, organizational structure, and the essential humanity at the heart of all administrative endeavors. From their famous articulation of POSDCORB (Planning, Organizing, Staffing, Directing, Coordinating, Reporting, and Budgeting) to their nuanced understanding of how organizations actually function, these selections showcase why Papers on the Science of Administration remains required reading for students of management and governance.

“Every large-scale or complicated enterprise requires many men to carry it forward. Wherever many men are thus working together the best results are secured where there is a division of work among these men… Work division is the foundation of organization; indeed, the reason for organization.”
“Division of work and integrated organization are the bootstraps by which mankind lifts itself in the process of civilization.”
“Coordination is not something that develops by accident. It must be won by intelligent, vigorous, persistent and organized effort.”
“If subdivision of work is inescapable, coordination becomes mandatory.”
“Experience shows that [coordination] may be achieved in two primary ways… These two principles of coordination are not mutually exclusive, in fact, no enterprise is really effective without the extensive utilization of both… These are:
- 1. By organization, that is, by interrelating the subdivisions of work by allotting them to men who are placed in a structure of authority, so that the work may be coordinated by order of superiors to subordinates, reaching from the top to the bottom of the entire enterprise.
- 2. By the dominance of an idea, that is, the development of intelligent singleness of purpose in the minds and wills of those who are working together as a group, so that each worker will of his own accord fit his task into the whole with skill and enthusiasm.”
“The interrelated elements of time and habit are extraordinarily important in coordination. Man is a creature of habit.”
“Organization as a way of coordination requires the establishment of a system of authority whereby the central purpose or objective of an enterprise is translated into reality through the combined efforts of many specialists, each working in his own field at a particular time and place.”
“It is the function of [the] organization to enable the director to coordinate and energize all of the subdivisions of work so that the major objective may be achieved efficiently.”
“… the robes of authority of one kingdom confer no sovereignty in another…”
“… those who work from the top down must guard themselves from the danger of sacrificing the effectiveness of the individual services in their zeal to achieve a model structure at the top, while those who start from the bottom, must guard themselves from the danger of thwarting coordination in their eagerness to develop effective individual services. In any practical situation the problem of organization must be approached from both the top and bottom.”
“The major arms of coordination are found… in the horizontal services which handle planning, budget, and personnel… The major reason for bringing these services together… is not increased efficiency through specialization, but rather the development of tools of coordination.”
“An organization is a living and dynamic entity.”
“… the greatest lack of coordination and danger of friction occurs between the departments… at the points where they overlap.”
“Any large and complicated enterprise would be incapable of effective operation if reliance for coordination were placed in organization alone. Organization is necessary; in a large enterprise it is essential, but it does not take the place of a dominant central idea as the foundation of action and self-coordination in the daily operation of all of the part of the enterprise. Accordingly, the most difficult task of the chief executive is not command, it is leadership, that is, the development of the desire and will to work together for a purpose in the minds of those who are associated in any activity.”
“Human beings are compounded of cogitation and emotion and do not function well when treated as though they were merely cogs in motion. Their capacity for great and productive labor, creative cooperative work, and loyal self-sacrifice knows no limits provided the whole man, body-mind-and-spirit, is thrown into the program.”
“There is need for a national system of honor awards which may be conspicuously conferred upon men and women who render distinguished and faithful, though not necessarily highly advertised public service.”
“… the task of the administrator must be accomplished less and less by coercion and discipline and more and more by persuasion.”
“… the system of organization, the structure of authority, is primarily important in coordination because it makes it easy to deal with the routine affairs, and thereby lessens the strain placed upon leadership, so that it can thus devote itself more fully to the supreme task of developing consent, participation, loyalty, enthusiasm, and creative devotion.”
“… the limits of coordination are to be found in lack of knowledge and lack of administrative skill. It would therefore be sound policy (1) to advance knowledge through research in public affairs, and administration both through research and through the adoption of improved techniques. It would seem also desirable (2) to advance the area of attempted coordination in sectors and experimentally so that the necessary skill may be gained through trial and error. This would mean a deliberate advance in a wave motion, with periods of pause and consolidation after each forward move. If this course of action is adopted there is no need of accepting the view that there are fixed limits of coordination beyond which mankind can never go.”
“Governmental organizations seem to be extraordinarily immune to evolutionary changes. Next to the church, they are in all civilizations the most vigorous embodiments of immortality.”
“A governmental unit is by nature a monopoly…”
“… the immortality of governmental institutions… reflects the natural conservatism of mankind and the tremendous force of inertia in human institutions, it shows also the ultimate elasticity of governmental institutions.”
“Governments generally mend their ways and their policies so that they may survive. This is particularly true in a democracy. A democracy is characterized by the fact that there is built into the structure of the government a systematic method of introducing changes in program and method as the result of the broad movements of public opinion. As a result democratic constitutions should be more elastic, more subject to evolution and therefore more immortal than other constitutions.”
“The struggle for survival in government… becomes not so much a fight to the death, a test to destruction, but an endless process of adaptation to changed conditions and ideas.”
“… every step toward increased power must be matched with a step toward increased accountability.”
“… those agencies which deal with administrative management, that is, with coordination, with planning, with personnel, with fiscal control, and with research… constitute the brain and will of any enterprise. It is they that need development when we pass from a regime of habit to one demanding new thinking and new acting.”
“… coordination is essentially a question of relationships.”
“… specialization tends so to narrow the executive’s appreciation and knowledge of relationships as to make it impossible for him effectively to create and to maintain those relationships for which he is responsible.”
“The chief purpose of coordination is to secure detailed correlated action by individuals: the chief obstacles it has to overcome are differences of outlook or emphasis leading to heterogeneous initiatives.”
“Coordination has always been associated with command, with control.”
“Control consists in seeing that everything is carried out in accordance with the plan which has been adopted, the organization which has been set up, and the orders which have been given.”
“Just as coordination is the operating side of organization and depends on it, so control is in a sense the consequent of command, the constant checkin up on the results of command in action.”
“… command… is not an office job.”
“A plan has many stages. So has its execution.”
“… petrification of leadership… follows from an overload of administrative work.”
“Individuals are the raw material of organization.”
“… coordination [is] the first principle of organization.”
“Organization… means concerted human effort, the kind of effort that is essential to the highest measure of success of any group undertaking.”
“There is no escape from the fact that continuity of employment is the sole basis of enduring group loyalty…”
“Organization concerns procedure, and the attainment of any human group objective must ever depend, in great measure, on efficient forms of procedure.”
“To prepare… operations is to plan and organize; to see that they are carried out is to command and coordinate; to watch the results is to control.
- The preparation of the operations is the result of a twofold effort of planning an organization.
  - To plan is to deduce the probabilities or possibilities of the future from a definite and complete knowledge of the past.
  - To organize is to define and set up the general structure of the enterprise with reference to its objective, its means of operation and its future course as determined by planning… in organization, the theoretical concepts of planning are translated into facts.
- Execution is the result of command and coordination. To command is to set going the services defined by planning and established by organization.
  - … command would be powerless to ensure… complete execution… if it were not supplemented by coordination.
  - To coordinate is to bring harmony and equilibrium into the whole. It is to give to things and to actions their proper proportion. It is to adapt the means to the end and to unify disconnected efforts and make them homogeneous. It means establishing a close liaison among services specialized as to their operations, but having the same general objective.
- Control is the examination of results.
  - To control is to make sure that all operations at all times are carried out in accordance with the plan adopted – with the orders given and with the principles laid down.
  - Control compares, discusses and criticizes; it tends to stimulate planning, to simplify and strengthen organization, to increase the efficiency of command and to facilitate coordination.”
“Administrative tools are… the practical means by which planning, organization, command, coordination and control are carried out.”
“Without a plan there is no obligation, and without a report there is no comparison of accomplishment with plan, and thus no responsibility in either case. The absence of plans and reports create a general irresponsibility among employees…”
“… the fundamental principle of administration, which is investigation, enters into process with forecasting which takes effect in a plan.”
“The underlying purpose of command and control is to secure that all activities subserve the common interest. The principle expressing this purpose is centralization… and its effect is esprit de corps[,]… Appropriate staffing[,]… the stimulation of the individuals selected by rewards and sanctions… to release each individual’s initiative in the interests of the undertaking[,]… enforcement of discipline[,]… [and] stability of staff.”
“A nation or a state is [a] sort of social group, living together and in no remote sense workin together for common ends, whose management is the art we call governing.”
“The principle channels through which a government can bring its measures to bear upon a man are his desires to preserve his life, to avoid pain and discomfort, to mate, to preserve his family, to increase their standard of living, to enjoy companionship and social approval, to satisfy his curiosity and his moral or aesthetic demands.”
“Many of the measures of a government must, of necessity, be negations and prohibitions.”
“… no regulation expressed in language can be clear in its application to all cases, even in relatively simple and stable society…”
“The very foundation upon which public opinion at any moment builds itself is the body of beliefs, theories, prejudices, or superstitions with which a people have become indoctrinated early in life, and which have, therefore, gained the strength of habit. Those which result primarily in mental or emotional attitudes we may call its traditions; and those which are reinforced by physical activity, its customs.”
“It is as true in government engineering as in any other branch of organization engineering that structure is most wisely to be considered as a means, not an end.”
“Democracy… is sometimes implicitly regarded, not so much as a form, but rather as the determination, for better or for worse as may happen, by the whole of a group of people of their own behavior. When this idea is made explicit and there is actually no other fundamental purpose but self-determination intended, then structure and purpose are more nearly one, and the main problems are as to what details of structure help most in the determination by a people of their own course of life.”
“… the structure of government must be compartmentalized.”
“… if the structure of a government is to be fitted to its people and its purpose, it must take into account the probabilities of changes that may occur.”
“The penalty of undue stability must… be confusion, revolution, rebellion, or conquest.”
“Social organization is, in fact, a human need; it is, in some measure, necessary and inevitable. Its mere existence disciplines the members and gives rise to sentiments, often very strong sentiments, of loyalty, of personal and group integrity, and not infrequently of pride.”
“Like that of the family, the social organization of any group is felt as a real thing… spontaneously formed human relations are felt to have a meaning and a value…”
“The world is largely made up of… human social relations and of the sentiments that habitually arise in the course of… habitual performance of the routines and rituals of daily life.”
“… [a] social system cannot change very rapidly without breaking; it is bound together by sentiments, which change slowly and resist change, because rapid change is destructive of routines and rituals, of habits and of conditioned behavior.”
“The social environment is what sentiments, routines and rituals make it.”
“We talk much about learning from experience, but we cannot do that unless we (1) observe our experience, (2) keep records of our experience, and (3) organize our experience, that is, relate one bit to another.”
“… through unity an enterprise generates its own driving force. And this self-generated control does not coerce.”
“The aim and the process of the organization of government, of industry, of international relations, should be… a control not imposed from without the regular functioning of society, but one which is a coordinating of all those functions, that is, a collective self-control.”
“… growth and development are of the essence of any human organization.”
“… [functionalization] is an instrument in the hands of man, and an essential element in an organization which is to be subordinate to man.”
“… one of the surest sources of delay and confusion is to allow any superior to be directly responsible for the control of too many subordinates. Armies have observed this principle for centuries. The average human brain finds its effective scope in handling from three to six other brains… The nearer we approach the supreme head of the whole organization, the more we ought to work towards groups of three; the closer we get to the foot of the whole organization, the more we work towards groups of six… I imagine that four to five is enough. Not that a chief executive should not have contact with others; but that is about as many general functions as should regularly and directly lead up to him.”
“Administration has to do with getting things done; with the accomplishment of defined objectives. The science of administration is thus the system of knowledge whereby men may understand relationships, predict results, and influence outcomes in any situation where men are organized at work together for a common purpose. Public administration is that part of the science of administration which has to do with government, and thus concerns itself primarily with the executive branch, where the work of government is done, though there are obviously administrative problems also in connection with the legislative and the judicial branches. Public administration is thus a division of political science, and one of the social sciences… social sciences… deal with values and ends.”
“… administration is more an art than a science…”
“The fundamental objective of the science of administration is the accomplishment of the work in hand with the least expenditure of man-power and materials. Efficiency is thus axiom number one in the value scale of administration.”

Final Thoughts

Reading through these collected quotes from Gulick and Urwick’s 1937 masterwork is like discovering the DNA of modern organizational theory. What strikes me most is how their insights remain startlingly relevant nearly 90 years later. Their understanding that organizations are “living and dynamic entities” rather than mechanical structures was revolutionary for its time and continues to challenge purely technical approaches to management today.

The tension they identify between specialization and coordination remains one of the central challenges in any organization. As they note, “If subdivision of work is inescapable, coordination becomes mandatory.” This paradox—that we must divide work to achieve efficiency, yet this very division creates the need for integration—is perhaps even more acute in our era of global enterprises and remote work.

Their emphasis on the human element is particularly prescient. The recognition that “Human beings are compounded of cogitation and emotion and do not function well when treated as though they were merely cogs in motion” predates the human relations movement and speaks to ongoing debates about employee engagement and organizational culture. Their insight that administration must be accomplished “less and less by coercion and discipline and more and more by persuasion” feels especially relevant in today’s knowledge economy.

Perhaps most importantly, Gulick and Urwick understood that administration is both an art and a science—requiring not just technical efficiency but also leadership, vision, and an understanding of human nature. Their work reminds us that while tools and technologies may change, the fundamental challenge of organizing human effort toward common purposes remains constant. These quotes serve as both a historical document and a living guide for anyone seeking to understand the enduring principles of effective organization.

Thanks for reading!