ABSTRACT
Lyndall Urwick is the single most important figure in the development of modern management practices and thought. An original thinker, he also borrowed from many other influences, including the scientific management theories of Frederick Taylor and Henry Gantt, the efficiency methods and line and staff organisation of Harrington Emerson, the school of administrative management pioneered by Henri Fayol, the sociological and psychological approaches of Mary Parker Follett and Henry Dennison, and the moral and ethical outlook of British firms such as Cadbury Brothers and Rowntree. Throughout his career, he pushed for greater professionalisation in management and for improvements in management education. His consultancy firm, Urwick Orr and Partners, was enormously influential and was for many years the leading management consultancy in Britain. With his younger colleague Edward Brech, he also began the process of recording the history of the modern management movement, and is regarded as a pioneer management historian.1
