[1] After his book about corporate culture The Organization Man (1956) sold over two million copies, Whyte turned his attention to the study of human behavior in urban settings.

He spent the rest of the war lecturing and writing at the Marine Corps Staff and Command School at Quantico, Virginia, on the fighting qualities of the Japanese soldier.

[5]Whyte wrote a 1956 bestseller titled The Organization Man[6] after Fortune Magazine sponsored him to do extensive interviews on the CEOs of corporations such as General Electric and Ford.

While working with the New York City Planning Commission in 1969, Whyte began to use direct observation to describe behavior in urban settings.

Whyte served as mentor to many, including the urban-planning writer Jane Jacobs, Paco Underhill, who has applied the same technique to measuring and improving retail environments, Dan Biederman of Bryant Park Corporation, who led the renovation of Bryant Park and the Business Improvement District movement in New York City, Fred Kent, who worked with Whyte for a number of years before starting Project for Public Spaces, and future New York City Planning Commissioner, heiress and socialite Amanda Burden.