Importance of Coordination

Everything you need to know about the importance, benefits and significance of coordination in an organisation. Coordination is essential at every level of management for achieving harmony of individual efforts.

Where sub-division and departmentalisation is essential, co­ordination is all the more important. The quality of management will depend upon the efficiency achieved in co-ordination.

According to Chester Bernard, “the quality of co­ordination is the crucial factor in the survival of organisation.” Smooth working and achievement of organisational goals will depend upon sound co-ordination.

The importance of coordination includes:-

1. Non-Routine Jobs 2. Dynamic Activities 3. Standards of Performance 4. Interdependence of Activities 5. Specialisation 6. Growing Organization 7. Promoting Group Effort 8. Unity of Action 9. Synergy 10. Unity in Diversity

11. Team Work  12. Conflicting Goals 13. Growth in Size 14. Empire-Building 15. Human Nature 16. Congruence of Flows 17. Differentiation and Integration 18. Good Personnel Relations 19. Essence of Management 20. Helpful in Developing and Retaining of Personnel and a Few Others.

Additionally, learn how coordination is achieved by performing the managerial functions.

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Importance, Benefits and Significance of Coordination in an Organisation, Business and Management

Importance of Coordination – With 9 Benefits of Coordination: Non-Routine Jobs, Dynamic Activities, Standards of Performance, Growing Organisation and a Few Others

The need for coordination arises because individuals and departments have different goals. They depend on each other for resources and information. Managers continuously coordinate their activities to ensure that all individuals and departments use organisational resources and information for successful attainment of organisational goals.

Coordination results in the following benefits:

Benefit # 1. Non-Routine Jobs:

Jobs which are non-routine in nature need constant flow of information, both vertical and horizontal. Unless there is proper coordination amongst these jobs, they cannot be performed efficiently. Coordination, thus, helps in effectively carrying out non-routine jobs.

Benefit # 2. Dynamic Activities:

Organisations operate in the dynamic environment. Environmental changes have to be adopted by organisations for their survival and growth. Coordination helps in integrating activities which constantly change according to changes in the environment.

Benefit # 3. Standards of Performance:

When standards of performance against which actual performance is to be measured are too high, managers coordinate the various business activities to ensure that high performance standards are achieved.

Benefit # 4. Interdependence of Activities:

When different units of the organisation are dependent on each other for resources or information, there is great need for coordination amongst
them. Greater the interdependence, greater is the need for coordination. According to Thompson, there are three types of interdependence – pooled, sequential and reciprocal interdependence. In pooled interdependence, organisational performance depends upon pooled or combined performance of all the departments.

This happens when different divisions make different products not dependent on each other. The need for coordination is, therefore, minimum. In a diversified market, if a company manufactures textiles and electronic items (for instance, Reliance Industries), the performance of textile industry does not depend upon the performance of electronics industry and nor does the performance of electronics industry depend upon that of textile industry but the overall coordinated performance of both the industries affects the performance of Reliance Industries.

If the need arises, financial and human resources can be transferred from one unit/department to the other if it affects the overall performance of the industry. Losses in one industry can be compensated by transferring funds from the profit-making industry to the loss-making industry. In sequential interdependence, performance of one unit depends upon that of another (marketing department depends upon production department to make sales).

This requires coordination between production and sales departments. In reciprocal interdependence, there is give and take relationship amongst units. If trucks have to be loaded at the assembly station and unloaded at the warehouse, there is need for pooled interdependence. The loaded trucks have to be unloaded at the warehouse and unloaded trucks have to come back in time for re-loading at the assembly station.

If there is lack of coordination in the speed at which the trucks move, there will be huge wastage of time which may even result in loss of orders in extreme situations. With increase in degree of interdependence from pooled to reciprocal, the need for coordination also increases.

Benefit # 5. Specialisation:

Specialisation leads to concentration on very narrow areas of job activity. Individuals tend to overlook overall perspective of the job. This requires coordination to direct all the activities towards a common goal.

Benefit # 6. Growing Organization:

In growing organisations, number of people and divisions become so large that it becomes difficult for top managers to coordinate the activities performed by all of them. Various techniques of coordination (rules, procedures, plans, goals, slack resources etc.) help in unifying diverse and multiple organisational/departmental activities towards the common goal.

Large organisations with large member of people have people working with diverse perspectives. In contemporary organisations, there is workforce diversity. People come from different nations, cultures, educational background, needs, habits etc. In the first instance, people work so that organisations satisfy their individual goals.

Coordination aims to integrate individual goals with organisational goals so that both are satisfied. Satisfied employees work towards organisational goals with commitment, dedication and loyalty than unsatisfied employees. Coordination integrates individual goals with group goals and group goals with organisational goals.

Benefit # 7. Promoting Group Effort:

In the absence of coordination, each individual and department will carry out their objectives in a manner that they perceive as the best. People tend to maximise their individual goals. This may, however, not be the best for the organisation as a whole. Coordination helps in promoting group effort rather than individual effort for achieving the organisational goals optimally. It harmonises individuals’ goals with organisational goals and satisfies individual goals through satisfaction of organisational goals.

Benefit # 8. Unity of Action:

Organisations have diverse work force, thoughts, resources, goals, activities and skills. Coordination helps to unify these diverse set of actions towards a single goal and, thus, maximise their use.

Benefit # 9. Synergy:

Coordination facilitates the sum total of output of group to increase by more than the sum total of their individual output. It integrates work of different units and produces synergistic effects by increasing the overall organisational output.

Coordination between functional departments; production finance, personnel and marketing ensures optimum utilisation of physical, financial and human resources. Production department produces according to sales estimates, finance department releases funds accordingly and human resource department recruits people according to needs of different departments. Coordination ensures that facilities remain neither under-utilised nor over-utilised.

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Importance of Coordination – To Help Managers to Carry Out the Functions of Planning, Organising, Staffing, Directing and Controlling

When the organisation structure is created and departments are designed, managers coordinate the activities of these departments to achieve organisational goals. Top managers communicate organisational goals to departmental managers and help them carry out the functions of planning, organising, staffing, directing and controlling for their respective departments.

They integrate objectives of the organisation with objectives of the departments and harmonise departmental goals with organisational goals. Coordination, thus, helps to coordinate the work of different departments and within each department, it integrates all the functions of management. Coordination is, therefore, rightly called the essence of management. It helps each managerial function and each departmental activity contribute to organisational goals.

1. Coordination while Planning:

When plans are made, managers ensure that different types of plans (long-term and short-term, strategic and routine), policies, rules and procedures operate in harmony and coordination with each other so that various departments effectively follow these plans.

2. Coordination while Organising:

Division of work into departments on the basis of similarity of activities, appointing people to manage these departments, defining their authority and responsibility and creating the organisation structure aim to coordinate departmental activities with the overall organisational goals. If the activities are divided haphazardly without coordination, some activities may not be assigned to people and some may be assigned to more than one person.

3. Coordination while Staffing:

The jobs having been created, managers ensure that people are placed on different jobs according to their skills and capabilities. This ensures placing the right person at the right job in order to achieve coordination amongst their work activities.

4. Coordination while Directing:

When a manager directs his subordinates through motivation, leadership and communication, he attempts to coordinate the various organisational activities. It is also an attempt to harmonise individual goals with organisational goals. Direction maintains unity and integrity amongst activities of members in the organisation.

5. Coordination while Controlling:

Controlling ensures that actual performance is in conformity with planned performance. The purpose of controlling through budgets or information systems is to coordinate the various organisational activities.

Every managerial activity is, thus, coordinated to contribute towards organisational goals. Coordination is required throughout the organisation.

“Coordination is achieved by structuring the organisation in such a way as to ensure vertical coordination between hierarchical levels of management and horizontal coordination across individuals and work units at similar levels.” The principles of management like unity of command and scalar chain ease the task of managers in effectively coordinating various managerial functions.

Coordination as essence to management is, thus, intrinsic to management. Aligning internal environment with external environment, human with non-human resources to achieve organisational goals is the task of every person at every level in every department. Coordination gives meaning and purpose to every task and promotes group effort for goal accomplishment.

Coordination is neither department-specific nor function-specific. All managerial functions (planning, organising, staffing, directing and controlling) for all departments have to be coordinated to achieve the overall goals. However, the intensity of managerial functions can vary at different points of time for different departments. Sometimes, coordinated efforts have to focus more on planning while at other times, focus has to be more on controlling. Irrespective of the degree of focus, the essence of coordination highlights its need which is pervasive in all departments, at all levels, at all points of time.

Contemporary organisations are open systems. Their active and continuous interaction with the environment presupposes presence of a strong system of coordination in the organisations. Coordination is the strength of organisational success.

“Coordination is not an option, it is the need/necessity.”

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Importance of Coordination – Unity in Diversity, Team Work, Conflicting Goals, Growth in Size, Specialization, Synergy Effect and a Few Others

Importance # 1. Unity in Diversity:

An organization is characterised by diversity of resources, skills, activities, perceptions and viewpoints of its members. Unless unity of action is created in the midst of such diversity, organized activity will be haphazard and inefficient. Co-ordination is the basic mechanism for creating unity in diversity.

Importance # 2. Team Work:

The efforts, energies and skills of various persons must be integrated to achieve group effort and team work. Through co-ordination duplication of work and work at cross- purposes can be eliminated. This way co-ordination results in economical and effective management.

Importance # 3. Conflicting Goals:

Co-ordination becomes essential to harmonise departmental/personal goals with the goals of the organisation. Otherwise the narrow sub-goal will cause distortions, delays and wastage of resources.

Importance # 4. Growth in Size:

In a large organization, the number of jobs and employees is also large. Communication becomes difficult due to complex organization structure. Personal contacts between executives are few. All this makes co-ordination more essential.

Importance # 5. Specialization:

Specialization leads to a narrow outlook. Specialists performing the various tasks know very little of other jobs and differences in outlook lead to frequent disputes. Co­ordination among the activities of specialists is very difficult.

Importance # 6. Synergy Effect:

If the efforts of employees are properly coordinated, their total accomplishment will be far greater than the sum total of individual achievements. This is known as the synergy effect.

Importance # 7. Interdependence:

In an enterprise, every department or division depends for its effective working on other departments and divisions. Such interdependence requires co-ordination among the various functional departments.

Importance # 8. Empire-Building:

Need for co-ordination also arises on account of conflict between line and staff specialists tend to follow their own line of action and may not appreciate the viewpoint of line executive.

Importance # 9. Human Nature:

People in general are preoccupied with the work of their own departments or units and fail to appreciate the- role of other departments or units. Deliberate efforts are required to maintain co-ordination between different departments and units.

Importance # 10. Congruence of Flows:

An organisation is a dynamic system of flows of inputs and outputs these flows must be harnessed properly in terms of their volume, direction and timing. Co-ordination facilitates a smooth and congruent system of flow.

Importance # 11. Differentiation and Integration:

The activities of an organization are classified into specialized and different units. Similarly, authority is delegated among the various levels in a graded manner. Differentiated work units and authority centres must be fused together to achieve synergetic efforts. Co-ordination ensures unity and synergy in differentiation.

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Importance of Coordination – Good Personnel Relations, Unity of Direction, Essence of Management and a Few Others

Co-Ordination is essential at every level of management for achieving harmony of individual efforts. Where sub-division and departmentalisation is essential, co­ordination is all the more important. The quality of management will depend upon the efficiency achieved in co-ordination. According to Chester Bernard, “the quality of co­ordination is the crucial factor in the survival of organisation.” Smooth working and achievement of organisational goals will depend upon sound co-ordination.

The important benefits of co-ordination are stated as follows:

1. Good Personnel Relations:

Management can create cordial human relations through co-ordination. The points of dispute or conflicts among different persons, between line and staff, etc., can be settled by mutual discussions. Better personnel relations are also helpful in increasing the morale of employees which ultimately leads to job satisfaction.

The results of co-ordinated group efforts will be much better than the sum results of different individuals. The members will willingly and wholeheartedly contribute towards the success of the enterprise. Therefore, co-ordination is necessary to bring unity of action in the organisation.

2. Unity of Direction:

Co-ordination helps in creating unity of direction. Different segments of the business may set different goals. The co-ordination process helps in synchronising various efforts. It motivates various employees to view their work from the standpoint of the business. In the absence of co-ordination, there may be conflicting goals and everybody may perceive the objectives in a different way. This will create confusion and chaos in the organisation. Co-ordination will help in reconciling conflicting views.

3. Essence of Management:

The increase in the size of organisation has brought a number of complexities. There is a degree of specialisation, division of labour and large number of individuals. Everybody has his own personality traits and ways of working. It is essential to synchronise the work of all persons in the organisation. Co-ordination helps in bringing unity of action for achieving business goals.

4. Efficiency and Economy:

Co-ordination promotes efficiency and economy in the organisation. By coordinating activities the efficiency is brought in the working. It also helps in avoiding delays and eliminating duplication of efforts. This will result in saving of time and energy, thus bringing economy to the business.

5. Helpful in Developing and Retaining of Personnel:

Co-ordination by synchronising various activities helps in promoting team spirit among organisational personnel. There will be no conflict or confusion in division of work and everybody will try to improve his own performance. This helps in developing potentialities of every person in the organisation. Co-ordination also helps in promoting job satisfaction among employees by giving them personal contentment. The concern will be able to retain the services of good employees.

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Importance of Coordination – Diverse and Specialized Activity, Empire Building Tendencies, Team Work, Growth Phase, Inter-Dependence and a Few Others

1. Diverse and Specialized Activity:

Total activities are divided into several units and sub units in terms of product function or specialization. Every functional manager tends to focus his undivided attention on activities and objectives of his department. In such a case, if divergent departments are working in different directions, enterprise goals cannot be achieved. Thus the diversity of goals calls for a measure of co-ordination.

According to Koontz O’ Donnel, central task of managers is to reconcile different approaches, efforts and interest to harmonize individual goals in order to accomplish goal objectives of the entire organization. This reconciliation is secured by co-ordination.

2. Empire Building Tendencies:

Empire builders intend to get cooperation from others but they would not extend any sort of co-operation to others. Managers care only for their departments throwing overboard the common interest of the enterprise as a whole. This tendency leads to inter-departmental conflict and destroys unity of the organization. Co-ordination is required to eliminate such tendencies.

3. Team Work:

When the members work in team environment, they may tend to pull in different direction and work at cross purpose, co-ordination is required to synchronize the divergent efforts of the members towards accomplishment of goals of the group by eliminating duplication of work and working at cross purpose.

4. Growth Phase:

When an organization grows in size, communication may become difficult among different domains, and personal contacts among the executives become fewer. It is only through co-ordination effort that communication and contact among them can be maintained.

5. Inter-Dependence:

In a large organization with a number of departments, each department depends on others for its effective functioning. For example, sales department is dependent on production department for the required volume of products, right design and right quality to serve the customers. Similarly production department is dependent on maintenance department for attending to faults in machines.

Maintenance department is dependent on stores department for its supply of spares. Such inter-dependence warrants coordination. This co-ordination is required to maximum extent when there is reciprocal inter-dependence. In a reciprocal dependence the output of one department becomes the input for another department. This is quite common in processing industries and assembly industries.

6. Avoidance of Overlapping:

Co-ordination eliminates overlapping of work. It ensures that there is no repetition of work. Overlapping of work may happen in a team environment. In the absence of co-ordination, members of the group may have to do the same work again and again. For example, when a team of people is engaged to conduct customer satisfaction survey in the absence of co-ordination, the same respondents may be interviewed by all the group members. Thus the avoidance or elimination of overlapping leads to efficient utilisation of various resources of an organization.

7. Conflicting Goals or Goal Clash:

Each department seeks to accomplish its goals. The individuals in the department have their own goals. In practice, individual is focused on accomplishing his own goal and the similar is the case of department, where the individuals and his departments chase their own goals throwing overboard the goals of the organization. Consequently the resources of the organization are misused. Co-ordination is needed to reconcile the goals of individuals with those of the departments and the organization.

8. Synergy:

Where the efforts of employees are properly coordinated, their total accomplishment will be far greater than the sum total of individual accomplishment. This creates synergetic effect. Every employee supplements the contribution of the other. It is co-ordination what makes possible the synergistic effects.

9. Balance among the Equals:

The skills and talents of people engaged in the same type of work are not same. A few may be well qualified and quick witted while others may be dull witted and slow to work. Co-ordination provides a balance among different levels of efficiency.

10. Promoting Good Relations:

Co-ordination necessitates cooperation and team work among the employees in the organization. This paves way to smooth and friction-free industrial relations and eliminates the scope for unnecessary conflict and misunderstanding among the individuals.

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Importance of Coordination – For Effective Performance of Managerial Functions

The effective performance of managerial functions requires co-ordination.

1. Unity in Diversity:

Effective co-ordination is the essence of good management. There are large numbers of employees and each has different ideas, views or opinions, activities and background in a large organisation. Thus, there is a diversified activity in a large organisation where these diversified activities will be inefficient in the absence of co­ordination. So, co-ordination is the main element of unity in diversity.

2. Team Work or Unity of Direction:

The efforts, energies and skills of various persons should be integrated as group efforts to achieve the objectives of organisation. In the absence of co-ordination, the group efforts may be diversified and fail to achieve the objectives. Besides, co-ordination eliminates the duplication of work which leads to economic and efficient management.

3. Functional Differentiation:

The organisation functions are divided department- wise or section-wise or division-wise. Each department performs different jobs. They are necessary to achieve the general objectives. Co-ordination ensures definite achievement of objectives. Each department tries to perform its function in isolation from others. It may create a problem. Therefore, co-ordination is necessary to integrate the functions of the related departments.

4. Specialisation:

There is a high degree of specialisation in the modern industrial world. Specialists know thoroughly about their respective fields. They are able to judge the scope, nature and kind of work they perform. But they fail to know the job of others and the importance of others’ performances. This tends to cause dispute among the specialists. Disputes may be solved with the help of co-ordination.

5. Reconciliation of Goals:

Each department or division has its own goals to achieve within the stipulated time. There are general goals in relation to an organisation. The employees who are working in the organisation also have their own goals. Individuals or employees give more importance to their own goals than to the department and organisational goals.

The department members give more importance to their own departmental goals than to the organisation goals. Therefore, co-ordination reconciles the employee’s goals with both departmental and organisation goals.

6. Large Number of Employees:

Large numbers of employees are working in large organisations. They have different habits, behaviour and approaches in a particular situation. Sometimes, they do not act rationally. Their behaviour is neither always well understood nor completely predictable. So, there is every possibility of problems arising in a complex organisation. All this makes co-ordination more essential.

7. Congruity of Flows or Congruent Flows:

Congruity of flows refers to the continuous flow of similar information from one direction to other directions. Information regarding the utilisation of resources, activities, using of authority and output is made to flow in an organisation. Co-ordination ensures the smooth and continuous flow of information.

8. Empire Building:

Empire building refers to top portion of line organisation. The line officers always expect co-operation from staff officers. But the line officers are not ready to extend their co-operation to staff officers. It creates conflicts between line officers and staff officers. Therefore, co-ordination is necessary to avoid conflicts between line officers and staff officers.

9. Differentiation and Integration:

The whole activity of every organisation is classified into two units. They are specialised and homogeneous units. Authority is delegated to the various levels of organisation. This is necessary to achieve group efforts. Co-ordination facilitates this process.

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Importance of Coordination – 9 Factors Affecting the Significance of Coordination

Coordination is a rational managerial function of pulling together various components of organized activity for achieving predetermined goals.

The significance of coordination may be understood on the basis of the following factors:

Significance # 1. Backbone of Management:

Management is essentially a task of coordination of all internal as well as external forces and activities that affect the organization. Coordination may be regarded as a mother function of management in which all other functions (such as planning, organizing, staffing, directing, and controlling) are embedded.

Significance # 2. Unification of Activities:

Coordination reduces diversity among various departments and individual employees. It is not possible to achieve specialized tasks of various departments without perfect coordination. Coordination welds the various segments and parts of the organization into one entity.

Significance # 3. Core of Group Efforts:

Coordination is indispensable in group efforts for accomplishing common goals. Coordination integrates various activities for effective achievement of common goals. Coordination recon­ciles the employee’s goals with both departmental and organizational goals.

Significance # 4. Creating Healthy Human Relations:

Coordination enables the management to create healthy human relationships. Coordination makes the organizational members to participate in their work willingly and whole-heartedly for attaining organizational goals. The management can secure cordial human rela­tions among the members of the organization by minimizing conflict among them through proper coordination.

Significance # 5. Securing High Employee Morale:

Coordination promotes team spirit among the organizational members. Coordination motivates the employees to derive personal contentment and social satisfaction from their work with a steady improvement in their capabilities. Effective coordination gives job-satisfaction to the employees and boosts their morale.

Significance # 6. Promoting Efficiency and Economy:

Coordination avoids duplication of efforts and thereby promotes economy in labour, time, and equipment. Coordination avoids delays by correlating all the activities of an organization in a systematic way.

Significance # 7. Resolution of Conflict:

Coordination becomes imperative for resolving various conflicts (individual as well as departmental) and thereby securing unity of action in the pursuit of common goals. In an organization, conflicts arise due to relationship, position, role, values, and norms. Conflicts of various forms can adversely affect the functioning of an organization. Coordination is imperative for reducing various conflicts.

Significance # 8. Interdependence of Work Units:

The activities of every organization is divided into various specialized work units. The work units, thus, created in the organization normally have interdependence. Work units require frequent interaction for their smooth functioning. Coordination promotes interdependence and inter­action among various departments. The work units will lose sight of their role in the organization without coordination.

Significance # 9. Integrating Functions of Related Departments:

The functions of an organization are divided department-wise or section-wise or division-wise. Each department performs different specialized jobs. Each depart­ment tries to perform its function in isolation from others. A department may be tempted to pursue its own interests and goals at the cost of organizational goals. This may create problems. Therefore, coordination is necessary to integrate the functions of the related departments.

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Importance of Coordination – How Coordination is Achieved by Performing the Managerial Functions

Coordination is the essence of manager-ship. Coordination is not something which can be ordered by a manager. Instead, it is something which the manager attempts to achieve while performing his functions of planning, organizing, staffing, directing and controlling. Thus, every managerial function is an exercise in coordination.

How coordination is achieved by performing the managerial functions is explained below:

1. Coordination through Planning:

The planning stage is the ideal time to bring about coordination by properly integrating the various plans through mutual discussion, exchange of ideas etc. For instance, if the advertising manager is to plan his advertising campaign, it would be helpful if he discusses the plan with the Production Manager, the Sales Manager, the Finance Manager, and so on.

In this way, as he performs his managerial function of planning, he is attempting to achieve coordination by seeking cooperation of all the managers who are directly or indirectly concerned with it.

2. Coordination through Organizing:

Mooney considers coordination as the very essence of organizing. In fact, when a manager group assigns the various activities to subordinates, and when he creates departments, coordination is one thing which is uppermost in his mind. By placing related activities in the same administrative unit, coordination will be facilitated.

Coordination is an essential part of organizing. Unless the manager bears in mind how various groups are to function together, the organization structure will not be a successful one. In order to obtain coordination while organizing, the manager must look at it both vertically and horizontally.

Poor coordination is caused quite often by a lack of understanding of who is to perform what or due to the fact that the manager did not clearly delegate authority and responsibility. This may lead to the duplication of efforts instead of their synchronization.

3. Coordination through Staffing:

The staffing function of management involves manpower planning, employment, training, wage determination, performance appraisal, etc. All these sub functions are performed in such a manner that there are right person on different jobs. This will help in achieving coordination in assigning tasks to various individuals.

4. Coordination through Directing:

When a manager directs, he is also performing the function of coordination. The very essence of giving orders, instructions, coaching and teaching subordinate means to coordinate their activities in such a manner that the overall enterprise objective will be achieved in the most efficient way. Thus, manager’s expertness in effectively directing his subordinates will bring about coordination.

The manager should use free and open discussion and group decision-making techniques with subordinates in order to achieve the necessary coordination. It is vital that various subordinates have an opportunity for free and open discussion and for an interchange of ideas so that the details of a particular directive are properly understood. In short, as the manager performs his directing function, he will invariably coordinate.

5. Coordination through Controlling:

While performing the function of controlling, the manager comes to know whether or not current activities are in keeping with the desired activities. Such frequent evaluation of operations helps to synchronize the efforts of the subordinates. If, while controlling, manager finds that the performance is not as planned or as directed, he should immediately take remedial action so that whatever deviations have occurred can be remedied. By doing this, he brings about coordination. The very nature of the controlling function brings about coordination and leads the organization to the desired goals.

Good communication will be of immeasurable help in the coordination of various activities. There must be continuous and free flow of communication which will give the subordinates the necessary information needed for coordination. Personal contact is probably the most effective means of communication to achieve coordination.

However, there are many other additional devices such as written communication, reports, procedures, bulletins and numerous modern mechanical devices which will ensure a speedy dissemination of the necessary information to the subordinates who must have this information to achieve proper coordination.

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Importance of Coordination – Growth in Size, Functional Differentiation, Specialisation, Synergy Effect, Team Work, Contradicting Goals and Interdependence

Coordination is important as it integrates the effort of individuals, departments and individuals in the organisation are interdependent, i.e., they depend on each other for information and resources to perform their respective activities.

Thus, managers need to reconcile differences in approach, timing, effort or interest. At the same time there is a need to harmonise individual goals and organisational goals.

1. Growth in Size:

As organisations grow in size, the number of people employed by the organisation also increases at times; it may become difficult to integrate their efforts and activities. All individuals differ in their habits of work, background, approached to situations and relationships with others.

It becomes necessary to ensure that all individuals work towards the common goals of the organisation. But employees may have our individual goals also.

Therefore, for organisational efficiency, it is important to harmonies individual goals and organisational goals through coordination.

2. Functional Differentiation:

Functions of an organisation are divided into departments, divisions and sections. In an organisation there may be separate departments of finance, production, marketing or human resources. All these departments may have their own objectives, Policies and their own style of working.

For example, the marketing departments’ objective may be to increase sales by 10 percent by offering discounts. But, the finance department may not approve of such discounts as it means loss of revenue.

These kinds of conflict arise in organisations because each unit/department is performing activities in isolation from others and barriers between departments are becoming more rigid.

However, all departments and individuals are interdependent and they have to depend on each other for information to perform their activities. The activity of each department needs to be focused on attainment of common organizational goals. The process of linking the activities of various departments is accomplished by coordination.

3. Specialisation:

Modern organisations are characterized by a high degree of specialization. Specialisation arises out of the complexities of modern, technology and the diversity of tasks to be performed. Therefore, organisations need to employ a number of specialists.

Specialists usually think that they only are qualified to evaluate, judge and decide according to their professional criteria. They do not take advice or suggestions from others in matters pertaining to their leads to conflict amongst different specialists as well as others in the organisation.

Therefore, some coordination is required by an independent person to reconcile the differences in approach, interest or opinion of the specialists.

4. Synergy Effect:

Properly coordinated efforts of the employees are found to be more than the sum total of their achievements. This phenomenon is called synergy effect. The philosophy behind this effect is that every employee supplements the contribution of others.

5. Team Work:

The efforts of individual are converted into team work by coordination. This creates a bridge between the activities of the organisation. Each and every activity of the organisation are covered and no activity is left out with the help of coordination.

6. Contradicting Goals:

All the divisions or departments of the organisation along with each individual have their own goals. Sometimes these individuals become so committed to its goals and they overlook the goals of the organisation. Coordination is able to avoid any adverse situation in the organisation and harmonies personal goals/departmental goals with organisational goals.

7. Interdependence:

The activities of the organisation are found interdependent in the organisation. All the activities of the organisation are done to achieve the goals of the organisation. Therefore, they are interdependent with each other. Coordination is much more required in this situation for range and quality products at right time.

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Importance of Coordination – With Significance

Significance # 1. Coordination is a Key to all Management Functions:

Coordination acts as a key to all functions of management. Planning is an exercise of coordination as a good plan requires prefect harmonization between means and ends. This can be achieved if coordination is resorted to in the early stages of planning and policy-making itself.

Organizing is concerned with structuring the enterprise activities in a systematic manner. To achieve organization goals, organization calls for the coordination of work of individual with that of the department. Staffing is mainly concerned with the recruitment, placement, promotion and transfer of right people, in the right place at the right time.

Coordination is essential to determine the manpower requirement in different departments and to assure the proper performance of their functions. Directing also involves with coordination. Directing is concerned with making the human efforts more effective.

Effective human efforts can be achieved through leadership, motivation, communication, etc., finally, controlling is regulation of the activities in accordance with the planning and policy. It ensures the realization of planned objectives through the process of work evaluation.

Significance # 2. Coordination Improves Human Relations:

Proper treatment at work should be given to workers to avoid troubles and to advance the enterprise. Such treatment should be based on mutual cooperation in the solution of common problems. This is largely based on management’s ability to integrate the interests and needs of its employees with effective coordination.

Significance # 3. Coordination Achieves Unity of Individuals:

The purpose of management is to achieve harmony of individual effort towards the accomplishment of group goals. Each person in an enterprise has his or her own individual role to perform and gives prior attention to achieve his or her individual goals. Situation may arise where the goals pursued by the organization may not be similar to the one pursued by an individual within the organization.

This may result in the variation of total objectives of the organization and conflicts between the individuals. To avoid such a conflicting situation, co-ordination is an advantageous function which subordinates the individual interests into common interest and units the activities of the individuals in accomplishing the objectives.

Significance # 4. Coordination Creates Favorable Working Environment:

Co-ordination creates a pleasing work atmosphere, and arranges for better job facilities in an organization. It- improves working capacity, develops enthusiasm, and a sense of loyalty towards the organization.

Significance # 5. Co-Ordination Achieves High Employees Morale and Job Satisfaction:

Morale is the cooperative attitude or mental health of a group of people who are related to each other. Good morale is evidenced by coordinated efforts of group members through employee enthusiasm, job satisfaction and a willingness to co-operate with.

Significance # 6. Co-Ordination Brings Efficiency and Economy:

Through effective coordination, duplication of efforts can be avoided and it is possible to bring about economy in labour, time and equipment. An enterprise with effective co-ordination also recognizes the worth of quality control, reduction in cost, full attendance at work, exemplary safety record, maintenance of discipline, etc.

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