COORDINATION AS A MANAGEMENT FUNCTION

Introduction

 Coordination is considered as an essential element of administration.

 Co-ordination is the integration, synchronisation or orderly pattern of group efforts in
the institution towards the accomplishment of common objectives.
 To ensure a harmonious and smooth working of an organisation with a number of its
divisions, department or its units, the activities in all the areas are  required to be
pulled together, unified and blended so as to give them  a commonness and purpose.
 The concept of co-ordination is much broader than that of co-operation.

Definition

 "Co-ordination is the orderly synchronisation of efforts to provide the proper amount,

timing, and directing execution resulting in harmonious and and unified actions to a
stated objective"
 "Co-ordination is the integration of  several parts into an orderly whole  to achieve the
purpose of undertaking"
 "Co-ordination is the integrating process in an orderly pattern of group efforts in an
organisation toward the accomplishment of a common objective"

Importance of co-ordination

Creative force

 group efforts when co-ordinated create a result greater than the sum total of the
individual and isolated.

Unity of direction

 co-ordination ensures unity if direction by way of securing spontaneous collaboration

on the part of different departments.

High employee morale

 co-ordination enhances the general level of employee morale and provides satisfaction

Diverse and specialised activities

 Total activities of an organisation are divided into several units and subunits on the
basis of either product specialisation.
 Every manager concentrate his attention on activities and objectives of hias own
department.
 Here co-ordination is needed to prevent and discourage too much concentration on
one aspect of work.
Empire building

 To exaggerate self importance and personal motive is deeply implanted in human

nature.
 This motive causes the individual department to be isolated from others
 Here also, co-ordination is needed to curb the growing tendency towards the empire
building.

Personal rivalries and prejudice

 human organisation give rise in course of time to the development of personality

politics among members.
 Under such situation, co-ordination is deliberately damaged by the members of the
rival group.

Conflict of interests

 Subordination of individual interest to general interest often happen in organizations.

 This may arise arise from a number of causes like laziness, incompetence and
ambition as well as lack of loyalty, integrity or initiative on the part of employees.
 There is need for co-ordination to avoid conflicts or overlapping in the work of
employees or units or as organisation.

Techniques of co-ordination

 Communication is the building block of effective co-ordination.

 Orderly plans- standing plans like policies and procedures, standing orders and
instructions communicate the expected pattern of behaviour required for co-ordinated
action.
 Supervision- effective supervision helps in developing co-ordinated effort by
checking, observation and guidance.
 Leadership-leadership provides individual motivation and persuades the group to
have identity of interests and outlook in group efforts.
 Departmentation-departmentation arranges for necessary correlation and
interconnection of activities by assigning duties and delegating authority in different
positions is the work of departmentation.
 Direct contact-it permits the management members to exchange their ideas,
prejudices and problems as well as to understand each others.

Types of co-ordination

 Internal co-ordination
 External co-ordination.

Internal co-ordination
Planning

o To reach ends all plans include a programme mapping out the orderly course
of action.
o To draw up an orderly course of action, all activities and efforts are to be
interlinked, and desired for their guidance toward the desired end.

Organisation

 organisation is set up with the primary purpose of securing co-ordination

Direction

 dmaking the human efforts more effective and productive through leadership,
guidance, motivation, communication and supervision.

Control

 control ensures the realisation of planned objectives through the process of

work evaluation.
 The work progress is analysed and appraised in terms of quantity, quality, time
use and cost.

External co-ordination

There are 3 interesting parties-the customers, employees and the owners whose conflicting
needs and demands have to be satisfied by managers of any business.

 Consumers desire an uninterrupted supply of quality goods and services at fair

process and expect a steady improvement in the quality of goods and services so as to
give them a higher standard of living.
 Employees-demand fair wages ,congenial working conditions ,steady employment
satisfaction from the work as well as protection against hazards of accidents and
sickness or old age
 Owners –want conservation of assets, efficient and continuous operation of business,
fair returns on the investments and accurate information on several aspects of
business.
 Other enterprise – an enterprise affects and is affected in turn by the activities of
other enterprises particularly those in the same line of business. An enterprise
purchase materials and services from other enterprises. Many enterprises are chained
together by their customer –buyer relationships. Non-availability of materials may
lead to forced stoppages of production on the part of some enterprise.
 Government regulations-the government at city, state or central level exerts potent
forces that are to be recognised by all managers. Regulatory measures of government
become so extensive that no enterprise can stay in business without becoming
thoroughly familiar with the socioeconomic trends which produce these restrictive
regulations. Compliance with various laws relating to tax, tariff, labour etc is
necessary
  General business economy-enterprises must adjust themselves with the swings of the
trade cycle through economic forecasting and trend study.
 Technology advances-an enterprise must secure the benefit of new technology which
is being made continually available in our society through research and
interventions .technological advances contribute significantly towards the reduction of
cost and the improvement of productivity. Without introducing new technological
changes an enterprise cannot go ahead.

Hindrances to co-ordination

1. The uncertainty of the future, as to the behaviour of the individual and the people.
2. The lack of knowledge, experience, wisdom and character among leaders and their
confused and conflicting ideas and objectives.
3. The lack of administration skill and technique.
4. The vast number of variables involved and the incompleteness of human knowledge,
particularly with regard to men and life.
5. The lack of orderly methods of developing new ideas and programmes.
6. Size and complexity, personality and political factors.
7. Lack of leaders with wisdom and knowledge pertaining to public administration
8. The accelerated expansion of public administration of international dimension.

Research Inputs

Coordination challenges in operating-room management: an in-depth field study (ref -7)

This study describes the multi-faceted information exchanges essential for an operating room
suite to be managed within the context of efficient, cost effective, safe practice. Through the
combined use of observation, the critical incident technique, and interviews, this study
analyzed information issues that impact coordination. Results demonstrate how distributed
team planning is inherent to the efficacy of the system, and discuss implications for
information tools to support coordination within in a complex setting.

References

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7. Cheryl L. Plasters, Seagull F J, Xiao Y. Coordination challenges in operating-room
management: an in-depth field study. Amia annu  symp  proc; 2003.