Coordination Concept
Coordination is not more than the integration process of the several activities developed in each department of the organization, as a way to achieve the desired organizational results. Without this integration, the organization sense as whole would be lost – incentives would be created for that each department only centered itself on its interests, rather than joint interests. So, coordination works as a counterweight to the division of labor – while the division of labor separates people, coordination reunites them.
Like in the case of division of labor and departmentalization and the choice of hierarchy levels’ numbers, the coordination deepness will also depend on the contingencies faced by the organization.
Paul R. Laurence and Jay W. Lorsch, examine this question and conclude that the bigger the differentiation degree among departments (differentiation as to attitudes, work styles, among others) bigger is the interdepartmental conflicts possibility and, consequently, bigger is the need of integration techniques use (or coordination).
