Coordination

Have you ever seen an orchestra? Its conductor stands in front of all the musicians and singers and direct activities of the group in such a manner that it produces harmony and melody in music. In the same way in an organization, manager (conductor) also directs activities of the group in such a manner that it brings harmonious and united action to achieve the common objective.

To achieve business objective, managers has to procure and make best use of resources like money, machines, materials and men. Many of these resources and functions which are under the disposal of managers are inter-related. To attain the common objectives of the organisation efficiently, different activities and efforts must be planned, organised and carried on in an orderly manner. This is possible through coordination only.

Various activities of a business organisation are planned and carried out in different departments. There are divisions and sub-divisions of operation within the departments according to the nature of task involved. The duty of the coordinator is to harmonise the individual and group activities of the different departments to the common objectives of the organization. Coordination plays a vital role in the smooth function of an organisation.

Coordination refers to the orderly arrangement of group and individual efforts to ensure unity of action in the realisation of common objectives. It involves synchronisation of different efforts or actions of the various units of an organisation to provide the requisite amount, timing, quality and sequence of efforts so that the planned objectives may be achieved with minimum conflict.

According to Brech, “Coordination is balancing and keeping together the team by ensuring suitable allocation of tasks to the various members and seeing that the tasks are performed with the harmony among the members themselves. “

According to McFarland, “Coordination is the process whereby an executive develops an orderly pattern of group efforts among his subordinates and secures unity of action in the pursuit of common purpose”

Theo Haimann defines Coordination as “the orderly synchronising of efforts of the subordinates to provide the proper amount, timing and quality of execution so that their united efforts lead to stated objectives, namely the common purpose of the enterprise.

From the above definitions we can understand that coordination is a conscious process of synchronising, assembling and arranging various kinds of activities with a view to achieve specific objectives. The following points are to be noted:

Avoid conflicts of efforts: There are chances that conflicts of efforts may arise between personal and organisational goals during the working of different departments. Coordination by the managers can prevent such conflicts.

Harmonisation of group efforts: Organisation is not merely a collection of machines, methods, men, material or money. All these resources and efforts needs to be harmonised to achieve the common objective at the proper time. Timing and quality of execution needs to be synchronised to

ensure timely delivery of the output. Coordination, therefore, applies to harmonisation of group efforts.

Responsibility: Coordination is the most important responsibility of every manager in the organization. He arranges tasks of his subordinates for the common objectives of the organisation. Failure of his responsibility of arranging or coordinating tasks or operations may affect the organizations performance and quality which result in loss of money, efforts, time and goodwill of the organisation. There arises the need of appointment of special coordinators, if the manager fails to do the work of coordination.

Unity of action: An individual may not be related with others in the organisation through structure, but his actions may affect the functions of others in the same organisation. In such situations, unity of actions can be achieved through the coordination of managers of the organisation.

Continuous Process: Coordination is a continuous process which starts from the establishment of a business and runs through until its closure. It is a continuous process for achieving unity of purpose in the organisation.

Pursuit of common purpose: It is the most important aspect of coordination. Each individual has different purpose, goals, values, perceptions, beliefs, attitudes etc., and makes every efforts to achieve his own objective or goal. While working for their own goals, groups and individuals, also contribute something for the achievement of the organisational goals. Managers or coordinators have to persuade individuals and groups to work for the common purpose of the organisation which achieving their own objectives.