Coordination : The Essence of Management

A manager has to perform five interrelated functions in the process of managing an organisation which is a system made up of different interlinked and interdependent subsystems. A manager has to link these diverse groups towards the achievement of a common goal. The process by which a manager synchronises the activities of different departments is known as coordination. Coordination is the force that binds all the other functions of management. It is the common thread that runs through all activities such as purchase, production, sales, and finance to ensure continuity in the working of the organisation.

Coordination is the function of management which ensures that different departments and groups work in sync. Therefore, there is unity of action among the employees, groups, and departments.

It also brings harmony in carrying out the different tasks and activities to achieve the organization’s objectives efficiently. Coordination is an important aspect of any group effort. When an individual is working, there is no need for coordination.

Coordination is sometimes considered a separate function of management. It is however, the essence of management, for achieving harmony among individual efforts towards the accomplishment of group goals. Each managerial function is an exercise contributing individually to coordination. Coordination is implicit and inherent in all functions of an organisation. 

Coordination can be described as that invisible cord, which runs through all the activities of the organization and binds them together. It is not a function of the management, rather it is the essence of management, which is needed at all levels and at each step of the firm, to achieve the objectives of the organization.

Coordination is that hidden force that links all the functions of the management, i.e. planning, organizing, staffing, directing and controlling.

The process of coordinating the activities of an organisation begins at the planning stage itself. Top management plans for the entire organization . According to these plans the organisational structure is developed and staffed. In order to ensure that these plans are executed according to plans directing is required. Any discrepancies between actual and realized activities are then taken care of at the stage of controlling. It is through the process of coordination that a manager ensures the orderly arrangement of individual and group efforts to ensure unity of action in the realization of common objectives. Coordination therefore involves synchronization of the different actions or efforts of the various units of an organization. This provides the requisite amount, quality, timing and sequence of efforts which ensures that planned objectives are achieved with a minimum of conflict.

"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 harmony among the members themselves."  ~ E.F.L. Brech   

"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." ~ McFarland   

"Coordination is the orderly synchronization of efforts of subordinates to provide proper amount, timing and quality of execution so that their united efforts lead to the stated objectives, namely, the common purpose of the enterprise." ~ Theo Haimann  

"Coordination is an orderly arrangement of group efforts to provide unity of action in the pursuit of common goals." ~ Mooney and Reiley 

"Coordination is the integration of several parts into an orderly hole to achieve the purpose of understanding." ~ Charles Worth

"The first test of a business administration should be whether you have a business with all its parts so coordinated, so moving together in their closely knit and adjusting activities, so linking, inter-locking, inter-relating, that they make a working unit that is not congenic of separate pieces, but a functional whole or integrated unit." ~ Mary Parker Follett