Coordinating

Definition (Henry Fayol)
Definition (J. Moone)
Classification (Herbert A. Simon)
Function (Herbert A. Simon)
Features (James G. March and Herbert A. Simon)
Wholes and parts (Walter Buckley)
Coordination and cooperation (Herbert A. Simon)

Definition

[1929] Henry Fayol, General and Industrial Management, in A. Tillett, T. Kempner and G. Willis eds, Management Thinkers, Penguin, Harmondsworth, 1978
“To co-ordinate is to harmonize all the activities of a concern so as to facilitate its working and its success. It is giving to the material and social, functional, organic whole such proportions as are suitable to enable it to play its part assuredly and economically. It is to bear in mind in any activity whatsoever, technical, commercial, financial or other, the obligations and consequences such action involves for all the functions of the business. It is to keep expenditure proportionate to financial resources, equipment and tools to production needs, stocks to rate of consumption, sales to production. It is to ... adapt the tool to its use, the road to the vehicle, the safety precautions to the risks. It is to relegate the secondary to second place after the principal. It is, in one word, to accord things and actions their rightful proportions, and to adapt means to ends.” (p. 133)

[1973, First published 1947] J. Moone, Principles of Organization, in Cyril Sofer, Organizations in Theory and Practice, Heinemann, London
“Coordination ... is the orderly arrangement of group effort, to provide unity of action in the pursuit of a common purpose.” (p. 139)

Classification

[1965, First edition 1945] Herbert A. Simon, Administrative Behaviour, The Free Press, New York
"Coordination may be exercised in both a procedural and a substantive sense.
By procedural coordination is meant the specification of the organization itself - that is, the generalized description of the behaviors and relationships of the members of the organization. Procedural coordination establishes the lines of authority, and outlines the sphere of activity and authority of each member of the organization.
“Substantive coordination is concerned with the content of the organization’s activities. In an automobile factory, an organization chart is an aspect of procedural coordination, while blueprints for the engine block of the car being manufactured are an aspect of substantive coordination.” (Chapter VII, pp. 139-140)

Function

[1965, First edition 1945] Herbert A. Simon, Administrative Behaviour, The Free Press, New York
“Coordination is aimed at the adoption by all the members of the group of the same decision, or more precisely of mutually consistent decisions in combination attaining the established goals.”
(Chapter VII, p. 139)

Features

[1966, First published 1958] James G. March & Herbert A. Simon, Organizations, Wiley & Sons, New York
“The type of coordination used in the organization is a function of the extent to which the situation is standardized. To the extent that contingencies arise, not anticipated in the schedule, coordination requires communication to give notice of deviations from planned or predicted conditions, or to give instructions for changes in activity to adjust to these deviations. We may label coordination based on pre-established schedules coordination by plan , and coordination that involves transmission of new information coordination by feedback. The more stable and predictable the situation, the greater the reliance on coordination by plan; the more variable and unpredictable the situation, the greater the reliance on coordination by feedback.”
(Chapter 6, p. 160)

Wholes and parts

[1967] Walter Buckley, Sociology and Modern Systems Theory, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, N. J.
“When we say that ‘the whole is more than the sum of its parts’, ... the ‘more than’ points to the fact of organization, which imparts to the aggregate characteristics that are not only different from, but often not found inthe components alone; and ‘the sum of parts’ must be taken to mean, not their numerical addition, but their unorganized aggregation.” (Chapter 3, p. 42)

Coordination and cooperation

[1965, First edition 1945] Herbert A. Simon, Administrative Behaviour, The Free Press, New York
“A major purpose of the planning and organizing that precedes any administrative activity is not merely to put each participant in the job he can best fill, but to permit each to form accurate expectations as to what the others are going to do. Perhaps it would clarify discussion of administrative theory to use the term ‘cooperation’ for activity in which the participants share a common goal, and ‘coordination’ for the process of informing each as to the planned behaviors of the others. Hence, cooperation will usually be ineffective ... in the absence of coordination.” (Chapter IV, pp. 71-72)

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