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Literature Review

Coordination and cooperation

According to

REN, KIESlER, and FUSSEll study the organization science literature examines means

or modes of coordination and their use in organizations with different degrees of task

interdependence and uncertainty. Coordination has been defined as the process of

managing dependencies between activities or integrating or linking together different

parts of an organization to accomplish a collective set of tasks. Interdependence is the

extent to which an organizations tasks require its members to work closely with one

another that is, to coordinate their activities. A central theme in the organization science

literature has been the relationship between task interdependence and the use of various

coordination mechanisms to minimize coordination costs.

Van De Ven et al., for instance, examined three kinds of coordination modes: impersonal

modes such as plans, schedules, rules, and procedures; personal modes such as face-to-

face communication; and group modes such as meetings. They found that increases in

task interdependence led to an overall greater use of all coordination mechanisms, and

increases in task uncertainty led to a greater use of personal and group mechanisms.

Argote examined the relationships among task uncertainty, coordination mechanisms,

and organizational effectiveness of hospital emergency units. She found that task

uncertainty affected the relationship between the mode of coordination and organizational

effectiveness. Impersonal modes of coordination made a greater contribution to

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