Coordination: the essence of management

In an organisation, many departments work at once, and each may pull in its own direction: marketing wants big discounts, finance wants to save money. Coordination is the force that synchronises their activities towards the common goal. It binds all the functions of management, like the thread in a garland of flowers. That is why it is called the essence of management.

Its features:

• It integrates group efforts.
• It ensures unity of action.
• It is continuous: it starts at planning and goes on through controlling.
• It is all pervasive: needed in every department and at every level.
• It is the responsibility of all managers, at every level.
• It is a deliberate function: it does not happen by itself.

Why it is needed:

• Growth in size: more people, more goals to keep in line.
• Functional differentiation: departments with their own aims can clash.
• Specialisation: specialists tend to think only of their own work.

Cooperation (people willing to help) is not enough on its own: without coordination, willing effort is wasted. Mumbai's dabbawallas show what coordination achieves: thousands of lunch boxes reach the right desks on time, every day.