Coordination of joint tasks in organizational processes

Abstract

Organizational productivity can be maximized by creating, using and maintaining structural and dynamic configurations of multi-participant interaction. The paper highlights a number of areas for consideration that arise when studying coordination within an organizational setting. The focus of the analysis is on two types of tasks: decision-making tasks and routine office processes. The paper argues that a number of (conflicting) options exist when developing the coordination aspects of group systems; they are classified across the following axes: specification and implementation of coordination; use of synchronous and asynchronous working phases; information exchange and information sharing; support of sequential and concurrent processing; support of negotiation and conflict resolution; support of analytical modelling; and description of the organizational environment.