Coordination theory bibliograph

I have attempted to gather together citations and abstracts of papers, working papers and theses that use coordination theory. I am making this bibliography available on the web in the hopes of promoting interest in and use of coordination theory by providing examples. These bibliographies are incomplete, so please let me know about anything I've left out.

Journal publications

Source: ABI/Inform, Infotrac SearchBank, WilsonSelect
6 July 1999

* Malone, T. W. and Crowston, K. (1990). What is coordination theory and how can it help design cooperative work systems? In D. Tatar (Ed.), Proceeding of the Third Conference on Computer-supported Cooperative Work (pp. 357-370). Los Angeles, CA: ACM Press.

This paper describes a new perspective--the interdisciplinary study of coordination--that can help understand how people work together now and how they might do so differently with new information technologies. This perspective helps identify fruitful connections among different disciplines--such as computer science, sociology, political science, management science, economics, linguistics, and psychology--that have all dealt with fundamental questions about coordination.

The paper begins by defining coordination and coordination theory. Then examples are given of how previous research on computer-supported cooperative work has benefited from the kind of interdisciplinary transfers this perspective is intended to facilitate. In the final section of the paper, a framework for developing this perspective further is proposed. The framework includes taxonomies of (1) the components of coordination (goals, activities, actors, and interdependencies), (2) kinds of interdependencies possible (such as prerequisites and shared resources), and (3) the processes underlying coordination (group decision-making, communication, and the perception of common objects).

* Crowston, K. (1991). Modelling coordination in organizations. In M. Masuch and G. Massimo (Ed.), Artificial Intelligence in Organization and Management Theory Amsterdam: Elsevier.

The end goal of my research is a more principled definition of coordination and coordination work. To do so, however, requires the development of better analysis techniques. In this paper, I describe two-stage modelling technique based on ideas from distributed artificial intelligence and illustrate its use in a field study of the engineering change processes in three large manufacturing companies. The paper concludes by discussing possible uses of these models.

* Ellis, C. A., Gibbs, S. J. and Rein, G. L. (1991). Groupware: Some issues and experiences. Communications of the ACM, 34(1), 38-58.

A technical discussion of the "groupware" concept and issues involved in its implementation is presented. Work-group software applications are sometimes defined as those intended for small, narrowly-focused groups and sometimes as enterprise-wide strategic programs. A broader view sees groupware as the class of applications that emerges from the networking of computers and large databases. Communication, collaboration and coordination are the key goals of groupware. It can be designed to assist a face-to-face group or one distributed over several sites. Real-time concepts essential to groupware include shared context, "group windows" that appear on different displays, "views" of shared context, and synchronous and asynchronous interaction. Group Outline Viewing Editor (GROVE), a sample groupware application built as an experimental prototype, is discussed. Design issues in groupware include the user interface, group processes, including protocols and operations; concurrency control, which demands robustness and responsiveness as well as data replication; access control, and notification of users when constraints are violated.

* Gelernter, D. and Carriero, N. (1992). Coordination languages and their significance. Communications of the ACM, 35(2), 96.

A computational programming model and a coordination programming model might be integrated into a single language. They might also be separated into 2 distinct languages, in which case programmers choose one of each: one computation language plus one coordination language equals a complete programming system. The distinction between the integration and the separation approach goes well beyond the points raised by Kahn and Miller (1988). The following claims are made in response to Kahn and Miller's argument for integration: 1. Asynchronous ensembles are the dominating intellectual issue in the emerging era of computer systems research. 2. The fundamental problems posed by the ensembles (the problems of coordination among active agents) are best understood as orthogonal to the problems of computation, as addressed by conventional programming languages. 3. The problems of ensemble building in general constitute a well-formed and important intellectual unity.

* "Standards". (1993). Standards: The language for success. Communications of the ACM, 36(12), 17.

Someone buying or making personal computers or their accessories in the early days might not have guessed the IBM compatible PC would be a success. It is not truly an open system, but with a few de facto standards and a few widely used de jure standards, it has provided an enormous advantage to its users. It allows for cheaper and better software, reasonable interoperability, and freedom to pick a hardware vendor with competitive prices. Standards arise from either official activity or by the force of practice. The most important aim of standardization is to produce standards which are appreciated and applied. An increasing number of governments and businesses are realizing the interdependence of markets and the value of standards. The European Community is becoming consistent in its position on standards issues. This consistency means an economic community larger than the US will share the reins of power in international standards deliberations. In addition, the Asian and Pacific Rim countries use standards in their products to compete around the world.

* Bakos, J. Y. and Brynjolfsson, E. (1993). Information technology, incentives, and the optimal number of suppliers. Journal of Management Information Systems, 10(2), 37.

Buyers are transforming their relationships with suppliers. For example, many firms are finding it more profitable to work closely with only a small number of partners. In exploring the causes and consequences of this transformation, the economic theory of incomplete contracts is applied to determine the optimal strategy for a buyer, and it is concluded that the buyer firm will often maximize profits by limiting its options and reducing its own bargaining power. Although this seems paradoxical, this results from the need to make it worthwhile for suppliers to invest in noncontractibles such as innovation, responsiveness, and information sharing. Such incentives will often be stronger when the number of competing suppliers is small. Findings of the theoretical models appear to be consistent with observations from empirical research that highlight the key role of information technology is enabling this transformation.

* Bailetti, A. J. and Callahan, J. R. (1993). The coordination structure of international collaborative technology arrangements. R & D Management, 23(2), 129-146.

Firms are establishing international collaborative agreements as technological innovations progress. The collaboration is seen as an aid to developing competitiveness arising from technological advancement. A method for developingsuch a system based on coordination theory and object oriented domain analysis is evaluated. The method provides increased organizational learning which is necessary in managing technology arrangements.

* Horton, M. and Biolsi, K. (1993-1994). Coordination challenges in a computer-supported meeting environment. Journal of Management Information Systems, 10(3), 7.

Analysis is presented of the coordination activities of groups collaboratively writing in a low-structure computer-supported meeting room. Video analyses of the sessions were used to identify well-coordinated and poorly coordinated groups. Through user questionnaires, group members evaluated their work processes and products as well as the computer-supported environment. Writing experts independently rated the quality of the groups" final documents. It was discovered that quality of coordination was strongly tied to groups" evaluations of their work processes, work products, and tools. Well-coordinated groups tended to be more efficient than poorly coordinated groups, although no differences were observed in the quality of their documents. Coordination strategies leading to effective group work are identified, and suggestions are offered for additional tools to facilitate coordination.

* Kambil, A. and Short, J. E. (1994). Electronic integration and business network redesign: A roles-linkage perspective. Journal of Management Information Systems, 10(4), 59.

Electronic integration - the use of information technology to reengineer key business processes and business relations - enables new forms of organization that transcend traditional industry and firm boundaries. Indeed, electronic integration strategies alter the fundamental structure of both firms as well as their environments, requiring a shift in the study of organizations from the level of a focal firm to that of the business network. It is proposed that the roles-linkage perspective is a useful abstraction to characterize the business network and guide research on the effects of information technology on industry structures. Technology and information were used to construct new routines or to automate existing routines, thereby altering the skill requirements and population of role providers. Electronic integration also provided firms with new strategy options for differentiating products and services through information and technology leverage.

* DeSanctis, G. and Jackson, B. M. (1994). Coordination of information technology management: Team-based structures and computer-based communication systems. Journal of Management Information Systems, 10(4), 85.

Decentralization may bring flexibility and fast response to changing business needs, as well as other benefits, but it also makes systems integration difficult, presents a barrier to standardization, and acts as a disincentive toward achieving economies of scale. There is a need to balance the decentralization of information technology (IT) management to business units with some centralized planning for technology, data, and human resources. Three major mechanisms for facilitating inter-unit coordination of IT management are: 1. structural design approaches, 2. functional coordination modes, and 3. computer-based communication systems. A case study of Texaco in which computer-based communication systems was used to support team-based coordination of IT management across dispersed business units illustrates the cost-benefit tradeoffs of coordination approaches.

* Holland, C. P., Lockett, G., Richard, J.-M. and Blackman, I. (1994). The evolution of a global cash management system. Sloan Management Review, 36(1), 37-47.

Some companies are implementing interorganizational information systems (IOSs) with trading partners that allow them to share data and software across organizational boundaries. The authors explore the effect of IOSs on cash management from a managerial perspective and present a case study of Motorola and Citibank. Motorola"s strategy has evolved from an internal cost saving initiative to a supply chain focus yielding significant strategic benefits. Cooperation between Motorola, its suppliers, and Citibank has brought cash flows in line with product flows.

Motorola and Citibank have effectively meshed parts of their organizations and information systems together to provide a mechanism for the seamless collection and disbursement of cash payments between Motorola companies and their suppliers. The key results are just-in-time money and the integration of financial processes throughout the cash supply chain. Finally, the authors compare the results with existing management/information systems theories on globalization and competition.

* Earl, M. J., Sampler, J. L. and Short, J. E. (1995). Strategies for business process reengineering: Evidence from field studies. Journal of Management Information Systems, 12(1), 31.

Early results from case study research into the relationship between business process reengineering (BPR) and strategic planning are reported. First a framework for analysis is proposed based on the concept of alignment. This process alignment model comprises 4 lenses of inquiry: 1. process, 2. strategy, 3. information systems, and 4. change management and control. Four case studies are then described, selected from a wider sample to demonstrate variation across the 4 domains. A taxonomy of strategies for BPR is derived from the case studies. This taxonomy suggests a richer variety of BPR practice than has been documented to date and provides an opportunity and platform for further research.

* Ocker, R., Hiltz, S. R., Turoff, M. and Fjermestad, J. (1995/1996). The effects of distributed group support and process structuring on software requirements development teams: Results on creativity and quality. Journal of Management Information Systems, 12(3), 127.

Previous research has indicated that the creative task of deciding upon the initial specifications for a software system can benefit from a structured process to guide group interaction in face-to-face meetings, and can benefit from computer support. This 2x2 experiment is the first to look at the joint effects of a distributed asynchronous computer conferencing mode of communication (CC), as compared with face-to-face, and a structured process, on software design outcomes. Subjects were teams of graduate students in computer science and business, who designed an automated post office as a course assignment. The quality of solution produced by the CC groups was judged to be marginally higher, while CC groups were rated as considerably more creative. There were no main effects for the structured/unstructured factor, or any significant interactions.

* Cohen, M. and Regan, R. A. (1996). Managing internal consistency in technology intensive design projects. Competitiveness Review, 6(1), 42.

A framework is developed to analyze and compare the way in which 2 technology intensive design projects internally coordinate to maintain the internal consistency of their product. The projects are compared to one another and to the technology management literature. Design projects begin with conceptual notions of a customer need and develop products or functioning systems to meet those needs. Distributed knowledge and resources must be combined. The division of labor and coordination of the actors to ensure that the product development remains internally consistent is critical. How this process is managed affects productivity, quality, and development time. The key conceptual frameworks drawn from the literature include coordination ensembles, an object-based modeling technique, and gap analysis, a theoretical model drawn from the service literature. The coordination ensembles techniques is combined with the gap analysis model into a framework that is then used to evaluate mechanisms that the projects use to ensure internal consistency.

* Fiedler, K. D., Grover, V. and Teng, J. T. C. (1996). An empirically derived taxonomy of information technology structure and its relationship to organizational structure. Journal of Management Information Systems, 13(1), 9.

A taxonomy that has implications for matching information technology and organizational structures is empirically developed. The taxonomy of IT structure is based on the degree of centralization of computer processing, capability to support communications, and the ability to share resources. By using a multistep cluster analysis, both the membership and number of groups are derived from the responses of 313 firms. Four IT structures are identified: centralized, decentralized, centralized cooperative, and distributed cooperative computing. Centralized computing is related to functional organizational forms with low integration and centralized decision making. Decentralized computing is related to product organizational forms with decentralized decision making. Centralized cooperative computing is related to functional organizational forms with high integration. Distributed cooperative computing is related to both matrix and product organizational forms with high integration.

* Carley, K. M. and Svoboda, D. M. (1996). Modeling organizational adaptation as a simulated annealing process. Sociological Methods and Research, 25(1), 138.

Organizations can be characterized as complex systems composed of adaptive and intelligent agents. Organizational adaptation occurs through restructuring and learning. Organizations can be modeled using a dual-level model in which restructuring is modeled as a simulated annealing process and individual learning is modeled using a stochastic learning model and boundedly rational agents. Such a model is presented, and its behavior is illustrated using a virtual experiment where the type of organizational adaptation is varied. Results suggest that the organizational design and performance relationship may be chaotic, despite the simple rules of change. Simple restructuring rules lead to a wide range of emergent organizational structures that increases with individual adaptation. Organizations locate good designs (through chance and slow change) regardless of the agents" intelligence; however, emergent designs depend on adaptability. Design features are not systematically related to performance; rather, small initial differences in design and environment can affect the emergent behavior.

* Fielding, R. T., Whitehead, E. J., Jr., Anderson, K. M., Bolcher, G. A., et al. (1998). Web-based development of complex information products. Communications of the ACM, 41(9), 84-92.

Just as the Web eliminated the barriers to personal publishing, virtual enterprises have the potential to eliminate many barriers between people working toward a common goal. If initiating a collaborative activity becomes as simple as exchanging authentication credentials, anyone with access to a Web server could create a project with global scope. A typical goal for virtual enterprises is development and maintenance of a complex information product defined as a highly interconnected and interdependent package of information.

* Crowston, K. and Kammerer, E. (1998). Coordination and collective mind in software requirements development. IBM Systems Journal, 37(2), 227-245.

The purpose of this study was to understand how the group processes of teams of software requirements analysts led to problems and to suggest possible solutions. Requirements definition is important to establish the framework for a development project. Researchers have proposed numerous requirements development techniques, but less has been done on managing teams of requirements analysts. To learn more about group processes within such teams, two teams of analysts developing requirements for large, complex real-time systems were studied. These teams had problems ensuring that requirements documents were complete, consistent, and correct; fixing those problems required additional time and effort. To identify sources of problems, two theories of collective action, coordination theory and collective mind theory were applied.

* Lee, J.-N. and Kim, Y.-G. (1999). Effect of partnership quality on IS outsourcing: Conceptual framework and empirical validation. Journal of Management Information Systems, 15(4), 29-61.

Recently, increased attention has been paid to building successful partnerships in information systems outsourcing. Partnership quality is established as a key predictor of outsourcing success. A theoretical framework is proposed for outsourcing partnership based on a social, rather than an economic, perspective. The partnership-related variables are identified from the relevant literature and the concept of partnership quality is clarified by distinguishing between its components and its determinants. The impact of partnership quality on outsourcing success is then examined. Hypotheses on partnership quality were tested for 74 outsourcing relationships between 36 service receivers and 54 service providers. Results indicate that partnership quality may serve as a key predictor of outsourcing success. Partnership quality was found to be positively influenced by factors such as participation, communication, information sharing, and top management support, and negatively affected by age of relationship and mutual dependency.

* Malone, T. W., Crowston, K., Lee, J., Pentland, B., Dellarocas, C., Wyner, G., Quimby, J., Osborne, C., Bernstein, A., Herman, G., Klein, M. and O'Donnell, E. (1999). Tools for inventing organizations: Toward a handbook of organizational processes. Management Science, 43(3), 425-443.

A novel theoretical and empirical approach to tasks such as business process redesign and knowledge management is described. The project involves collecting examples of how different organizations perform similar processes, and organizing these examples in an on-line process handbook. The handbook is intended to help people: 1. redesign existing organizational processes, 2. invent new organizational processes (especially ones that take advantage of information technology), and 3. share ideas about organizational practices. A key element of the work is an approach to analyzing processes at various levels of abstraction, thus capturing both the details of specific processes as well as the deep structure of their similarities. This approach uses ideas from computer science about inheritance and from coordination theory about managing dependencies. A primary advantage of the approach is that it allows people to explicitly represent the similarities (and differences) among related processes and to easily find or generate sensible alternatives for how a given process could be performed.