Abstract

Coordination is the integration of or linking together of different work units within an organization to accomplish a collective set of tasks (Van de Ven, Delbecq & Koenig, 1976). Selection and use of coordination strategies is a critical managerial problem because the choice of strategy has been shown to affect organizational performance (Lawrence & Lorsch, 1967;Rahim, 1986). Past research on coordination strategy selection has focused mainly on structural characteristics of the relations between work units: 1) degree of task interdependence (Victor & Blackburn, 1987; Victor, 1990); 2) degree of differentiation (Lawrence & Lorsch, 1967); and 3) degree of interest or goal conflict (Rubin, 1980). This paper develops a theoretical framework that facilitates the investigation of the structural characteristic, differentiation, and two psychosocial characteristics, organizational climate and culture, as determinants of the appropriate mix of and extent of use of specific coordination modes in a software development context.

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