Introduction

Once you have designed the processes and people-based systems to support your chosen organization's structure, the next step is to design coordination, control, and information systems to manage the linkages between the various parts of the organization. Along with people and processes, coordination, control, and information systems are important to assure smooth working-together among the organizational components, so that all move in a common direction toward strategic goals. Coordination, control, and information systems support integration of the organization, and they also provide monitoring and support for decision making so that managers can anticipate and react to internal and external changes that require organizational adjustment.

In this chapter we consider the range of devices that managers can use to coordinate and control the organization's work. Prior to the development of computer systems, coordination and control systems were entirely manually based. Today, of course, these systems are both computer-based and manually based. Some systems are visible, in the sense that they are stated as tangible rules or can be seen in the form of reports or established routines. Others are invisible and operate in the informal ways that people think and act. These systems may even be created “on the fly,” i.e., on an as-needed basis to meet unanticipated needs. Considered together, coordination, control, and information systems constitute the infrastructure of the firm, that is, the underlying pathways for information sharing.