Vertical Coordination
In an organization such as an acute care hospital, personnel and activities can be coordinated downwards or upwards, vertical coordination. The coordination depends on authority and happens between varied organizational levels. It is applied best where the persons coordinating the personnel or activities employ ample insights when executing staffing, controlling, influencing, organizing, and planning functions. To ensure that the coordination is effective, as well as efficient, organizations should be structured in line with management and employee collaboration. That is especially so because in the organizations, decisions, issues, and coordination processes flow vertically between the employees and the management in a structured manner.
The effectiveness, as well as efficiency, of vertical coordination of activities along with personnel is commonly hampered by its rigid structure. The structure inhibits the flow of communications between the management and the employees as well as between units or departments. The flow is not as organic, as well as easy, as in the horizontal coordination of the same activities long with personnel. As well, the effectiveness, as well as efficiency, is often limited dilution of information as it flows down the ranks. In some cases, particular information may be distorted or even lost. In such cases, those who receive the information are unable to decipher the original meaning intended by those giving out the information (Ravasan, Mansouri & Nabavi, 2015).
In most cases, there are delays in the flow of communications and processes, especially where the levels are many. As well, in most cases information is filtered out as it moves from management to other staff. That many make the staff become confused and frustrated, injuring their relationship with the management (Agarwal, 1986). In some cases of vertical organizations, senior staff may be averse to receiving information from own juniors.
To increase the effectiveness, as well as efficiency, of vertical coordination of activities along with personnel in organizations, they may require establishing ombudsperson offices. Notably, the concept on which the offices are founded was first employed in Swedish communities which required mechanisms through which junior employees could have their grievances against their seniors addressed devoid of the threat of being victimized. The offices help in investigating personnel, grievances, and complaints in organizations, smoothening upward coordination or communication.
Horizontal Coordination
The horizontal coordination of particular organizational activities along with personnel entails departments and personnel one level, collaborating to attain specific organizational objectives (Haynes, 2007). That type of coordination is particularly helpful where the activities along with personnel are interdependent (Ravasan, Mansouri & Nabavi, 2015). It is more efficient, as well as effective, than the other forms of coordination in organizations where departments and employees share given organizational levels. It allows for informal communication flows, which are particularly effective since there are not characterized or hindered by protocol requirements.
The horizontal coordination of particular organizational activities allows workers and departments to deliberate about work-related concerns on as-required basis as well. It is more effective, as well as efficient, than the vertical and diagonal activity and personnel coordination in cases where there is a need for maintaining the coordination and reviewing the activities allocated to particular subordinates. As well, it is more effective, as well as efficient, than the vertical and diagonal activity and personnel coordination in cases where there is need for lateral communications between peers who are interacting such as departmental managers.
Diagonal Coordination
In an organization such as an acute care hospital, the diagonal form of activity and personnel coordination is essential since varied departments and personnel may relay on specific departments or personnel to attain particular objectives. Diagonal coordination may be put in place where employees and departments at diverse levels are dependent on each other. For instance, in an acute care hospital, its business growth unit under the marketing department may have some of its functions tied to the functions of the accounting department. The business growth unit and the accounting department would have to coordinate their activities and staff diagonally to enhance the efficiency, as well as effectiveness, of their collaborative or complementary workings.
Diagonal coordination is more effective, as well as efficient, than the vertical and horizontal activity and personnel coordination in cases where employees and departments at diverse levels are dependent on each other. Diagonal coordination is more effective, as well as efficient, than the vertical and horizontal activity and personnel coordination in cases where given personnel and departments interact with others across own reporting relationship boundaries. Besides, diagonal coordination is more effective, as well as efficient, than the vertical and horizontal activity and personnel coordination in cases where crosswise forms of communication are critical and where horizontal, as well as vertical, hierarchical formations are yet to be established. Notably, diagonal activity and personnel coordination provides platforms for junior staff to interact rather informally with their seniors, leading to the enhancement of the morale of the junior staff. The junior staffs become increasingly dedicated to the organizations they serve.
In organizations that have formal organizational structures, there is a high likelihood of the imposition of stop-then-go data functions for determining who handles given data and what he or she does to it. Such functions are typified by delays. To avoid the delays, diagonal activity and personnel coordination is employed, heightening the efficacy, as well as effectiveness, of the processes for formulating the attendant decisions (Ravasan, Mansouri & Nabavi, 2015). Even then, the effectiveness, as well as efficacy, of diagonal activity and personnel coordination may be reduced by subordinate infringement fears among senior staff cadres. In some cases, the staff in the top cadres may resist complying with the suggestions given by those in the lower cadres especially when the suggested do not stem from wide-ranging consultations. In the diagonal coordination, external animosity, as well as internal anarchy, may arise from the absence of agreed-upon procedures.
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