'Coordination as an essence of management implies that it affects all functions of management.It affects planning, organising, staffing, directing and controlling at all levels of management across all business activities. Coordination is not a separate function but a correlating and integrating function within the management's operational framework.
Coordination involves arranging and placing all managerial functions together to run the management smoothly and achieve the required goals and objectives of a business. The performance of any of the managerial functions is an exercise in coordination. The nature/ features of every function invariably facilitates coordination, which is further discussed below:
(i) Coordination through planning: Planning is a preliminary stage for enabling coordination. Preparation of plans requires coordination between superiorsubordinates at all levels through mutual discussion, exchange of ideas, research and so on, For example. production schedules are planned by consulting with purchase manager for update on raw materials held with human resources manager to determine the availability of workers with finance manager to identity budget. costs, etc.
(ii) Coordination through organising: The organising stage involves managers to define and assign roles to their subordinates for performing relevant tasks. This process can be easily aligned through coordination between the managers and subordinates which leads to connecting all operations and functions together.
(iii) Coordination through staffing: Staffing function involves recruitment, employee retention, training and development, performance appraisal, etc. Coordination enables the manager realise the requirements of specific jobs and recognise relevant personnel with relevant skills and experience, which can perform specific jobs effectively.
(iv) Coordination through directing: In directing function, managers provide direction, instructions and guidance to subordinates for doing their assigned job leading to coordination.
(v) Coordination through controlling: Through effective coordination managers can use the planning function to compare their subordinates actual performance with their predetermined targets. If managers find discrepancies in performance, they can take remedial actions and coordinate the efforts of the subordinates that match with the organisational goals.