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Coordination in Fast-Response Organizations

Robert H. Smith School of Business, Universityof Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742
University of Maryland School of Medicine, 685 West Balimore Street,MSTF534, Baltimore, Maryland 21201
sfaraj{at}rhsmith.umd.edu
yxiao{at}umaryland.edu

Organizational coordination has traditionally been viewed from anorganizational-design perspective where rules, modalities, and structuresare used to meet the information-processing demands of the environment.Fast-response organizations face unique coordination challenges as theyoperate under conditions of high uncertainty and fast decision making, wheremistakes can be catastrophic. Based on an in-depth investigation of thecoordination practices of a medical trauma center where fast-response anderror-free activities are essential requirements, we develop acoordination-practice perspective that emphasizes expertise coordination anddialogic coordination. We argue that expertise coordination practices(reliance on protocols, community of practice structuring, plug-and-playteaming, and knowledge sharing) are essential to manage distributedexpertise and ensure the timely application of necessary expertise. Wesuggest that dialogic coordination practices (epistemic contestation, jointsensemaking, cross-boundary intervention, and protocol breaking) aretime-critical responses to novel events and ensure error-free operation.However, dialogic coordination practices are highly contested because ofepistemic differences, reputation stakes, and possible blameapportionment.

Key Words: coordination; teams; high-reliability organization; practice; expertise coordination; communities of practice
History: Received: August 22, 2002;

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