New Directions for Relational Coordination ! eory

Positive organizational scholarship (POS) is a humanistic approach to the study of organizations, emphasizing the importance of subjectivity, intersubjectivity, and meaning at work (Cameron, Dutton, & Quinn, 2003 ). Relational coordination theory contributes to POS by o" ering a theory of coordination that makes visible the relational process underlying the technical process, arguing that coordination encompasses not only the management of interdependence between tasks (Malone & Crowston, 1994 ) but also the management of interdependence between the people who perform those tasks. ! e theory reveals the intersubjectivity of the coordination process, therefore paying close attention to the quality of communication and relationships among participants, as well as to the technical requirements of the work. ! is theory shares common threads with other intersubjective or relational approaches to the coordination of work (Bechky, 2006 ; Faraj & Sproull, 2000 ; Faraj & Xiao, 2006 ; Gittell, 2002b ; Heckscher, 1994 ; Heckscher & Adler, 2006 ; Quinn & Dutton, 2005 ; Weick & Roberts, 1993 ) but di" ers in several important ways. First, relational coordination theory starts by conceptualizing coordination as occurring through a network of relationship and communication ties among participants in a work process, where a work process is a set of interdependent tasks that transforms inputs into outcomes of value to the organization. Second, this theory identi# es three distinctive dimensions of relationships — shared goals, shared knowledge, and mutual respect — that together are argued Abstract