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Successful Interdepartmental Collaboration: Analyzing the Fit between Task Interdependence and Coordination Mechanisms in the IT Outsourcing Sector

Stok, Jan-Joost (2009) Successful Interdepartmental Collaboration: Analyzing the Fit between Task Interdependence and Coordination Mechanisms in the IT Outsourcing Sector.

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Abstract:	At IT Outsourcing relations between departments are changing. The services of Applications Management (AM) and Infrastructure Management (IM) are organized in separate departments. In the history of these two departments there has been very little need for collaboration. Both AM and IM delivered their services under their own contracts and had little dependencies between each other. Because of changes in technology (i.e. virtualizations) and market demands, AM and IM are required to collaborate more. A growing number of contracts combine shared AM and IM services in one agreement. As these departments depend on the other’s input for accomplishing their own task, the work in one department has direct implications for the work and progress in the other department (task interdependence). Therefore, interdependent tasks must be well coordinated. Without effective coordination, interdependencies can cause mistakes necessitating rework and creating crises (Loch and Terwisch 1998; Kazanjian et al. 2000). Departments need to identify their interfaces and interdependencies with others and initiate an appropriate amount of coordination (Hoegl et al. 2004). Where relations between departments change the interdependencies can change and related to this the appropriate amount of coordination. Too much coordination is inefficient and too little coordination may cause rework or other problems. This research tries to find the answer to the appropriate amount of coordination regarding the interdependencies between departments in order to be successful. Research Design The research is concerned with the level of task interdependence between teams and the appropriate amount and type of coordination between them. This relation between the level of task interdependence and the appropriate amount and type of coordination is referred to as the ‘fit’. This is formulated in the main research question: What is the Fit between Task Interdependence and Coordination Mechanisms for Interdepartmental Collaboration success at Through the study of relevant theories and empirical practices, literature reading and comparisons a theoretical model is created with scenario’s. Using three cases, the results of the level of task interdependence and the different coordination mechanisms in use are related to scenario’s of fit. Furthermore outcomes to collaboration success in terms of effectiveness and employee satisfaction are related to the level of fit.
Item Type:	Essay (Master)
Clients:	IT Outsourcing B.V.
Faculty:	BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences
Subject:	85 business administration, organizational science
Programme:	Business Administration MSc (60644)
Link to this item:	https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/59998
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