We explain what coordination is according to the field in which it is used. Also, what is the types of coordination: physical, grammatical and administrative coordination.
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What is coordination?
By coordination, in the multiple areas in which the word can be used, it is generally understood the action of “Uniting two things in such a way that they form a harmonious unit or group”, as well as “directing and arranging various elements”, according to the Dictionary of the Spanish Royal Academy.
In other words, to coordinate is to order a set of elements according to a specific sense . The term coordination comes from the Latin coordinatio , made up of the prefix co- , and the Latin voice ordinare , which translates “to order” or “to adjust”. In other words, from its origins it had to do with the idea of making something fit in its context or follow a certain order.
Initially, this word was used by the Roman philosopher Boethius , in the exact same sense of the Greek word sýntaxis (“syntax”), but later it acquired the current meaning.
Types of Coordination
This term can be applied to various areas, the main ones being corporal, grammatical and administrative, which we will see separately below.
Physical coordination
Physical coordination or muscle coordination is the ability of the skeletal muscles of our body to synchronize with respect to a movement or a trajectory, anticipating an action to be carried out in a graceful and correct way.
Said in simpler terms, it is the ability to synchronize the muscles of the body with what you see and what you want to do, in order to carry out the action smoothly.
This coordination can be of different types, depending on what parts of the body they involve, such as:
- Eye-manual coordination . Also called hand-eye coordination, it involves synchronizing the hands and what is seen, for example to catch a ball without problems.
- Oculocedic coordination . It is similar to the previous one, but involves the feet instead of the hands, as evidenced when we see an expert footballer play.
- Viso-motor coordination . It involves the whole body in space, that is, it involves movements of the whole body according to the visual perception of space, as in the case of ballet dancers.
- Motor coordination . It refers to coordination in general, that is, the ability to move, use objects, throw, receive, put something together, take something apart, in short, all those activities that involve our muscles and our senses, in general.
Grammatical coordination
In the case of grammar, the term coordination applies to the way in which language allows us to unite two different terms , be they sentences, phrases or propositions.
Similar to juxtaposition and subordination, coordination operates without breaks that are spelled out (using commas or periods), but rather uses links to unify two pieces of language without one hierarchically depriving the other, as in subordination.
The terms thus coordinated, then, work together, but could also do so autonomously. Its syntactic or appearance order can vary indifferently. Let’s see some examples of it:
- Do you come to the movies or stay at home?
Phrase 1: You come to the cinema
Nexus: o
Phrase 2: you stay home
In this case it is a disjunctive coordination .
- I am hungry, but I have no money .
Phrase 1: I’m hungry
Nexus: but
Phrase 2: I have no money
In this case it is an adversative coordination .
- At the party there were candies and peanuts .
Phrase 1: There were candies at the party
Nexus: and
Phrase 2: At the party there were peanuts
In this case it is a copulative coordination .
- It was gloomy, that is, sad .
Phrase 1: It was gloomy
Nexus: I mean
Phrase 2: I was sad
In this case it is an explanatory coordination.
Administrative coordination
Finally, in the administration sciences, it is common to speak of coordination to refer to the ability to organize and synchronize the efforts of a company or organization , if not simply some department of it, to achieve its objectives through effort joint.
Coordination, in this sense, is in charge of a leader (coordinator) and a work team that manages, according to the principle that, according to a specific order, there will be better performance, better use of resources and the initiatives will advance towards the same general task.
For this reason, it is common to name the departments of a company “coordinations”, such as “Strategic coordination”, “Operational coordination”, etc.
