Who’s actually relating? Bringing
the worker into theories of
relational coordination
Melissa Mazmanian, Informatics, UC California, Irvine
Leslie Perlow, Harvard Business School
Academy of management - August 15, 2011
Symposium: Learning to Coordinate: The Dynamic Interplay between Relationships and Structures
Purpose today
I am going to tell you about a research project that we
conducted to help people get more predictable time off
and what we discovered inadvertently was a way to create
relational coordination.
Relational coordination theory
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Relational coordination theory - Shared Goals, Shared Knowledge,
Mutual Respect
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How might an organization create relational coordination?
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A rich stream of research on the various process and outcome
benefits for teams that exhibit the characteristics of relational
coordination (Gittell, 2000, 2001, 2002, Gittell et. al. 2008, Carmeli
& Gittell, 2009, Gittell et. al. 2010).
Suggestions in current work for fostering relational coordination
practices are structural - change in organization design or HR
practices.
What is the relationship between organizational structure
and enacted practice in fostering relational coordination?
Overview of project

Part of a 6 year study - study of organizational change.

Elite consulting firm - too many ‘regrettable losses.’
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Developed official change effort in order to enable “predictable time
off.”
Project team environment.
 Strict hierarchy.
 Up or out.
 Wheel and spoke model of coordination.
 Value in 24/7 availability and individual heroics.
Ethnographic phase, experimental phase, roll-out phase,
organizational diffusion phase.
Predictable time off

What is PTO?

PTO is NOT
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Initially not a macro shift in organizational policies (HR, selection,
evaluation, etc.)
Not a macro shift in organizational process (design of role, design
of tasks, introduction of new positions)
PTO IS a collective orientation around collective, personal, concrete,
small and achievable goal.

One predictable night “off” a week for each team member.

Leave by 6pm (Mon - Thurs)

No work related emails, phone calls, etc.
Initial outcomes
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PTO “worked”
All initial teams took nights off (12 teams).
 60% of teams took nights off over 75% of the time.
 Rest of teams took nights approximately 50% of the time.
In addition to predictable time off, people oriented to the work, to each
other, and to themselves differently.
We saw a dramatic increase in:
 Individual motivation.
 Quality of group dialogue.
 Experimentation with new ways of working.
 Collective ownership of work.
 Individual satisfaction in blending work and personal lives.
What happened?
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Rules of engagement
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Collective goal of personal interest.
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Suggested practices in service of the goal (coverage assignments, calendar exercise).
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Concrete exercises to enable structured dialogue in service of the goal (pulse check, tummy
rumbles, balance sheet).
Commitment to attend regular team meetings and engage in structured dialogue.
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Enabling conditions
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Leadership support.

Facilitation (external to the team).

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PLUS
ENGENDERED
Generative outcomes
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Open dialogue characterized by psychological safety.
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Willingness to experiment with new ways of working and communicating.
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Systems thinking about work product as a whole.
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Expanded sense of colleagues as whole people with full lives.
Core Outcomes
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Shared Goal

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Shared Knowledge
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In my opinion the open communication aspect of PTO is most important. It felt good to be checking
in every week and continuously asking, ‘is this the best way.’ At our client site they have a
motto: “right work, work right.” I think this is a fitting tagline for our PTO experience. It enabled us to
get better at doing the work right, become more reflective on the goals of the project, and
begin to see each other as humans. – Lila, Consultant
I do see a big plus that comes form sharing our work more. In general, it is good for people to get to
know what each other are doing because you get a better perspective on how your piece fits in.
And once you know what everyone is up to, the team meetings become much more engaging,
you can help each other out and contribute ideas on the whole project. This was not something
we ever really did before PTO. I see that level of engagement as adding value to each person and to
the team as a whole. You don’t need to know every single detail to have that, but a general sense
goes a long way.” – Rene, Consultant
Mutual respect

Once people have information about each other’s personal life they will act on this information. Prior
to PTO we just didn’t ask about personal lives. We stayed professional and just asked about work.
No one dared to ask personal questions. It’s just a cultural thing. In the hierarchy, you would rarely
hear a P or PL proactively ask an A or C what they do in their free time, what do they like or don’t like
and so forth. So people didn’t speak up about those things. But with PTO you begin to get a sense
of each other as people and that goes a long way.” – Vic, Consultant
Discovering relational coordination
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Shared Goal
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Shared Knowledge


In my opinion the open communication aspect of PTO is most important. It felt good to be checking
in every week and continuously asking, ‘is this the best way.’ At our client site they have a
motto: “right work, work right.” I think this is a fitting tagline for our PTO experience. It enabled us to
get better at doing the work right, become more reflective on the goals of the project, and
begin to see each other as humans. – Lila, Consultant
I do see a big plus that comes form sharing our work more. In general, it is good for people to get to
know what each other are doing because you get a better perspective on how your piece fits in.
And once you know what everyone is up to, the team meetings become much more engaging,
you can help each other out and contribute ideas on the whole project. This was not something
we ever really did before PTO. I see that level of engagement as adding value to each person and to
the team as a whole. You don’t need to know every single detail to have that, but a general sense
goes a long way.” – Rene, Consultant
Mutual respect

Once people have information about each other’s personal life they will act on this information. Prior
to PTO we just didn’t ask about personal lives. We stayed professional and just asked about work.
No one dared to ask personal questions. It’s just a cultural thing. In the hierarchy, you would rarely
hear a P or PL proactively ask an A or C what they do in their free time, what do they like or don’t like
and so forth. So people didn’t speak up about those things. But with PTO you begin to get a sense
of each other as people and that goes a long way.” – Vic, Consultant
Conclusions
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How might an organization create relational coordination?
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Small changes that engage people in a collective goal oriented
around personal gain can bring about substantive changes in
action and interaction in a team environment.
Create a win/win virtuous cycle that benefits the organization, the
team, and the individual.
Conclusions

What is the relationship between organizational structure
and enacted practice in fostering relational coordination?


Rules of engagement plus enabling conditions provided a map for
new ways of working and the context that enabled non-normative
behavior, trust, and experimentation.
Large structural changes as suggested by prior work not
necessarily required to foster relational coordination.
Methods and Data
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Retrospective interviews (52)
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Observations:
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Team meetings (approximately 20)
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Firm meetings (6)
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PTO team meetings (approximately 25)
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Around the office (multiple days)
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Documents (emails, power point slides, facilitator materials, etc.)
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Analyzed data through inductive theory building techniques