Abstract

With an emerging remote and dispersed workforce that is consequently more autonomous, OD professionals will need to understand how autonomy relates to coordination to help organizations adapt and be effective. The purpose of this study was to understand the relationship between team member autonomy and inter-team coordination in organizations. The manager-team participants in this study spanned eleven industries, including 22 teams from 15 companies. The researcher took a mixed-method approach using interviews and surveys to assess autonomy and coordination. The research resulted in five variables: three variables measured coordination and two variables measured autonomy. Autonomy and coordination were significantly and positively correlated in one case. The other correlations were not significantly and positively correlated. The correlation implies that teams with a high percentage of independent work time and that spend little time being actively managed by their managers also coordinate on a higher volume of collaborative projects with other teams.

Library of Congress Subject Headings

Autonomy; Organizational change; Employees; Supervision of employees

Date of Award

2023

School Affiliation

Graziadio Business School

Department/Program

Business

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Masters

Faculty Advisor

Christopher G. Worley

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