We explain what coordination is according to the area in which it is used. Also, what is physical, grammatical and administrative coordination.
What is coordination?
By coordination, in the multiple areas in which the word can be used, it is generally understood the action of “Joining two things so that they form a unit or a harmonious whole”, as well as “directing and arranging several elements”, according to the Dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy.
In other words, coordinating is ordering a set of elements according to a specific sense. The term coordination comes from Latin coordinatio, made up of the prefix co-, and the Latin voice I will order, which translates "order" or "adjust." In other words, from its origins it had to do with the idea of making something fit into 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 syntax ("Syntax"), but later acquired its current meaning.
This term can be applied to various areas, the main ones being the corporal, the grammatical and the administrative, which we will see separately below.
Physical coordination
Physical coordination or muscular 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 carry it out gracefully and correctly.
In simpler terms, it is about the ability to synchronize the muscles of the body with what you see and what you want to do, so that you can perform the action without stumbling.
This coordination can be of various types, depending on what parts of the body they involve, such as:
- Eye-hand coordination. Also called hand-eye coordination, it involves synchronizing the hands and what is seen, for example to stop a ball without problems.
- Oculo-pedic coordination. It is similar to the previous one, but involves the feet instead of the hands, as is evident when we see an expert footballer play.
- Visual-motor coordination. It involves the whole body in space, that is, it involves movements of the entire body according to the visual perception of space, as in the case of ballet dancers.
- Motor coordination. It alludes 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 join two different terms, be they prayers, phrases or propositions.
Similar to juxtaposition and subordination, coordination operates without pauses that are marked orthographically (by commas or periods), but uses links to unify two fragments of language without any one dominating the other hierarchically, as occurs in subordination.
The terms thus coordinated, then, work together, but they could also do so autonomously. Its syntactic or order of appearance can vary indifferently. Let's see some examples of it:
- Are you coming to the movies or are you staying home?
Sentence 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
Sentence 2: I have no money
In this case it is a adversative coordination.
- At the party there were candies and peanuts.
Sentence 1: At the party there were candies
Nexus: and
Sentence 2: At the party there were peanuts
In this case it is a copulative coordination.
- I was gloomy, I mean, sad.
Phrase 1: I was gloomy
Nexus: So
Phrase 2: I was sad
In this case it is a explanatory coordination.
Administrative coordination
Finally, in management sciences, it is common to speak of coordination to refer to the ability to organize and synchronize the efforts of a company. business or organization, when not simply a department of the same, to achieve its objectives through joint effort.
Coordination, in this sense, is in charge of a leader (coordinator) and a work team that it administers, according to the principle that, adapting to a specific order, there will be a better performance, a better use of resources and the initiatives will advance towards the same general task.
For this reason, it is common to name "coordination" to the departments of a company, as in "Strategic coordination", "Operational coordination", and so on.