Cultivating coalition attitudes

Abstract

It is pointed out that the premise of parallel processing, or concurrent engineering, is a high level of collaboration among technical professionals working in a network, rather than in a sequential-function hierarchy. However, individualism, in the American culture, is an inhibitor to this achievement. In a coalition, individuals can retain their own identity as individual contributors while achieving a common objective. A coalition attitude must be developed to understand the consequence of group synergy, and to recognize the common stake in group success. Self-directed, problem-solving groups are used as the coalition development medium. Facilitation skills are developed, while leadership is exercised. Research on collaborative action coalitions using the inputs of over 100 technical professionals is reported. Attention is given to the inhibitors and how might they be overcome. This is a phase of a larger research effort directed towards the organizational migration from hierarchy, to computer-supported cooperative work in networks. This involves the use of parallel processing, and common databases, for system-level integrated problem solving.<>