Interdependence atau saling ketergantungan merupakan lawan kata dari independence atau kemandirian. Interdependence menandakan bahwa suatu bidang organisasi atau individual tidak sepenuhnya mandiri, dan dengan demikian, hasil yang terukur akan dipengaruhi oleh pihak lain di dalam organisasi. Interdependencies menurut James D. Thompson (1967), dalam bukunya “Organizations in Action” Action” menjelaskan tiga tipe dari interdependence untuk menggambarkan intensitas interaksi dan perilaku di dalam suatu struktur organisasi, yaitu pooled, sequential , dan reciprocal. Studi tentang interdependence ini membantu para pemilik bisnis untuk mengerti bagaimana departemen atau unit yang berbeda di dalam satu organisasi tergantung pada kinerja satu sama lain. Pooled Interdependence Pooled interdependence mungkin merupakan bentuk yang paling longgar dari ketiga tipe ini. Pada tipe ini, setiap departemen di dalam organisasi atau unit bisnis melaksanakan fungsi yang benar-benar berbeda. Walaupun departemen-departemen ini tidak berinteraksi secara langsung dan tidak bergantung secara langsung satu sama lainnya dalam pooled interdependence model , namun masingmasing turut menyumbangkan suatu bagian untuk membentuk satu keseluruhan puzzle keseluruhan puzzle yang sama. Hal ini menimbulkan suatu ketergantungan tidak langsung yang nyaris tidak terlihat pada kinerja departemen lain di mana kegagalan dari suatu departemen dapat mengarah pada kegagalan proses secara keseluruhan. Pooled interdependencies ada ketika suatu entitas dalam perusahaan menggunakan sumber daya umum atau kumpulan sumber daya, seperti staff bersama atau fasilitas bersama (misalnya manufaktur, penelitian dan pengembangan). Pooled interdependence rendah ketika suatu entitas cukup mandiri. Entitas yang mandiri meliputi semua atau sebagian besar fungsi yang mempengaruhi kesuksesan mereka dan tidak harus menggunakan kumpulan sumber daya milik bersama. Sequential Interdependence Sequential interdependence terjadi ketika suatu unit dalam keseluruhan proses memproduksi sebuah output yang penting bagi kinerja unit selanjutnya. Contoh yang paling jelas untuk sequential interdependence ini adalah bagian perakitan (assembly line). Menurut Proven Models website, atas pooled task “Permintaan atas koordinasi untuk mencegah kemunduran lebih besar dari permi ntaan atas pooled interdependence.” interdependence.” Penjadwalan dan perencanaan sumber daya perusahaan pada sequential interdependence model sangat penting untuk operasi yang efisien. Suatu organisasi yang tingkat sequential interdependence nya cukup tinggi merupakan perusahaan yang terintegrasi secara vertical (vertically integrated), misalnya paper misalnya paper and steel companies. Reciprocal Interdependence Reciprocal interdependence mirip dengan sequential interdependence di mana output dari suatu departemen menjadi input bagi departemen lain, dengan tambahan bahwa ini berada dalam suatu siklus. Di model ini, departemen-departemen dalam organisasi berada pada intensitas tertinggi dalam berinteraksi satu sama lain. Reciprocal model merupakan yang paling kompleks dan sulit untuk dikelola, Business Intelligence website menyatakan bahwa “sebuah unit dapat merubah peraturan dan mempengaruhi orang lain setiap saat.”
A third type of uncontrollable is caused by interdependence. Interdependence is the opposite of independence. Interdependence signifies that an organization’s or an individual’s area is not completely self-contained, and thus, the measured results are affected by others within the organization. Interdependencies in production or service-providing areas can be classified into three types: pooled, sequential, and reciprocal. Pooled interdependencies exist where a firm’s entities use common resources or resource pools, such as shared staffs or shared facilities (e.g. manufacturing, research and development). Pooled interdependence is low when entities are relatively self-contained. Self-contained entities include all or most of the functions affecting their success and do not have to use shared resource pools. What kinds of control questions are raised by pooled interdependencies? One common question is: Should lower-level managers be at risk for bad (or good) performance of shared resource pools, such as corporate staff activities, on which they must rely? In many large firms, these managers are protected from cost increases by the terms of an annual contract, negotiated during the annual planning process, which stipulates the services to be provided and their costs. The expected costs are impounded in a fixed allocation rate and unexpected rate increases cannot be passed on to internal customers until the next contract negotiation. Sequential interdependencies exist when the outputs of one entity are the inputs of another entity. Organizations that are high in sequential interdependence are vertically integrated firms, such as paper and steel companies. Reciprocal interdependencies are bidirectional sequential interdependencies. That is, organizational entities both produce outputs used by other entities and use inputs from them. Reciprocal interdependencies are high in some related-diversified firms. Most corporations deal with both sequential and reciprocal interdependencies by setting up internal transfer price systems that try to approximate the conditions found in external markets. These systems, which were discussed in Chapter 7, make these interdependencies act much like the economic and competitive uncontrollables described above, and evaluators then can deal with them in much the same way. Another type of interdependency stems from interventions from higher-level management . Higher-level managers can force a decision on a lower-level manager and in so doing significantly affect a results measure linked to one or more forms of rewards. For example, corporate managers may order a division to sell to a particular customer at a given, money-losing price in return for other benefits that will accrue to other entities in the firm. Corporate managers can also affect results measures simply by not approving decisions initiated by a division manager. They might not approve a proposed expenditure or a production schedule change. If these decisions are clearly forced on the lower-level manager, some organizations will make an adjustment for this uncontrollable event. Others, however, argue t hat these interventions are not totally uncontrollable. The lowerlevel managers are usually involved in the discussions leading up to the decision and are, therefore, responsible for selling ideas.
Types of Interdependence Thompson (1967) identified three general types of interdependence among unit personnel and organizational units: pooled, sequential, and reciprocal. In pooled interdependence, each team member or unit provides a discrete contribution to the whole by collating (or pooling) its obtained information and knowledge. Conceptually, this is represented in the MIA task by individual intelligence analysts contributing to a shared database. Analyst A collects his intelligence, Analyst B collects hers, and the pooled products create a common picture. Although the final product depends on the activities of each analyst, the individual analysts’ work is not necessarily dependent on each others’ activities. In sequential interdependence, however, the product of one unit (or person) is dependent upon the output of another. This is illustrated by a Request for Information (RFI) process. The responding agency takes no action unless a request is received; the requesting agency can not proceed until its request is fulfilled. Finally, in reciprocal interdependence, units pose critical contingencies for each other that have to be resolved before taking action. Operations and logistics often have a reciprocal interdependence. Whether or not different operations can be undertaken depends on the availability of certain resources and, in turn, the availability of those resources depends on previous and planned operations. Therefore, operations and logistics pose critical contingencies for each other that have to be addressed reciprocally during planning.
