Coherence describes the quality of making a unified whole. In the realm of social sciences and public health, coherence is used to describe overall well-being of communities and/or single individuals. Also known as social cohesion, it is the harmonious alignment among social groupings such as family units, neighborhoods, or larger organizations in which a network of relationships exists among individuals who share common interests and objectives. A high degree of social cohesion is reflected through efficient flow and utilization of energy and communication required for optimal collective action. However, the implication of social cohesion is dependent on the social scale and levels of analysis within a network.
On an organizational level, coherence is defined as the right mix of instruments, functions, and delivery channels to reach a collectively agreed outcome. For example, in refugee crisis management, coherence is the cooperation between humanitarian aid agencies and development programs to achieve a durable solution for refugees. Strategic coherence is directly applicable to organizational coherence, aimed at evaluating the consistency of strategic choices across business and functional levels. For example, strategic coherence is measured by using the patterns of strategy used by different sectors of a single industry context. In this domain strategic coherence is assessed by determining the dominant functional decision patterns pursued by firms following the same or similar business strategy. If two firms are following the same overall business strategy, we would expect their functional area decisions to be similar and therefore they are more coherent. Similar measures could be developed to ensure strategic and operational coherence between humanitarian and development sectors to better integrate refugee crisis management strategies with national development plans in refugee host countries.
Using the case studies of Uganda and Ecuador, we aim to understand these patterns and find scalable metrics to be incorporated for coherent action between global I/NGOS, donors, and government officials.
On an organizational level, coherence is defined as the right mix of instruments, functions, and delivery channels to reach a collectively agreed outcome. For example, in refugee crisis management, coherence is the cooperation between humanitarian aid agencies and development programs to achieve a durable solution for refugees. Strategic coherence is directly applicable to organizational coherence, aimed at evaluating the consistency of strategic choices across business and functional levels. For example, strategic coherence is measured by using the patterns of strategy used by different sectors of a single industry context. In this domain strategic coherence is assessed by determining the dominant functional decision patterns pursued by firms following the same or similar business strategy. If two firms are following the same overall business strategy, we would expect their functional area decisions to be similar and therefore they are more coherent. Similar measures could be developed to ensure strategic and operational coherence between humanitarian and development sectors to better integrate refugee crisis management strategies with national development plans in refugee host countries.
Using the case studies of Uganda and Ecuador, we aim to understand these patterns and find scalable metrics to be incorporated for coherent action between global I/NGOS, donors, and government officials.