4. Getting Things Coordinated: A Study on Field Administration in Bangladesh

Coordination is the first and most basic principle of organisation studies (Mooney & Reiley, 1939 as cited in Islam, 1994; Kettl, 2003). The success of any organisation in getting their functions done is closely intertwined with coordination, because coordination describes and analyses the structure and mode of acting of organisations (Christensen & Lægreid, 2008). Over the years, both the scope and areas of the functions that the government does, have been expanded intensively and extensively; need for working of public organisations together has been one of the main focuses of the government. Working of public organisations together does not produce expected results when coordination of their tasks misses, or until and unless coordination of their tasks is achieved because they separately possess and control different resources that include, but are not limited to, technical knowledge, funds, and information.

As regards to expansion of the state activities, no exception happened to Bangladesh. Field offices of the central government in Bangladesh are found at different layers of the administrative system: division, district, and Upazila. Of these administrative tiers, Upazila is considered a focal point of development as all nation building public offices are situated there, and the citizens have easy access to the activities they perform. Field offices of the central government work under a separate chain of command and perform officespecific particular functions, but there are times when they are required to work together (Zafurullah, 1998).