Synergy
Encyclopedia
Synergy may be defined as two or more things functioning together to produce a result not independently obtainable.
The term synergy comes from the Greek
word from , , meaning "working together".
In a technical context, its meaning is a construct or collection of different elements working together to produce results not obtainable by any of the elements alone. The elements, or parts, can include people, hardware, software, facilities, policies, documents: all things required to produce system-level results. The value added by the system as a whole, beyond that contributed independently by the parts, is created primarily by the relationship
among the parts, that is, how they are interconnected. In essence, a system constitutes a set of interrelated components working together with a common objective: fulfilling some designated need.
If used in a business application, synergy means that teamwork will produce an overall better result than if each person within the group were working toward the same goal individually. However, the concept of group cohesion
needs to be considered. Group cohesion is that property that is inferred from the number and strength of mutual positive attitudes among members of the group. As the group becomes more cohesive, its functioning is affected in a number of ways. First, the interactions and communication between members increase. Common goals, interests and small size all contribute to this. In addition, group member satisfaction increases as the group provides friendship and support against outside threats.
There are negative aspects of group cohesion that have an effect on group decision-making and hence on group effectiveness. There are two issues arising. The risky shift phenomenon is the tendency of a group to make decisions that are riskier than those that the group would have recommended individually. Group Polarisation
is when individuals in a group begin by taking a moderate stance on an issue regarding a common value and, after having discussed it, end up taking a more extreme stance.
A second, potential negative consequence of group cohesion is group think. Group think is a mode of thinking that people engage in when they are deeply involved in cohesive group, when the members' striving for unanimity overrides their motivation to appraise realistically the alternative courses of action. Studying the events of several American policy "disasters" such as the failure to anticipate the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor
(1941) and the Bay of Pigs Invasion
fiasco (1961), Irving Janis argued that they were due to the cohesive nature of the committees that made the relevant decisions.
That decisions made by committees lead to failure in a simple system is noted by Dr. Chris Elliot. His case study looked at IEEE-488
, an international standard set by the leading US standards body; it led to a failure of small automation systems using the IEEE-488 standard (which codified a proprietary communications standard HP-IB). But the external devices used for communication were made by two different companies, and the incompatibility between the external devices led to a financial loss for the company. He argues that systems will be safe only if they are designed, not if they emerge by chance.
The idea of a systemic approach is endorsed by the United Kingdom
Health and Safety Executive
: The successful performance of the health and safety management depends upon the analyzing the causes of incidents and accidents and learning correct lessons from them. The idea is that all events (not just those causing injuries) represent failures in control, and present an opportunity for learning and improvement. This book describes the principles and management practices, which provide the basis of effective health and safety management. It sets out the issues that need to be addressed, and can be used for developing improvement programs, self-audit, or self-assessment. Its message is that organizations must manage health and safety with the same degree of expertise and to the same standards as other core business activities, if they are to effectively control risks and prevent harm to people.
The term synergy was refined by R. Buckminster Fuller, who analyzed some of its implications more fully and coined the term Synergetics
.
s can interact in ways that enhance or magnify one or more effects, or side-effects, of those drugs. This is sometimes exploited in combination preparations, such as codeine
mixed with acetaminophen or ibuprofen
to enhance the action of codeine as a pain reliever. This is often seen with recreational drugs, where 5-HTP, a serotonin
precursor often used as an antidepressant, is often used prior to, during, and shortly after recreational use of MDMA, as it is alleged to increase the "high" and decreases the "comedown" stages of MDMA use (although most anecdotal evidence has pointed to 5-HTP's moderately muting the effect of MDMA). Other examples include the use of Cannabis
with LSD, where the active chemicals in cannabis have been reported to enhance the hallucinatory experience of LSD..
Negative effects of synergy are a form of contraindication
. For example, a combination of depressant drugs that affect the central nervous system
(CNS), such as alcohol
and Valium, can cause a greater reaction than simply the sum of the individual effects of each drug if they were used separately. In this particular case, the most serious consequence of drug synergy is exaggerated respiratory depression, which can be fatal if left untreated.
Drug synergy can occur both in biological activity and because of pharmacokinetics. Shared metabolic enzymes can cause drugs to remain in the bloodstream much longer in higher concentrations than if individually taken.
host
organism
population, where, for example, the introduction of parasite A may cause 10% fatalities, and parasite B may also cause 10% loss. When both parasites are present, the losses would normally be expected to total less than 20%, yet, in some cases, losses are significantly greater. In such cases, it is said that the parasites in combination have a synergistic effect.
has one of the more detailed and precise definitions of toxic interaction, designed to facilitate risk assessment. In their guidance documents, the no-interaction default assumption is dose addition, so synergy means a mixture response that exceeds that predicted from dose addition. The EPA emphasizes that synergy does not always make a mixture dangerous, nor does antagonism always make the mixture safe; each depends on the predicted risk under dose addition.
For example, a consequence of pesticide use is the risk of health effects. During the registration of pesticide
s in the United States
exhaustive tests are performed to discern health effects on humans at various exposure levels. A regulatory upper limit of presence in foods is then placed on this pesticide. As long as residues in the food stay below this regulatory level, health effects are deemed highly unlikely and the food is considered safe to consume.
However, in normal agricultural practice, it is rare to use only a single pesticide. During the production of a crop, several different materials may be used. Each of them has had determined a regulatory level at which they would be considered individually safe. In many cases, a commercial pesticide is itself a combination of several chemical agents, and thus the safe levels actually represent levels of the mixture. In contrast, a combination created by the end user, such as a farmer, has rarely been tested in that combination. The potential for synergy is then unknown or estimated from data on similar combinations. This lack of information also applies to many of the chemical combinations to which humans are exposed, including residues in food, indoor air contaminants, and occupational exposures to chemicals. Some groups think that the rising rates of cancer, asthma, and other health problems may be caused by these combination exposures; others have alternative explanations. This question will likely be answered only after years of exposure by the population in general and research on chemical toxicity, usually performed on animals. Examples of pesticide synergists include Piperonyl butoxide
and MGK 264.
on a tree
and person B is too short as well. Once person B sits on the shoulder
s of person A, they are more than tall enough to reach the apple. In this example, the product of their synergy would be one apple. Another case would be two politician
s. If each is able to gather one million votes on their own, but together they were able to appeal to 2.5 million voters, their synergy would have produced 500,000 more votes than had they each worked independently. A song
is also a good example of human synergy, taking more than one musical part and putting them together to create a song that has a much more dramatic effect than each of the parts when played individually.
A third form of human synergy is when one person is able to complete two separate tasks by doing one action, for example, if a person were asked by a teacher
and his boss
at work to write an essay
on how he could improve his work. A more visual example of this synergy is a drummer
's using four separate rhythm
s to create one drum
beat.
Synergy usually arises when two persons with different complementary skills cooperate. In business, cooperation of people with organizational and technical skills happens very often. In general, the most common reason why people cooperate is that it brings a synergy. On the other hand, people tend to specialize just to be able to form groups with high synergy (see also division of labor and teamwork
).
Example: Two teams in System Admin working together to combine technical and organizational skills in order to better the client experience, thus creating synergy.
expects to realize when it merges with or acquires another corporation. This type of synergy is a nearly ubiquitous feature of a corporate acquisition and is a negotiating point between the buyer and seller that impacts the final price both parties agree to. There are distinct types of corporate synergies:
In media revenue, synergy is the promotion and sale of a product throughout the various subsidiaries of a media conglomerate, e.g. films, soundtracks, or video games.
.
. Computers can process data much more quickly than humans, but lack the ability to respond meaningfully to arbitrary stimuli.
pioneered synergistic marketing techniques in the 1930s by granting dozens of firms the right to use his Mickey Mouse
character in products and ads, and continued to market Disney media through licensing arrangements. These products can help advertise the film itself and thus help to increase the film's sales. For example, the Spider-Man films had toys of webshooters and figures of the characters made, as well as posters and games. The NBC sitcom 30 Rock
often shows the power of synergy, while also poking fun at the use of the term in the corporate world.
occurs, such as following a stroke
, it manifests in abnormal and stereotypical patterns across multiple joints called obligatory synergies. They are described as either a flexion synergy or an extension synergy and effect both the upper and lower extremity (see below). When these patterns occur in a patient, he or she is unable to move a limb segment in isolation of the pattern. This interferes with normal activities of daily living. Some aspects of the obligatory synergy patterns however, can be cleverly used to increase function relative to the movement available to the individual. Careful thought should, therefore, be considered in deciding which muscle groups to stretch at specific times during recovery. Obligatory synergy patterns are observed when a patient tries to make a minimal voluntary movement, or as a result of stimulated reflexes.
The flexion synergy for the upper extremity includes scapular retraction and elevation, shoulder abduction and external rotation, elbow flexion, forearm supination, and wrist and finger flexion.
The extension synergy for the upper extremity includes scapular protraction, shoulder adduction and internal rotation, elbow extension, forearm pronation, and wrist and finger flexion.
The flexion synergy for the lower extremity includes hip flexion, abduction and external rotation, knee flexion, ankle dorsiflexion and inversion and toe dorsiflexion.
The extension synergy for the lower extremity includes hip extension, adduction and internal rotation, knee extension, ankle plantar flexion and inversion, and toe plantar flexion.
Note that some muscles are not usually involved in these synergy patterns and include the lattisimus dorsi, teres major, serratus anterior, finger extensors, and ankle evertors.
The term synergy comes from the Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
word from , , meaning "working together".
Definitions and usages
In the context of organizational behavior, following the view that a cohesive group is more than the sum of its parts, synergy is the ability of a group to outperform even its best individual member. These conclusions are derived from the studies conducted by Jay Hall on a number of laboratory-based group ranking and prediction tasks. He found that effective groups actively looked for the points in which they disagreed and in consequence encouraged conflicts amongst the participants in the early stages of the discussion. In contrast, the ineffective groups felt a need to establish a common view quickly, used simple decision making methods such as averaging, and focused on completing the task rather than on finding solutions they could agree on.In a technical context, its meaning is a construct or collection of different elements working together to produce results not obtainable by any of the elements alone. The elements, or parts, can include people, hardware, software, facilities, policies, documents: all things required to produce system-level results. The value added by the system as a whole, beyond that contributed independently by the parts, is created primarily by the relationship
Relationship
Relationship or relationships may refer to:* Interpersonal relationship* Intimate relationship* In mathematics and statistics:** Binary relation** Causal relationship** Correlation and dependence** Direct relationship** Inverse relationship...
among the parts, that is, how they are interconnected. In essence, a system constitutes a set of interrelated components working together with a common objective: fulfilling some designated need.
If used in a business application, synergy means that teamwork will produce an overall better result than if each person within the group were working toward the same goal individually. However, the concept of group cohesion
Cohesion
Cohesion may refer to:* Cohesion , the intermolecular attraction between like-molecules* Cohesion , a measure of how well the lines of source code within a module work together...
needs to be considered. Group cohesion is that property that is inferred from the number and strength of mutual positive attitudes among members of the group. As the group becomes more cohesive, its functioning is affected in a number of ways. First, the interactions and communication between members increase. Common goals, interests and small size all contribute to this. In addition, group member satisfaction increases as the group provides friendship and support against outside threats.
There are negative aspects of group cohesion that have an effect on group decision-making and hence on group effectiveness. There are two issues arising. The risky shift phenomenon is the tendency of a group to make decisions that are riskier than those that the group would have recommended individually. Group Polarisation
Polarization (politics)
In politics, polarization is the process by which the public opinion divides and goes to the extremes. It can also refer to when the extreme factions of a political party gain dominance in a party. In either case moderate voices often lose power and influence as a consequence.-Definitions of...
is when individuals in a group begin by taking a moderate stance on an issue regarding a common value and, after having discussed it, end up taking a more extreme stance.
A second, potential negative consequence of group cohesion is group think. Group think is a mode of thinking that people engage in when they are deeply involved in cohesive group, when the members' striving for unanimity overrides their motivation to appraise realistically the alternative courses of action. Studying the events of several American policy "disasters" such as the failure to anticipate the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor
Attack on Pearl Harbor
The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike conducted by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on the morning of December 7, 1941...
(1941) and the Bay of Pigs Invasion
Bay of Pigs Invasion
The Bay of Pigs Invasion was an unsuccessful action by a CIA-trained force of Cuban exiles to invade southern Cuba, with support and encouragement from the US government, in an attempt to overthrow the Cuban government of Fidel Castro. The invasion was launched in April 1961, less than three months...
fiasco (1961), Irving Janis argued that they were due to the cohesive nature of the committees that made the relevant decisions.
That decisions made by committees lead to failure in a simple system is noted by Dr. Chris Elliot. His case study looked at IEEE-488
IEEE-488
IEEE-488 is a short-range digital communications bus specification. It was created for use with automated test equipment in the late 1960s, and is still in use for that purpose. IEEE-488 was created as HP-IB , and is commonly called GPIB...
, an international standard set by the leading US standards body; it led to a failure of small automation systems using the IEEE-488 standard (which codified a proprietary communications standard HP-IB). But the external devices used for communication were made by two different companies, and the incompatibility between the external devices led to a financial loss for the company. He argues that systems will be safe only if they are designed, not if they emerge by chance.
The idea of a systemic approach is endorsed by the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
Health and Safety Executive
Health and Safety Executive
The Health and Safety Executive is a non-departmental public body in the United Kingdom. It is the body responsible for the encouragement, regulation and enforcement of workplace health, safety and welfare, and for research into occupational risks in England and Wales and Scotland...
: The successful performance of the health and safety management depends upon the analyzing the causes of incidents and accidents and learning correct lessons from them. The idea is that all events (not just those causing injuries) represent failures in control, and present an opportunity for learning and improvement. This book describes the principles and management practices, which provide the basis of effective health and safety management. It sets out the issues that need to be addressed, and can be used for developing improvement programs, self-audit, or self-assessment. Its message is that organizations must manage health and safety with the same degree of expertise and to the same standards as other core business activities, if they are to effectively control risks and prevent harm to people.
The term synergy was refined by R. Buckminster Fuller, who analyzed some of its implications more fully and coined the term Synergetics
Synergetics
Synergetics is an interdisciplinary science explaining the formation and self-organization of patterns and structures in open systems far from thermodynamic equilibrium. It is founded by Hermann Haken, inspired by the laser theory....
.
- A dynamic state in which combined action is favored over the difference of individual component actions.
- Behavior of whole systems unpredicted by the behavior of their parts taken separately, known as emergent behavior.
- The cooperative action of two or more stimuli (or drugs), resulting in a different or greater response than that of the individual stimuli.
Drug synergy
Drug synergy occurs when drugDrug
A drug, broadly speaking, is any substance that, when absorbed into the body of a living organism, alters normal bodily function. There is no single, precise definition, as there are different meanings in drug control law, government regulations, medicine, and colloquial usage.In pharmacology, a...
s can interact in ways that enhance or magnify one or more effects, or side-effects, of those drugs. This is sometimes exploited in combination preparations, such as codeine
Codeine
Codeine or 3-methylmorphine is an opiate used for its analgesic, antitussive, and antidiarrheal properties...
mixed with acetaminophen or ibuprofen
Ibuprofen
Ibuprofen is a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug used for relief of symptoms of arthritis, fever, as an analgesic , especially where there is an inflammatory component, and dysmenorrhea....
to enhance the action of codeine as a pain reliever. This is often seen with recreational drugs, where 5-HTP, a serotonin
Serotonin
Serotonin or 5-hydroxytryptamine is a monoamine neurotransmitter. Biochemically derived from tryptophan, serotonin is primarily found in the gastrointestinal tract, platelets, and in the central nervous system of animals including humans...
precursor often used as an antidepressant, is often used prior to, during, and shortly after recreational use of MDMA, as it is alleged to increase the "high" and decreases the "comedown" stages of MDMA use (although most anecdotal evidence has pointed to 5-HTP's moderately muting the effect of MDMA). Other examples include the use of Cannabis
Cannabis
Cannabis is a genus of flowering plants that includes three putative species, Cannabis sativa, Cannabis indica, and Cannabis ruderalis. These three taxa are indigenous to Central Asia, and South Asia. Cannabis has long been used for fibre , for seed and seed oils, for medicinal purposes, and as a...
with LSD, where the active chemicals in cannabis have been reported to enhance the hallucinatory experience of LSD..
Negative effects of synergy are a form of contraindication
Contraindication
In medicine, a contraindication is a condition or factor that serves as a reason to withhold a certain medical treatment.Some contraindications are absolute, meaning that there are no reasonable circumstances for undertaking a course of action...
. For example, a combination of depressant drugs that affect the central nervous system
Central nervous system
The central nervous system is the part of the nervous system that integrates the information that it receives from, and coordinates the activity of, all parts of the bodies of bilaterian animals—that is, all multicellular animals except sponges and radially symmetric animals such as jellyfish...
(CNS), such as alcohol
Alcohol
In chemistry, an alcohol is an organic compound in which the hydroxy functional group is bound to a carbon atom. In particular, this carbon center should be saturated, having single bonds to three other atoms....
and Valium, can cause a greater reaction than simply the sum of the individual effects of each drug if they were used separately. In this particular case, the most serious consequence of drug synergy is exaggerated respiratory depression, which can be fatal if left untreated.
Drug synergy can occur both in biological activity and because of pharmacokinetics. Shared metabolic enzymes can cause drugs to remain in the bloodstream much longer in higher concentrations than if individually taken.
Biological sciences
Synergy has been advanced by Robert Corning as a hypothesis on how complex systems operate. Environmental systems may react in a non-linear way to perturbations, such as climate change, so that the outcome may be greater than the sum of the individual component alterations. Synergistic responses are a complicating factor in environmental modeling.Pest synergy
Pest synergy would occur in a biologicalBiology
Biology is a natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy. Biology is a vast subject containing many subdivisions, topics, and disciplines...
host
Host (biology)
In biology, a host is an organism that harbors a parasite, or a mutual or commensal symbiont, typically providing nourishment and shelter. In botany, a host plant is one that supplies food resources and substrate for certain insects or other fauna...
organism
Organism
In biology, an organism is any contiguous living system . In at least some form, all organisms are capable of response to stimuli, reproduction, growth and development, and maintenance of homoeostasis as a stable whole.An organism may either be unicellular or, as in the case of humans, comprise...
population, where, for example, the introduction of parasite A may cause 10% fatalities, and parasite B may also cause 10% loss. When both parasites are present, the losses would normally be expected to total less than 20%, yet, in some cases, losses are significantly greater. In such cases, it is said that the parasites in combination have a synergistic effect.
Toxicological synergy
Toxicological synergy is of concern to the public and regulatory agencies because chemicals individually considered safe might pose unacceptable health or ecological risk in combination. Articles in scientific and lay journals include many definitions of chemical or toxicological synergy, often vague or in conflict with each other. Because toxic interactions are defined relative to the expectation under "no interaction", a determination of synergy (or antagonism) depends on what is meant by "no interaction". The United States Environmental Protection AgencyUnited States Environmental Protection Agency
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is an agency of the federal government of the United States charged with protecting human health and the environment, by writing and enforcing regulations based on laws passed by Congress...
has one of the more detailed and precise definitions of toxic interaction, designed to facilitate risk assessment. In their guidance documents, the no-interaction default assumption is dose addition, so synergy means a mixture response that exceeds that predicted from dose addition. The EPA emphasizes that synergy does not always make a mixture dangerous, nor does antagonism always make the mixture safe; each depends on the predicted risk under dose addition.
For example, a consequence of pesticide use is the risk of health effects. During the registration of pesticide
Pesticide
Pesticides are substances or mixture of substances intended for preventing, destroying, repelling or mitigating any pest.A pesticide may be a chemical unicycle, biological agent , antimicrobial, disinfectant or device used against any pest...
s in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
exhaustive tests are performed to discern health effects on humans at various exposure levels. A regulatory upper limit of presence in foods is then placed on this pesticide. As long as residues in the food stay below this regulatory level, health effects are deemed highly unlikely and the food is considered safe to consume.
However, in normal agricultural practice, it is rare to use only a single pesticide. During the production of a crop, several different materials may be used. Each of them has had determined a regulatory level at which they would be considered individually safe. In many cases, a commercial pesticide is itself a combination of several chemical agents, and thus the safe levels actually represent levels of the mixture. In contrast, a combination created by the end user, such as a farmer, has rarely been tested in that combination. The potential for synergy is then unknown or estimated from data on similar combinations. This lack of information also applies to many of the chemical combinations to which humans are exposed, including residues in food, indoor air contaminants, and occupational exposures to chemicals. Some groups think that the rising rates of cancer, asthma, and other health problems may be caused by these combination exposures; others have alternative explanations. This question will likely be answered only after years of exposure by the population in general and research on chemical toxicity, usually performed on animals. Examples of pesticide synergists include Piperonyl butoxide
Piperonyl butoxide
Piperonyl butoxide is an organic compound used as pesticide synergist, especially for pyrethroids and rotenone. It does not by itself have pesticidal properties. However, when added to insecticide mixtures, typically pyrethrin, pyrethroid, and carbamate insecticides, their potency is increased...
and MGK 264.
Human synergy
Human synergy relates to humans. For example, say person A alone is too short to reach an appleApple
The apple is the pomaceous fruit of the apple tree, species Malus domestica in the rose family . It is one of the most widely cultivated tree fruits, and the most widely known of the many members of genus Malus that are used by humans. Apple grow on small, deciduous trees that blossom in the spring...
on a tree
Tree
A tree is a perennial woody plant. It is most often defined as a woody plant that has many secondary branches supported clear of the ground on a single main stem or trunk with clear apical dominance. A minimum height specification at maturity is cited by some authors, varying from 3 m to...
and person B is too short as well. Once person B sits on the shoulder
Shoulder
The human shoulder is made up of three bones: the clavicle , the scapula , and the humerus as well as associated muscles, ligaments and tendons. The articulations between the bones of the shoulder make up the shoulder joints. The major joint of the shoulder is the glenohumeral joint, which...
s of person A, they are more than tall enough to reach the apple. In this example, the product of their synergy would be one apple. Another case would be two politician
Politician
A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...
s. If each is able to gather one million votes on their own, but together they were able to appeal to 2.5 million voters, their synergy would have produced 500,000 more votes than had they each worked independently. A song
Song
In music, a song is a composition for voice or voices, performed by singing.A song may be accompanied by musical instruments, or it may be unaccompanied, as in the case of a cappella songs...
is also a good example of human synergy, taking more than one musical part and putting them together to create a song that has a much more dramatic effect than each of the parts when played individually.
A third form of human synergy is when one person is able to complete two separate tasks by doing one action, for example, if a person were asked by a teacher
Teacher
A teacher or schoolteacher is a person who provides education for pupils and students . The role of teacher is often formal and ongoing, carried out at a school or other place of formal education. In many countries, a person who wishes to become a teacher must first obtain specified professional...
and his boss
Supervisor
A supervisor, foreperson, team leader, overseer, cell coach, facilitator, or area coordinator is a manager in a position of trust in business...
at work to write an essay
Essay
An essay is a piece of writing which is often written from an author's personal point of view. Essays can consist of a number of elements, including: literary criticism, political manifestos, learned arguments, observations of daily life, recollections, and reflections of the author. The definition...
on how he could improve his work. A more visual example of this synergy is a drummer
Drummer
A drummer is a musician who is capable of playing drums, which includes but is not limited to a drum kit and accessory based hardware which includes an assortment of pedals and standing support mechanisms, marching percussion and/or any musical instrument that is struck within the context of a...
's using four separate rhythm
Rhythm
Rhythm may be generally defined as a "movement marked by the regulated succession of strong and weak elements, or of opposite or different conditions." This general meaning of regular recurrence or pattern in time may be applied to a wide variety of cyclical natural phenomena having a periodicity or...
s to create one drum
Drum
The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments, which is technically classified as the membranophones. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a shell and struck, either directly with the player's hands, or with a...
beat.
Synergy usually arises when two persons with different complementary skills cooperate. In business, cooperation of people with organizational and technical skills happens very often. In general, the most common reason why people cooperate is that it brings a synergy. On the other hand, people tend to specialize just to be able to form groups with high synergy (see also division of labor and teamwork
Teamwork
Teamwork is action performed by a team towards a common goal. A team consists of more than one person, each of whom typically has different responsibilities....
).
Example: Two teams in System Admin working together to combine technical and organizational skills in order to better the client experience, thus creating synergy.
Corporate synergy
Corporate synergy occurs when corporations interact congruently. A corporate synergy refers to a financial benefit that a corporationexpects to realize when it merges with or acquires another corporation. This type of synergy is a nearly ubiquitous feature of a corporate acquisition and is a negotiating point between the buyer and seller that impacts the final price both parties agree to. There are distinct types of corporate synergies:
Marketing
A marketing synergy refers to the use of information campaigns, studies,and scientific discovery or experimentation for research or development. This promotes the sale of products for varied use or off market sales as well as development of marketing tools and in several cases exaggeration of effects.Revenue
A revenue synergy refers to the opportunity of a combined corporate entity to generate more revenue than its two predecessor stand-alone companies would be able to generate. For example, if company A sells product X through its sales force, company B sells product Y, and company A decides to buy company B then the new company could use each sales person to sell products X and Y, thereby increasing the revenue that each sales person generates for the company.In media revenue, synergy is the promotion and sale of a product throughout the various subsidiaries of a media conglomerate, e.g. films, soundtracks, or video games.
Financial
Financial synergy gained by the combined firm is a result of number of benefits which flow to the entity as a consequence of acquisition and merger. These benefits may be:Cash Slack
This is when a firm having number of cash extensive projects acquires the firm which is cash-rich. Thus enabling the new combined firm to enjoy the profits from investing the cash of one firm in the projects of other.Debt Capacity
If the two firms have no or little capacity to carry debt before combination, it is possible for them to join and gain the capacity to carry the debt through decreased gearing. Thus creating value for the firm, as Debt is thought to be a cheaper source of finance.Tax Benefits
It is possible that one firm has unused tax benefits which might be utilized against the profits of the other after combination thus resulting in less tax being paid. However this greatly depends on the tax law of the country.Management
Synergy in terms of management and in relation to team working refers to the combined effort of individuals as participants of the team. Positive or negative synergy can exist. The condition that exists when the organization's parts interact to produce a joint effect that is greater than the sum of the parts acting alone.Cost
A cost synergy refers to the opportunity of a combined corporate entity to reduce or eliminate expenses associated with running a business. Cost synergies are realized by eliminating positions that are viewed as duplicate within the merged entity. Examples include the head quarters office of one of the predecessor companies, certain executives, the human resources department, or other employees of the predecessor companies. This is related to the economic concept of economies of scaleReturns to scale
In economics, returns to scale and economies of scale are related terms that describe what happens as the scale of production increases in the long run, when all input levels including physical capital usage are variable...
.
Computers
Synergy can also be defined as the combination of human strengths and computer strengths, such as advanced chessAdvanced Chess
Advanced Chess is a relatively new form of chess, wherein each human player uses a computer chess program to help him explore the possible results of candidate moves...
. Computers can process data much more quickly than humans, but lack the ability to respond meaningfully to arbitrary stimuli.
Synergy in the media
In media economics, synergy is the promotion and sale of a product (and all its versions) throughout the various subsidiaries of a media conglomerate, e.g. films, soundtracks or video games. Walt DisneyWalt Disney
Walter Elias "Walt" Disney was an American film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, animator, entrepreneur, entertainer, international icon, and philanthropist, well-known for his influence in the field of entertainment during the 20th century. Along with his brother Roy O...
pioneered synergistic marketing techniques in the 1930s by granting dozens of firms the right to use his Mickey Mouse
Mickey Mouse
Mickey Mouse is a cartoon character created in 1928 by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks at The Walt Disney Studio. Mickey is an anthropomorphic black mouse and typically wears red shorts, large yellow shoes, and white gloves...
character in products and ads, and continued to market Disney media through licensing arrangements. These products can help advertise the film itself and thus help to increase the film's sales. For example, the Spider-Man films had toys of webshooters and figures of the characters made, as well as posters and games. The NBC sitcom 30 Rock
30 Rock
30 Rock is an American television comedy series created by Tina Fey that airs on NBC. The series is loosely based on Fey's experiences as head writer for Saturday Night Live...
often shows the power of synergy, while also poking fun at the use of the term in the corporate world.
Obligatory Synergies
When spasticitySpasticity
Spasticity is a feature of altered skeletal muscle performance in muscle tone involving hypertonia, which is also referred to as an unusual "tightness" of muscles...
occurs, such as following a stroke
Stroke
A stroke, previously known medically as a cerebrovascular accident , is the rapidly developing loss of brain function due to disturbance in the blood supply to the brain. This can be due to ischemia caused by blockage , or a hemorrhage...
, it manifests in abnormal and stereotypical patterns across multiple joints called obligatory synergies. They are described as either a flexion synergy or an extension synergy and effect both the upper and lower extremity (see below). When these patterns occur in a patient, he or she is unable to move a limb segment in isolation of the pattern. This interferes with normal activities of daily living. Some aspects of the obligatory synergy patterns however, can be cleverly used to increase function relative to the movement available to the individual. Careful thought should, therefore, be considered in deciding which muscle groups to stretch at specific times during recovery. Obligatory synergy patterns are observed when a patient tries to make a minimal voluntary movement, or as a result of stimulated reflexes.
The flexion synergy for the upper extremity includes scapular retraction and elevation, shoulder abduction and external rotation, elbow flexion, forearm supination, and wrist and finger flexion.
The extension synergy for the upper extremity includes scapular protraction, shoulder adduction and internal rotation, elbow extension, forearm pronation, and wrist and finger flexion.
The flexion synergy for the lower extremity includes hip flexion, abduction and external rotation, knee flexion, ankle dorsiflexion and inversion and toe dorsiflexion.
The extension synergy for the lower extremity includes hip extension, adduction and internal rotation, knee extension, ankle plantar flexion and inversion, and toe plantar flexion.
Note that some muscles are not usually involved in these synergy patterns and include the lattisimus dorsi, teres major, serratus anterior, finger extensors, and ankle evertors.
See also
- Behavioral CuspBehavioral cuspA behavioral cusp is any behavior change that brings an organism's behavior into contact with new contingencies that have far-reaching consequences...
- EmergenceEmergenceIn philosophy, systems theory, science, and art, emergence is the way complex systems and patterns arise out of a multiplicity of relatively simple interactions. Emergence is central to the theories of integrative levels and of complex systems....
- HolismHolismHolism is the idea that all the properties of a given system cannot be determined or explained by its component parts alone...
- Perfect stormPerfect stormA "perfect storm" is an expression that describes an event where a rare combination of circumstances will aggravate a situation drastically. The term is also used to describe an actual phemonenon that happens to occur in such a confluence, resulting in an event of unusual magnitude.-Origin:First ...
- StrokeStrokeA stroke, previously known medically as a cerebrovascular accident , is the rapidly developing loss of brain function due to disturbance in the blood supply to the brain. This can be due to ischemia caused by blockage , or a hemorrhage...
- SynergeticsSynergeticsSynergetics is an interdisciplinary science explaining the formation and self-organization of patterns and structures in open systems far from thermodynamic equilibrium. It is founded by Hermann Haken, inspired by the laser theory....
- Systems theorySystems theorySystems theory is the transdisciplinary study of systems in general, with the goal of elucidating principles that can be applied to all types of systems at all nesting levels in all fields of research...