SELECT ANY 2 Decentralization Worksheet: A large number of factors determine the extent to which a manager should decentralize. Clearly, anything that increases a manager's workload creates pressure for decentralization because only a single person can accomplish a finite level of work. As with many facets of management, there are advantages and disadvantages to decentralization.
Question
The greater the diversity of products, the greater the decentralization.
An organization, such as a national supermarket chain, that sells a diversity of products will benefit from decentralization because decentralization allows local and regional managers to tailor the selection of goods to the specific market -- and also prevents a stocking up of goods not desired by that market, but desirable perhaps in other regions.
Question
The larger the size of the organization, the more the decentralization.
This principle seems like a no brainer -- until one encounters a 'control freak' manager in a large...
A small, single proprietorship may require an intense knowledge of a specific local market. Because a small organization cannot sell at volume, it instead offers the customer a product or service that is customized and sold with a relatively high degree of attention. But a large organization, for instance, The New York Times, requires a decentralized environment because it fulfills a number of separate informative functions, with many employees performing different tasks that are often only tangentially related to one another.
Works Cited
Bhatnagar, Parija (17 Nov 2004) "The Kmart-Sears Deal." CNN/Money. Retrieved 20 Jan 2005 at http://money.cnn.com/2004/11/17/news/fortune500/sears_kmart/?cnn=yes
CNN.com (17 Feb 2004) "Cingular nabs At & T. Wireless for $41 B." CNN.com. Retrieved 20 Jan 2005 at http://money.cnn.com/2004/02/17/technology/cingular_att
