decentralized
(adjective)
Diffuse; having no center or several centers.
(adjective)
Dispersed rather than concentrated in a single, central location or authority.
(adjective)
A structure where business units operate autonomously and have greater decision-making power.
Examples of decentralized in the following topics:
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Decentralizing Responsibility
- In decentralized structures, responsibility for decision making is broadly dispersed down to the lower levels of an organization.
- Decentralized organizations must be mindful of the possibility of running in too many different directions at once.
- This image illustrates a decentralized (often referred to as a "flat") organizational chart.
- The management structure in a decentralized organization changes from a top-down approach to more of a peer-to-peer approach.
- Compare and contrast centralization and decentralization of responsibility within the organizational hierarchy
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Characteristics of Organizational Structures
- Important characteristics of an organization's structure include span of control, departmentalization, centralization, and decentralization.
- Each of these structures provides different degrees of four common organizational elements: span of control, departmentalization, centralization, and decentralization.
- Decentralization occurs when decision-making authority is dispersed among the lower organizational levels.
- With decentralized authority, important decisions are made by middle-level and supervisory-level managers.
- This diagram compares visual representations of a centralized vs. decentralized organizational structure.
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Team Communication
- Communication patterns describe the flow of information within the group and can be described as centralized or decentralized.
- In contrast, decentralized communication means team members share and exchange information directly with each other and with the group.
- Most teams use a mix of the two approaches, choosing centralized communication for messages that are more complex, urgent, or time sensitive, and decentralized communication when discussion and idea generation are needed.
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Network Structure
- ., more flat), more decentralized, and more flexible than other structures.
- Because the network structure is decentralized, it has fewer tiers in its organizational makeup, a wider span of control, and a bottom-up flow of decision making and ideas.
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Increasing Empowerment
- One key technique of empowering employees and providing autonomy is decentralizing the organizational structure.
- Notice how the diagram of the centralized organization looks like one large asterisk with many spokes, whereas the diagram of the decentralized organization looks like many small interconnected asterisks.
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Basic Types of Organizations
- Committees represent a decentralized approach to organizational design and tend to have a collaborative, often unstructured workplace.
- In a matrix organization, teams of employees perform work to take advantage of the strengths and compensate for the weaknesses of both the functional and decentralized forms of organizational structure.
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Combining Internal and External Analyses
- These actions can be supported by decentralized structures, local autonomy, and strategic alliances.
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Flattening Hierarchies
- This "flattened" hierarchy promotes employee involvement through a decentralized decision-making process.
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Increasing Coordination
- In practice, coordination involves a delicate balance between centralization and decentralization.
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Fulfilling the Organizing Function
- Decentralization: The location of decision making authority is relatively evenly dispersed across the company.