Question

I am thinking about decentralizing, allowing employees lower in the organization to make more decisions. When does decentralizing usually make sense?" Check all that apply.

A) When allowing employees to develop their decision-making and other strategic skills will be of value
B) When activities can be done more efficiently on a larger scale
C) When conditions are changing rapidly and it's desirable for employees with the most information about customers to make decisions quickly
D) When different areas of the company do not agree on which course of action to take and require coordination

Answer 1

The German army is a good example of one of the first armies to give lower officers the authority to decide on the best course of action to take from the point they are at. Larger armies with ridged top down systems were not flexible enough against an army that functioned that way. Modern times look at Yemen, the Saudi’s have one of the most expensive military’s in the world with the newest and best hardware. They ridged system of centralized command has shown that flexibility will beat money or at least money can’t fix and defeat a less centralized command structure.