Modern Management: concepts and skills, 14/e

Centralization and Decentralization

Noticeable differences can be found from organization to organization in the relative number of job activities and the relative amount of authority delegated to subordinates. These differences are seldom a case of delegation existing in one organization and not existing in another. Rather, the differences come from degree of delegation.³⁸

The terms centralization and decentralization describe the general degree to which delegation exists within an organization. They can be visualized as opposite ends of the delegation continuum depicted in Figure 9.4. It is apparent from this figure that centralization implies that a minimal number of job activities and a minimal amount of authority have been delegated to ...