Decentralization vs. Centralization

The dimension of your job task (task variety vs. decision authority).
When examining the Dimensions of Job Design, my style of leadership would lean toward a point   4, “which involves many tasks and broad decision authority” (Brickley, Smith, Zimmerman 365). My rational to choose this particular dimension is to cut the costs a company absorbs with employee wages and benefits. To decrease the number of tasks an employee is responsible for means additional personnel, which increases costs. In order to avoid this, supervisors are forced to assign their employees with multiple tasks. The other identifying factor associated with point 4 is the broad decision making an employee assumes. I believe the most critical attribute of utilizing a broad decision making model is for the supervisor to surround himself/herself with strong employees. The supervisor has to trust that the subordinates know their markets and that they are able to utilize this knowledge to generate profit.

The extent of centralization vs. decentralization of decisions in your organization and the related costs and benefits.
Decentralization would be an important element to my supervising practice. I think it is important to turn over some of the control I would have on my company to those more familiar with the product, the manufacturing of the product and customer base. Relinquishing some of the decision making would free some of the responsibility of senior management so they can focus on other areas of operating the company. One area of decision making that would not be allocated to local management would involve the pricing of products. I believe gathering information concerning pricing from local management should not be ignored, but those managers don’t have access to overall   information regarding other businesses, within the company and of the competition. This is where applying decentralization is difficult and costly. Controls and parameters must be set as the lower level management may...