Fundamentals of Management, 8th ed

decentralization

The process of

systematically

delegating power

and authority

throughout the

organization to

middle- and lower-

level managers

centralization

The process of

systematically

retaining power and

authority in the

hands of higher-level

managers

Chapter 6: Organization Structure and Design

1 6 9

Copyright 2016 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).

Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

---

Coordinating Activities

The fifth major element of organizing is coordination. As we discussed earlier, job

specialization and departmentalization involve breaking down jobs into small units and

then combining those jobs into departments. Once this has been accomplished, the activ-

ities of the departments must be linked—systems must be put into place to keep the

activities of each department focused on the attainment of organizational goals. This is