Decentralised Structures

• Decentralized structures

  Control and decision-making delegated by the highest layers of management to middle or lower layers of management, different departments, or locations
• Pros of decentralized structures

  • Motivation: Empowering workers, increasing productivity, and fostering innovation
  • Flexible decision-making: Allowing lower levels of management to make decisions, reacting quickly at a local level
  • Internal recruitment: Middle or lower layers of management taking on more responsibilities, leading to on-the-job training and easy replacement of senior management
• Cons of decentralized structures

  • Less consistency: Different agendas and ideas leading to loss of consistency in aims, vision, culture, or objectives
  • Customer experience variation: Different customer experiences in different branches or regions
  • Quality issues: Different approaches in production leading to reputation loss
• Factors affecting decentralized structures


  • Skills and experience of those being delegated to: Poor skills can lead to quality and motivation issues
  • Crisis management: In times of crisis, centralized structures may be more suitable for quick decision-making