Organizational Decentralization Research Articles

Natural and Regulative-Imperative in the Spatial Development of Russia

Organic spatial development is possible under the condition of a reasonable combination of naturalness and regulation of spatially conditioned processes and phenomena. In different periods, the ratio of these principles is different. In Soviet times, spatial development was absolutely dominated by comprehensive directive state planning and management. In the 1990s of post-Soviet reforms, there was a sharp turn towards immoderate and spontaneous decentralization of the spatial organization of life. In the 2000s, counter-reforms began a rapid return to the strengthening of state regulation in this area, which in many respects turned out to be excessive in terms of tasks and costs and unjustified in expectations. The meaning and content, tools and planned results of the current state policy of spatial development are concentrated in the “Strategy of Spatial Development of the Russian Federation for the Period up to 2025”, which claims to be a doctrinal document of modern regional policy. Its development and adoption were accompanied by a multitude of expert comments – from unconditionally apologetic to acutely critical. As the deadline for the end of the strategy approaches, a comprehensive assessment of its effectiveness and effectiveness becomes relevant, especially in connection with the preparation of a new strategy until 2030. The authors see the cornerstone drawback of the current strategy in ignoring the systemic nature of the spatial organization of society, which should be interpreted as an anthropogenic megasystem with its inherent systemic features of integrity, structural organization, direct and reverse connections, with a powerful potential for natural self-organization and selfdevelopment, supplemented in the special transitional conditions of post-Soviet spatial transformations by the regulatory influence on them from the outside State. The authors also emphasize that due to the unprecedented post-Soviet transitional spatial realities, it is impossible to count on diligent study and direct borrowing of foreign experience, due to its inadequacy of the modern Russian situation.

The Role of Behavioral Accounting Aspects in Organization Decentralization and Performance Evaluation in Companies in Indonesia

Organizational decentralization can increase organizational efficiency and effectiveness, but it can also cause several problems. This research aims to analyze aspects of behavioral accounting that are relevant to organizational decentralization and performance evaluation. This research uses a literature review study technique. The method for collecting data in this research is through literature study. The data that has been collected is then analyzed in three stages, namely data reduction, data presentation, and conclusion. The research results show that the behavioral accounting aspect of decentralization and performance evaluation is a concept that includes human resource management, budget control, and decision making in organizations. Aspects of behavioral accounting in decentralization and performance evaluation include tight budget control, decision-making, employee performance, motivation, decision-making, leadership, reward systems, satisfaction, conflict, and pressure.

Power to the people—And then? A multilevel leadership perspective on organizational decentralization

AbstractAs organizations strive for more flexibility, decentralized decision‐making has been at the core of many modern HR approaches. Yet, on a company‐wide scale, it remains unclear whether decentralized decision‐making structures improve organizational performance. Our study aims to illuminate prior ambiguous evidence by examining an employee‐level mechanism underlying the organizational‐level relationship between decentralization and performance, and scrutinizing the critical role of formal leaders for empowering employees in decentralized structures. Integrating the perspective of organizational structure as opportunities and constraints with social information processing theory, we argue that transferring decision‐making authority to lower organizational levels positively affects employees' emergent leadership, but only to the extent that direct supervisors engage in empowering leadership and guide employees' behaviors in decentralized structures. Our predictions are supported by a multilevel, multisource field study of 5807 individuals across 144 companies. We further find that emergent leadership yields a positive effect on organizational performance. By developing a multilevel model that explicates both an employee‐level mechanism and a contingency of the decentralization–organizational performance link, our study enriches understanding of the key role that formal leaders play for achieving the strategic goals of decentralized decision‐making in organizations.

Infrastructural or organizational decentralization? Developing a typology of blockchain ventures

Blockchain technology, an institutional innovation, has been a growing research area in recent years, especially within the information system literature. If it brings along opportunities for entrepreneurs, there is no such thing as a theory of blockchain ventures yet. Blockchain technology drives the emergence of unprecedented types of ventures, with varying degrees of decentralization, both from an infrastructural and organizational perspective. However, there is no consistency regarding the definitions and labels used to refer to blockchain ventures. This paper proposes a definition of blockchain ventures and provides a typology distinguishing four ideal types of blockchain ventures. Our findings reveal that blockchain ventures do not inherently entail either organizational or infrastructural decentralization. They contribute to a better understanding of the diverse nature of blockchain ventures and their implications.

Power to the people: A social identity perspective on organizational decentralization and employee well‐being

AbstractOrganizational identification underpins a range of important outcomes in the workplace, including workers' well‐being. Drawing on the social identity approach to health (SIAH), here we explore whether certain organizational forms—specifically, organizational decentralization—can boost organizational identification and, in this way, employee well‐being. We test this possibility in four high‐powered samples of workers in the UK, US and Italy (N total = 1960). Results confirm that workers are more likely to identify with an organization when they perceive power to be decentralized. Importantly, we find the expected indirect effects between increased decentralization perceptions and ratings of improved well‐being (including job satisfaction, work engagement and reduced burnout) through organizational identification. These results were consistent across samples, proving the generality of the findings across different cultural contexts. Empirical and practical implications of shared decision‐making power to increase workers' well‐being are discussed. Please refer to the Supplementary Material section to find this article's Community and Social Impact Statement.

The future of the web? The coordination and early‐stage growth of decentralized platforms

AbstractResearch SummaryThis abductive study investigates how management occurs without managerial authority as part of a previously unseen organizational form—the decentralized platform with an independent market value. Our mixed‐methods study of the cryptocurrency industry draws on fuzzy‐set qualitative comparative analyses (QCA) to analyze archival and interview data and offer new theory on how decentralized platforms coordinate activities to grow in an early‐stage, before network effects kick in. We find that, in the absence of a central authority, platforms coordinate activities with three mechanisms, namely decentralized (a) algorithmic coordination, (b) social coordination, and (c) goal coordination. Our QCA treat these mechanisms as explanatory conditions and, using a representative sample of 20 cryptocurrency platforms, reveal which configurations of decentralized coordination mechanisms nurture, or hinder, early‐stage platform growth.Managerial SummaryFirms operate around a managerial hierarchy that distributes tasks, resources, information, and rewards to organizational members who pursue common goals as contract‐bound employees. From 2009, a new organizational form, called the “decentralized platform,” emerged and diffused without relying on hierarchy nor managerial authority—and without having to employ anyone. The most prominent decentralized platform, Bitcoin, has millions of users, thousands of contributors, and a market valuation never achieved before by an organization without a CEO nor shareholders. This study explicates how this unprecedented level of organizational decentralization functions in practice. We foreshadow implications for the digital economy, wherein “Web3” innovations, such as non‐fungible tokens and DAOs, have already shifted the orchestrating role played by platforms in capitalist societies.

Collective bargaining levels, employment and wage inequality in Spain

After the increase in inequalities following the Great Recession, studies on wage bargaining systems have increasingly focused on wage inequality. This research examines wage inequality associated with collective bargaining levels in Spain, based on matched employer–employee microdata and quantile regression methods. These methods are applied across the wage distribution, following the method proposed by Firpo et al. (2011), to estimate wage premiums associated with agreement levels and to decompose the wage differentials observed at different points of the wage distribution. From the evidence obtained it can be concluded that, although the higher wages found in firm-level agreements are explained by the better observed characteristics of firms and workers covered by these collective agreements, there remains a positive wage premium. Although this premium is seen throughout the wage distribution, it favours mostly workers in the middle and upper-middle end. This slightly increases wage inequality in comparison with sectoral agreements. In contrast, workers without collective bargaining coverage generally suffer a wage penalty. This penalty is only observed on the left of the wage distribution. It becomes a significant wage premium in the upper end of the distribution, which implies a significant increase in wage inequality. In short, the evidence of this research suggests that reducing the coverage of collective bargaining could be associated with a significant increase in wage inequality. A better policy option for countries with a predominant sectoral model, such as Spain, would be to move towards an organized decentralization model. This would cause significant gains in employment as suggested by OECD (2019) and only a slight increase in wage inequality.

Processes of decentralization of territorial organization of government: Problems and prospects

The article considers the implementation of decentralization processes in the national system of public administration. In the context of socio-economic and political problems in Ukraine, the issues of ensuring the effectiveness of regional development are becoming increasingly important. The existing system of administrative-territorial organization and hierarchy of power, distribution of powers between public administration bodies at the national and regional levels and local self-government bodies was not able to ensure balanced development of territories. The priority was to ensure equal access to social, administrative, communal and other services for the population of both large cities and rural areas. An important aspect of development is the issue of community responsibility for management decisions. Representation of the community in matters of territorial development is of increased relevance. A retrospective analysis of the development of decentralization reform in Ukraine and a system of legislative support for the functioning of amalgamated territorial communities were conducted in order to determine the prospects for further implementation of decentralization reform in Ukraine. Thus, the article considers the regulatory framework for the introduction of a system of decentralization of power in Ukraine. Certain aspects have been identified that have not been elaborated by law and hinder the further development of the system of amalgamated territorial communities. The analysis of the legal framework made it possible to identify the main normative documents regulating decentralization processes in Ukraine, outline their role in the development of decentralization processes, and determine the legal limits of capabilities and obligations of different levels of government, including local government and local government

Histology Education in an Integrated, Time‐restricted Medical Curriculum: Academic Outcomes and Students’ Study Adaptations

In an ever-changing medical curricular environment, time dedicated for anatomical education has become increasingly curtailed. This happened at the University of Michigan Medical School when starting in 2016-17 preclinical education was reduced from two years to one year. Histology instruction remained integrated in organ system courses, but all faculty-guided laboratory sessions were removed, reducing histology teaching to a lecture-only format and requiring students to study virtual histology slides on their own time. In accordance with the shortened instructional time, the number of histology examination questions was reduced more than twofold. This study analyzed students’ histology examination results and assessed their motivation to learn histology and use of educational opportunities before and after these curricular changes were implemented. Students’ motivation to learn histology and their evaluation of histology lectures increased in the new curriculum. However, students devoted less study time to histology and used the course website less than students in the old curriculum. Students’ cumulative histology examination scores were significantly lower in the new curriculum and the number of students with overall scores under 75%, considered a failing performance, increased more than fifteenfold. Lower-performing students’ histology test scores were disproportionately more affected by the curricular change. Aside from shorter instruction time, the decision to not provide histology subscores to students may also have contributed to this decrease in academic performance. A decentralization of curricular organization, leaving decisions about the integration of histology instruction to organ system course directors, may have played an additional role in decreasing consistent histology education. This study received a non-regulated status from the University of Michigan IRBMED (HUM00162947).

Impact of organizational decentralization degree on job satisfaction and job performance: a hierarchical linear model analysis for construction projects

PurposeModern construction projects are increasingly complex and rely heavily on multi-discipline collaboration, and this leads to a more and more decentralized project-based structure widely adopted in the construction industry. While job satisfaction (JS) and job performance (JP) have been heavily studied previously, few considered the impact of organizational structure and none investigated the relationship between the organizational decentralization degree with JS and JP. This research aims to fill this research gap and investigate the impacts of organizational decentralization degree on JS and JP and facilitate a better project management practice for large-scale construction projects.Design/methodology/approachThis research firstly establishes four hypotheses based on the literature review on general project-based organizations, then the hypotheses are tested by a survey covering 25 large complex construction projects in China. A hierarchical linear model analysis was carried out to analyze the survey data and to study the relationships between organizational decentralization degree, job satisfaction and job performance.FindingsAnalysis results show that projects' employees' JS and JP are positively correlated with the construction project organizations' decentralization degree, respectively. The decentralization degree has a higher impact on JS than on JP. Employees' JP is positively correlated with their JS, and a higher decentralization degree leads to a more significant positive impact that JS puts on JP.Originality/valueThe findings are new evidence of how construction organization structure and its decentralization degree can affect project employees' JS and JP. This research provides valuable guidance for the industry's management practice and is particularly important for large, complex and highly decentralized construction projects.

Decentralization and Feedback Effects

This article discusses the historical most relevant types of decentralization that helped usher in the age of decentralization. Key components of decentralization that are discussed herein include: decentralization of science, technological decentralization, organizational decentralization, market decentralization, governmental decentralization, and societal decentralization. The author discusses the feedback effects that exist between the respective types of decentralization.

Size, entrepreneurial experience and organizational decentralization

PurposeBased on the cognitive bias theory, this study aims to explore the relationship among the size of new ventures, entrepreneurial experience and organizational decentralization.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses 175 entrepreneurial companies in the Bohai Bay Rim as samples. The hypotheses are tested through partial least squares (PLS).FindingsA clear positive relationship is found between size and organizational decentralization, and entrepreneurial experience is found to have a negative effect on this relationship.Research limitations/implicationsThe influences of other variables at the organizational level on organizational decentralization are not taken into consideration, and the measurement of entrepreneurial experience is not accurate enough.Practical implicationsThis study also has practical implications. Compared with inexperienced entrepreneurs, experienced entrepreneurs do not always have many advantages. Entrepreneurs should decentralize power at the right time in the process of expanding their businesses and continuously reflect and learn, instead of exaggerating their own intelligence, consequently making more rational decisions.Originality/valueThis study has three theoretical implications. First, it provides a theoretical implication for understanding the characteristics of changes in the organizational decentralization of new ventures, which enriches the literature on organizational decentralization in the field of entrepreneurship. Second, it derives theoretical implications for understanding the role of organizational size in organizational development. Third, this study, which applies the cognitive bias theory to assess the effect of entrepreneurial experience, helps supplement existing research on the relationship between entrepreneurial experience and new ventures.

Critics of Delegation and Decentralization in Abdicating Authority and Upholding Ubuntu Philosophy in Social Welfare Organizations

The purpose of this paper is to reach the augment of the critics of delegation and decentralization in abducting authority and upholding Ubuntu philosophy in Social Welfare Organizations in Zimbabwe. The systematic distribution of authority by the top management in social welfare organizations remains a contested issue in abdicating authority and upholding Ubuntu Philosophy. Abdicating respect and human dignity in delegating responsibility is one of the critical issues in social welfare organizations as some community-based organizations fail to consider the inherent worth of employees before conducting some projects and allocating tasks. In governmental parastatals participatory democratic values are not effectively implemented when delegating duties, the top management restricts itself to major decisions areas like policymaking, coordination and control. The lower-level managers have enough decision-making authority and support to introduce innovativeness in their work. A desktop review was used in accordance with the case study for the study, qualitative and qualitative research methods were used to gather data collected from the research. Data collection methods that were used included observations, focus group discussions and interviews. The targeted population included international, statutory and non-statutory organizations in Zimbabwe. Findings from the study concluded that delegation and decentralization in social welfare organizations are criticized as a result of local beurocracy and inequalities that exist in organizations. Respondents articulated that decentralization becomes an important handicap in upholding the organizational values and ethics. In social welfare organizations, some executives do not understand the basic need for basic respect and compassion for other employees like sharing the responsibility of decision-making.

TAX INSTRUMENTS FOR ENSURING ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND COOPERATION OF TERRITORIAL COMMUNITIES

Topicality. Tax instruments that are aimed on stimulation of economic activity are widely used as regulators of regional territorial economic systems in developed countries, especially in the EU, and for Ukraine this practice, on the author's opinion and on the opinion of many experts in taxation sphere, will also support economic development priorities and would be appropriate and effective. The processes of voluntary formation of united territorial communities and decentralization of administrative-territorial organization in Ukraine did not bring the expected growth in the economic development of territorial economic systems and this necessitates the formation of a comprehensive policy to promote economic development of territorial complexes with special emphasis on economic growth. Supporting the priorities of economic development of regional, subregional economic systems and parts of functional areas at the basic level can be effectively implemented through tax instruments, because such measures are effective and can stimulate the rapid direction of financial, commodity, logistics, investment flows towards favorable business conditions. A promising direction for the development of territorial economic systems is the support of economic cooperation in communities, because this will provide conditions for the division of labor in the territorial dimension and will stimulate the creation of extended value chains.Aim and tasks. The purpose of the article is to substantiate the feasibility and determine the potential effectiveness of tax instruments that are to stimulate the economic development and cooperation of territorial communities in Ukraine in the context of administrative and territorial reform and according to the impact of modern challenges of the ensuring of the competitiveness of domestic economic complexes in context of integration into world economic systems.Research results. The article considers the tools of economic cooperation of communities as means of functional territories creating, which is an alternative to the process of united territorial communities forming, and as a universal mean of ensuring of the economic capacity of communities in terms of unification, which is especially relevant during the completing of decentralization reform, when delegation of all powers is provided to the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine.Measures of economic capacity increase of territorial communities with the use of economic cooperation tools are developed in the article, including tax, organizational, financial, informational levers that are relevant to the current conditions of development of territorial communities in Ukraine and regions. Particular attention is paid to tax measures and mechanisms that are to stimulate economic development and cooperation of local communities, as it is proved that such levers of regulation are among the most effective.Conclusion. It is determined that stimulation of investment activity, general economic development and cooperation by tax regulation measures is already possible and appropriate institutional support for such tools has already been formed, but for further introduction of a comprehensive mechanism of tax stimulation of cooperation and formation of functional territories on the basis of effective division of labor support, additional more significant and systemic changes to the current institutional environment, especially to the Tax Code of Ukraine are needed.

The optimal knowledge creation strategy of organizations in groupthink situations

Even though both collective intelligence and groupthink promote concurrence seeking, studies focused on the relationship between the two are lacking. Therefore, this study aims to explore how to transform groupthink into collective intelligence that contributes to knowledge creation. Three “switching factors”— “knowledge conflict,” “reconsideration,” and “organizational memory”—are defined herein. The effects of each factor and combinations of factors were tested through an agent-based model (ABM) and efficiency analysis. The ABM simulation showed that “knowledge conflict” is good for organizational performance but reduces the scope for new knowledge. On the contrary, a model with “reconsideration” or “organizational memory” was able to hold the heterogeneity of knowledge. With respect to efficiency, eight possible strategies were tested by stochastic frontier analysis. Its results showed that the combination of “knowledge conflict” and “reconsideration” had the highest efficiency with respect to both “between-group” and “meta-frontier.” Thus, this study suggests that the switching factors and strategies using their combinations can help in ensuring decentralization and diversity in organizations, and ultimately, contribute to new knowledge creation—specifically, the combination of “knowledge conflict” and “reconsideration” is the most efficient strategy. This study contributes to the possible existence of switching factors and, using them, builds an optimal strategy in the practical field of knowledge management.

A deadlock of Russian fiscal federalism

Subject. Highly regulated financial system, where only federal budget's interests are observed, is inefficient. It entails irrational use of taxable capacity of regions and municipalities and contributes to inflation upturn. This urgent problem requires the earliest solution, as about one third of able-bodied citizens of the Russian Federation are involved in its public sector. Objectives. The aim of the study is to review the status of intergovernmental fiscal relations in the Russian Federation and underpin the need for cardinal changes. Methods. The study rests on the systems approach, methods of scientific knowledge and statistical techniques. Results. The paper provides a rationale for the crisis state of the budgetary regulation system in Russia and shows prospects to overcome it; reveals and analyzes gaps in the current order of inter-budget relations formation; defines the need for a shift towards the principles of decentralization of budget organization. Conclusions and Relevance. The study will contribute to substantiation of the change-over to the liberal model of inter-budget relations, which corresponds to world standards.

Histology Education in an Integrated, Time‐restricted Medical Curriculum – Academic Outcomes and Students’ Study Adaptations

In an ever‐changing medical curricular environment, time dedicated for anatomical education has become more and more curtailed. This happened at the University of Michigan Medical School when the period of preclinical medical education was reduced from two years to one year starting with the academic year 2016–17. Histology instruction remained integrated in organ system courses, but all faculty‐guided laboratory sessions were completely removed, reducing histology teaching to a lecture‐only format and requiring students to study virtual histological slides from a course website on their own time. In accordance with the shortened instructional time, the number of histology examination questions was reduced more than twofold. We investigated changes in students’ histology examination results, surveyed their motivation to learn histology, and assessed their use of histology educational material and opportunities before and after these curricular changes were implemented. Students’ motivation to learn histology and their evaluation of histology lectures slightly increased in the new curriculum. However, they devoted less study time to learning histology and used the course website and supplementary learning material less than students in the old curriculum. Students’ cumulative histology examination scores over the entire M1 year were significantly lower in the new curriculum and the number of students with overall scores under 75%, which is considered a failing performance, increased more than fifteenfold. Aside from the shorter instruction time, the decision to not provide histology performance subscores to students may also have contributed to this decrease in academic performance. In addition, we suspect that a decentralization of curricular organization, leaving decisions to individual organ system course directors about the integration and time dedicated for longitudinal histology instruction, may have played a role in decreasing consistent histology education in the new curriculum. This study received a non‐regulated status from the University of Michigan IRB (HUM00162947).

Portfolio Renewal: The Impact of Organization Design and Supporting Resources on New Product Sales

In many industries firms’ on-going livelihoods are determined by the renewal of their product portfolios through the continuous introduction of new products. However, our understanding of what shapes a firm’s ability to continually renew its product portfolio appears to be somewhat limited. In this paper, I examine the process of on-going product portfolio renewal through evaluating how firms’ organization designs and level of supporting resources can shape the proportion of a firms’ product sales that come from new products. Through examining the trade-offs associated with greater organizational decentralization, I argue that greater decentralization is associated with more effective commercialization of firms’ new products as the benefits associated with the ability to use high-powered incentives more effectively and increased market-specific knowledge outweigh the costs of reduced intra-organizational knowledge flows and reduced functional expertise. However, this relationship is moderated by firms’ investments in supporting resources that facilitate the commercialization of inventions such that at higher levels of investment the advantages of decentralization are reduced. This is because business units will tend to over-inflate the opportunities associated with their suite of products to garner more resources resulting in less effective resource allocation across products potentially starving new products of vital supporting resources. I find support for my arguments in the context of the pharmaceutical industry between 1995 and 2015 using a hand-collected data set supplemented by 61 interviews with 28 leading pharmaceutical companies.

Organizational leadership practices in MNCs: the effect of the HRs value as a competitive factor and the FDI structure

The main goal of the paper is to present the research results on the impact that the value ascribed to human resources (HRs) as a strategic competitive factor of a company and the structure of FDI may exert on the advancement level of organizational leadership practices (as one of the HRM subfunctions) in multinational companies (MNCs). The structure of FDI covered: legal form of the foreign entities, type of investment, i.e., brownfield vs. greenfield, and four indices, i.e., internationalization index (II), geographical spread index (GSI), country’s economic development index (EDC), and culture distance index (CDI). The research sample was composed of 200 headquarters of MNCs located in Poland. All in all, three variables seem to have the most visible impact on the activities in the area of organizational leadership development practices, i.e., ownership structure, centralization vs. decentralization practices and cultural distance. Less important, but identifiable influences come from the GS index, EDC index and the smallest one from II index.

Contingency factors and complementary effects of adopting advanced manufacturing tools and managerial practices: Effects on organizational measurement systems and firms' performance

Anchoring its theoretical background in the concepts of contingency and complementary effects, while simultaneously answering calls for the improved integration of organizational theories and operations management, this work argues that contingency factors are antecedents for the adoption of advanced manufacturing tools (AMT) and managerial practices (AMP), as well as influencing the use of measurement systems in organizations, which has implications for firms' performance. Original data from a sample of over 200 Italian manufacturing firms provides the empirical basis for testing the research framework based on numerous hypotheses. A combination of anticipated and unexpected findings emerged: (i) overall, contingency factors (mainly organizational decentralization and environmental uncertainty) play an important role in the combined adoption of AMT and AMP, which in turn shape the measurement systems adopted by organizations; (ii) although both financial and non-financial measures were relevant for organizations overall, quality management-related practices were shown to play a central role in organizational competitiveness; (iii) unexpectedly, the correlation between organizational strategy and the adoption of AMT and AMP was not as strong as hypothesized a priori, and therefore deserves future investigation, constituting an important implication for future research.