Read the following article. Relate the ideas of centralization versus decentralization to the impact of technology on our society. Be creative and think outside the box. There are no right and wrong answers. Your response must be at least 2 solid paragraphs longs. Feel free to research some other articles to use in your response but make sure you paste the link at the bottom of your reply.
http://adamp.com/management/centralization-vs-decentralization/
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ReplyDeleteWhen thinking of Centralization I think of the phone. One person had in their own sense came up with the idea and just went with it. This does not make much sense. They are not part of a huge organization, but they came up with it with their own ideas.
ReplyDeleteDecentralization when the company has the ideas flowing throughout the company. When I think about this Apple comes to mind. The IPhone has tons of applications out their on the app store. Not only one person came up with each and every one of these apps. One person thought of the idea and the other voted on it to create it or not.
I agree in relating Apple to decentralization. All of the different apps and features allowed through Iphones give it a way to be personalized despite being one uniform product.
DeleteDJ I think this was a great example of centralization and decentralization! Good job!
DeleteCentralization, like was said in the article is becoming more and more rare, especially in very large group situations. Really the only situations I can think that Centralization is a plus is in situations where you are trying to control a fairly small subject. Centralization has definitely had its past though, with many new technological advancements have been made through a centralized system. For example small inventors overseeing all that they do in a group, or scholars studying a specific topic where all the information ends back at one person.
ReplyDeleteDecentralization is becoming such a common practice that sometimes it goes extremely unnoticed. When I think of decentralization I think of companies like Wal-Mart and Halliburton. These companies are hugely successful in what they do and they have almost every aspect of their companies decentralized with extremely specialized divisions focusing on one thing. These companies are also so successful they almost seem like some sort of unstoppable force.
You have a good point. I have never really thought of it that way, but I suppose centralization would come in handy for small inventors that do not want their product altered. Centralization would allow them to make sure that the public sees it just as they do.
DeleteI'm some sort of unstoppable force....
DeleteThe problem with Centralization is greed. Were it not for human greed centralization would still have a place in this world, but handing all the power to one single entity at the top of the food chain will quickly corrupt the entire system, and history has proven this. Take a company I have worked for (which will remain nameless), the person who was in charge could alter the way in which we handled day to day business to better meet the goals of the business, that could be fine, except that person also uses that power to increase their own wages at the cost of others and at the cost of staying competitive.
ReplyDeleteI may make it sound like Decentralization is the way to go, but indeed its not always true either. Companies that allow for employees to make decisions or that are employee owned often have happier employees who will remain at one job for a longer period of time, but the downside is that when a debated issue comes up, or when a problem they are not prepared for arises, taking care of that task will often require a lot of infighting, meetings, and coming to a compromise, this takes a lot more time that could have been better spent on something else, but due to the nature of the Decentralized organization, that is how these things work.
When it comes to centralization, I would think that working productively and developing feelings of cooperation and effectiveness are related to having the right people doing the right jobs. For example, the government uses technology to create jobs for unemployed people. The president comes up with all the ideas on what kind of jobs to be created. There is no standard centralization, but most centralized organizations and agencies follow the rules of the system with the boss (president, minister) at the top.
ReplyDeleteDecentralization could be when the Senators and the Congressmen have an input on what kinds of job to be created and make decisions that empowers the employment force and improves the economy. Some would claim that the lower branches support the upper branches, but as in the tree, the branches are supported by a single trunk, for example, the senator supports the president with the best decision making which can be thought of as a decentralized objective. Each part of the tree has its specific function. When all parts work together, the system survives, functions productively, and has balance. Decentralization is the best way for some businesses and companies to improve or benefit from their employees.
This is the first time i have really read anything on this topic and i find it very interesting. Like in the article centralization is becoming less rare because companies are getting larger. people are discovering that centralization is less of a team effort and people who work for the company feel as if they cannot share their ideas.
ReplyDeleteFor decentralization i think that the reason why this is more popular is because it holds more jobs, and it uses technology more in ways of media for advertising. Groups of people get together and think of an idea and send it off to marketing where that group of people tries to sell the product the best they can.
I agree that as companies get larger the use of centralization is decreasing and more companies are starting to use a decentralized strategy.
DeleteI also agree that as companies that get larger centralization is decreasing. I think that is could and will be a good think for a lot of companies to get more ideas and help from other people to improve the products.
DeleteI think that a good point of how a large company is more likely decentralized versus say a little home town business where one person is probably making the decisions.
DeleteThis was a very interesting topic and I definitely learned something from that article. Essentially the difference between centralized and decentralized seems to be how open the company/business is to the ideas of others. This seems important because it either limits the product to be used as one main thing, or to be used as multiple things.
ReplyDeleteI think that the best way to run a business would be to use both aspects. I would use centralized to set up the initial product, such as a laptop, to keep the initial product the same. However, I would use decentralized to decide what sort of features could be put into each product. This would allow the company to put forth a uniform, but completely personalized product.
I really like your example of using centralization to create the initial product (so its all the same) and then using decentralization to personalize the products so consumers can have something unique and different.
DeleteThis was a really interesting article to read, I found that I could definitely relate to this topic with experiences that I have had in the workforce. I agree with the article that Centralization is become less common and Decentralization is increasing in popularity. I think this is because we have more big corporations than small companies today.
ReplyDeleteAs far as technology goes I think that decentralization would be a good strategy to use when brainstorming ideas for a new piece of technology such as an app. Having teams of people working on different areas of it will help generate more ideas and foresee and fix more bugs before the product comes out. I think that the marketing of this campaign should use a centralization strategy so that the way this product is presented to the public is uniform and consistent.
I believe that there are advantages of both strategies depending on the company and the people.
When I was writing my post I also thought about apps, and how boring the apple world would be without apps and all the amazing things that you can put on your electronics now days.
DeleteThis is the first time I have really heard anything about centralization & decentralization. I am sure it is a really big thing in the business world and it something that is important in running a business of creations. I agree with the article and found it very interesting that centralization is becoming less common. I believe that small companies are growing so much that they are changing the way that they look at things.
ReplyDeleteI think that decentralization is becoming more popular because it is giving people more opportunities. I think that decentralization takes away from the main creation of something, but it also gives room for products to be improved and added onto. I think that with gaining more people and more ideas improves the rate of technology and improve the marketing and business for everyone in the technology departments. I understand both sides, but I honestly don't have a true opinion on what would and wouldn't be best.
Centralization in my opinion is a part of the past and is something that really does not operate well into today's society. Why I think this is yes one person may come up with a great idea but it takes a wide variety of people to perfect the invention. I also feel as if today's technological advances are so diverse now that it takes groups of people to come up with a product, versus say a 100 years ago.
ReplyDeleteDecentralization in my opinion is the future and is pretty obvious as nearly all major companies are made up of a ton of people/groups. The reason I believe so like many have stated before is that by having a large number of people you are allowing more ideas to come forth, that creates a product that appeals to a much larger percentage in today's society. In the end it allows the product to sell well.