Discussion on decentralised decision making

Question: Employees put their own goals as priority and forget the companys goals(Uniform policies not Followed).Problem of Co-Ordination - Divergence of opinion among staff ,More Financial Burden? Answer: Todays managers are facing the perennial question of how much freedom in decision making should be given to their employees. The big organizations are working in decentralized system where the work is hand over to subordinates and is viewed as extension of delegation. As defined by Earl P. Strong, decentralization is the division of work and activities among the autonomous units who are given full authority and responsibility for their decision and operations (Smriti, 2013). Thus decentralization is the freedom of decision making power and autonomy to the lower level of employees. When there is freedom, the chance of misuse of this freedom is also high. In modern organizations granting freedom to employees in decision making is becoming a trend, but at the same time the cause of the concern is also increasing. Providing autonomy to employees on their job increases their job satisfaction and motivates them to perform well in their job. In traditional organizations decentralization was not present and autonomy was given to only employees at higher levels. But in todays flatter organization the lower level employees are also given higher levels of authority. Such level of authority and autonomy benefits the employees, managers and company the whole but at the same time these power of decision making and authority is misused by the employees (Mithila, 2013). 1. Uniform policies are not followed: When employees are given freedom of making business decisions on their own with no or minimum supervision they cross the line and start working in their own guidelines by keeping their personal goals on priority and forget the companys goals and missions. Each employee starts framing his own policies as per his talent. When the outcome of decision making come out to be right then decentralization is considered to be right but the wrong outcomes can be devastating for the organization and its workforce (Tanya, 2013). 2. No Co-ordination: As authority flows widely throughout the organization employees and team faces the problem of co-ordination as each employee works with his own decision. When employees are given the freedom of decision making, their confidence level increases and they become more happy and motivated and bring productivity in their work. But sometimes, high level of confidence brings arrogance among the employees and such arrogant employees are difficult to work with and handle. Such arrogant employees do not take direction in proper sense and become insubordinate and brings the problem of co-ordination among the team (Tanya, 2013). 3. Financial Burden: Modern organizations are adopting decentralization type of working but are not following the requirement of employing trained personnel who can accept the authority. The trained employees are capable of taking more responsibility within the organization and can work independently without any supervision. Recruiting such personnel will save business money by not hiring the managerial workforce. But the modern companies are not hiring such qualified personnel because it is considered as a financial burden for the company to match their salary requirements (Smriti, 2013). 4. Increase of Conflicts: When each and every employee starts working with his own working style and starts misusing his power of decision making, this leads to conflicts among the team members. When the employees are given freedom of decision making they end up by misusing this freedom. This leads to conflicts in interpersonal relations and the company is overall affected. In decentralization process there is huge pressure on divisional heads to meet their profits targets, and in meeting their targets managers usually enters into conflicts (Smriti, 2013). Conclusion There is a hair line difference beyond which the freedom granted to employees can have adverse effects on the overall performance of the organization. Granting freedom to employees is like a slippery slope because employees are always in a habit of misusing the freedom by taking more and more liberties which ultimately destroys the structure and discipline of the organization. If the freedom is not properly checked it can be backfired. Employees are in a habit of taking the freedom in granted which hinders their efficiency and performance rather than enhancing it. Employees make a habit of stretching the deadline, not following the office hours, misusing the work from home option, misuse of office internet for personal works like social networking, watching videos, paying bills etc which cannot be tolerated by any organization (Mithila, 2013). Thus the managers while deciding the how much latitude of decision making should be granted to employees they should focus on the intrapersonal experience of their employees like motivation and satisfaction and should also consider how they are perceived as effective leads from their employers. Decentralization in decision making is a positive attribute for the employees and the organization but it has many drawbacks which can destroy the organization thus proper care and monitoring steps should be taken when autonomy and authority is increasing (Roy, 2006). References Smriti Chand. (2013). Decentralization: Meaning, advantages and disadvantages of decentralization. Your article library. Mithila Mehta. (2013). Employees tend to cross the line, always! The times of India. Tanya Robertson. (2013). Negative effects of employee empowerment. Demand media. Roy Young-Joo Chua, Sheena S. Iyengar. (2006). Empowerment through choice? A critical analysis of the effects of choice in organizations. Research in Organizational Behavior, Vol 27, 41-79. ISSN: 0191-3085, doi-10.1016.