Organizational Principles of Systems Decentralization

Abstract

A study aimed at a determination of the organizational principles involved in systems decentralization (SD). It is based on a survey of 14 American and British companies selected for their significant investments in and mature experience of decentralized systems. There were eight principles underlying the policy and practice of SD in these companies, and the inference is that these principles appear to work. That is, considering their commonality of use and the depth of experience in the companies concerned, these principles appear to be optimizing the potential gains achievable through SD, while minimizing the potential losses. The implication is that, if these organizational principles can be effectively implemented in other organizations, they may facilitate success in systems decentralization, as well as the evolution toward distributed systems. Viewed as a whole, the principles appear to complement each other, such that they may be viewed as a conceptual model, wherein each depends upon at least one other for its effectiveness.