Leading Horses to Water? The Impact of Decentralization on Managerial Behaviour
批判性审视了分权概念背后关于管理行为的假设，指出仅改变管理者的正式职责而不改变选拔、发展和薪酬，分权难以带来管理行为的实质性变化。
This paper offers a critical examination of the assumptions about managerial behaviour which underpin the concept of decentralization. Following an attempt to elucidate the key dimensions of the concept, together with some of their variations and ambiguities, it is shown how the claimed advantages of decentralization flow from assumed changes in managerial behaviour, away from compliance with centrally imposed instruction and regulation and towards seizure of business opportunities which, in turn, rest upon assumptions about the influence of organization structure on managerial behaviour, the constraints imposed by centralized organization, the freedoms afforded by decentralization and managers' ability and willingness to take up these freedoms. These behavioural assumptions are re‐examined critically and shown to be problematic. The paper concludes that little change in managerial behaviour may be expected from decentralization which entails no more than formal changes in managers' responsibilities without concomitant changes in managerial selection, development and remuneration