A Research Note: Centralization of Decision-making in Japanese Factories
使用阿斯顿集权量表，发现日本制造企业的决策集权程度受空间分散、自动化水平、企业规模和任务变化性等因素影响，并讨论了这些发现对日本禀议制度中“自下而上”参与式决策主张的启示。
Using the Aston Centralization of Authority scale, this paper shows that Japanese organizations vary in their level of overall centralization of authority in decision- making, and in the level at which decisions in particular areas are made. In a sample of 48 heterogeneous Japanese manufacturing firms it is found that both spatial dispersion into multiple sites and higher levels of automation of technology increase centralization of authority, while large size and the increasing number of levels to which size gives rise, and greater task variability all have the opposite effect, i.e., they lower, somewhat, the levels at which decisions can be made. The implications of these findings for claims of 'bottom-up', participative deci sion-making in Japan's ringi system are discussed in the conclusion.