Abstract
PROBLEMS of amalgamation and decentralisa-JL tion were discussed at Norwich on September 9 by the Department of Industrial Co-operation of the Economic Science and Statistics Section of the British Association. Mr. L. Urwick opened the discussion with a paper on executive decentralisation with functional co-ordination in which he emphasised the necessity for a technical approach to questions of organisation. After discussing the nature of responsibility, and its relation to authority and power, he pointed out that reasons of time and space as well as psychological factors were important influences making for decentralisation. The steady and inevitable growth of functional specialisation made imperative the clear distinction between executive and administrative or policy-making responsibility, as well as the co-ordination of functional methods, and the reconciliation of these two tendencies was the central problem in modern business organisation. Failure to recognise the nature of the difficulty might easily involve the failure of a business combination. When a new duty arose, Mr. Urwick insisted that the only ultimate solution was to define that duty and assign it to individuals, properly selected and suitably trained. He regarded it as inevitable that business organisation should evolve towards a true system of ‘staff’ positions and relationships as distinct from either ‘line’ or ‘functional’ positions, and organised staff training was accordingly essential.
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Problems of Administration and Management. Nature 136, 651–652 (1935). https://doi.org/10.1038/136651b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/136651b0