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The question of the proper degree of decentralization or


devolution in large organizations is a very old one. As is often the case, however, antiquity alone does not necessarily imply that the
answers that have been given to it are satisfactory.
Patterns of decentralization have evolved and been tested as
organizations have grown. Effective patterns have survived, but the evolutionary process has been a costly one. Through years of casual and personal judge111ent, the first appromate answers have
en1erged, and recently the western countries have begun to give a systel11atic appraisal of what these answers are.' But in our
domestic organizations, like Arak Machinery Manufacturing Complex and Electricity, Water and Sewage Co111panies, the
emergence of organizations that seem to cycle back and forth bet wee n relatively high degrees 0f centralization and
decentralization, is a reminder of the occurrence of the primitive unsystematic costly experiences of old days.