A RESEARCH NOTE - CENTRALIZATION OF DECISION-MAKING IN JAPANESE FACTORIES

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 decision-making in Japan's ringi system are discussed in the conclusion.