Abstract
The emerging debate over centralization vs. decentralization highlights one of the most challenging issues in management- what the most efficient corporate structure is for a company. Globalization makes multinational enterprises develop their ability to respond quickly to changes in the economically or politically fast-moving environments, and elaborate strategies to perform on both a global and a local scale. To strengthen and increase their positions on the market, these companies must optimize not only the use of their resources but also their organizational structure in order to be more efficient in their daily activities and get closer to customers' expectations. The main risk faced by multinational enterprises is the loss of efficiency or responsiveness due to their large size, their geographical dispersal or their bureaucratic organization. In fact the heart of the matter resides in adopting the most appropriate decision making process for the organization. It must be determined how to share power between headquarters and the other entities of the company.
This essay aims at clarifying the distinction between the apparently opposing strategies of centralization and decentralization, by emphasizing the importance of their coexistence within an organization. Moreover it seeks to envisage the main consequences of these strategies on multinational companies. The first part is dedicated to presenting both strategies deeply, the second one; to analyzing to what extent they can coexist in a company, and the third one to describing the new profile of multinational enterprises and the consequences of it for the corporate world.
