What is Decentralisation in Office Manangement

Decentralisation implies the location of office activities in different functional departments. It refers to departmentation of office services that is the dispersal of activities in different departments.

Merits: Decentralisation is beneficial in the following ways:

1. Secrecy of business affairs can be ensured if records are handled and filed on the department dealing with the matters.
2. Greater efficiency output and lower cost can be achieved due to special knowledge of the departmental staff about the papers handled. Since the employees are better informed and conversant with the technicalities of the work of the department, they can perform office jobs more efficiently.

Demerits: However, decentralisation entails the following disadvantages also

1. Duplication of work cannot be avoided.
2. Standardisation of office system, procedures, methods and equipment is not possible.
3. It may create problems of coordination of work between different departments.
4. Office work may not be evenly distributed between employees in different departments.