Is 'empowerment' just a fad? Control, decision-making, and information technology

The logic in this paper shows why greater decentralization in business (inc luding 'empowerment') is a response to fundamental changes in the economics of decision-making that are enabled by new information technologies. Our r esearch suggests that a simple pattern of three successive stages underlies many of the changes that are taking place: As communication costs fall, in dependent decentralized decision-makers are replaced, first by centralized decision-makers. This pattern explains important aspects of economic histor y in this century, and suggests that empowerment is not just a fad, but lik ely to become even more important in the next century. The paper also suggests that our very notions of centralization and decentr alization are incomplete. When most people talk about empowerment, they are only thinking about going 'halfway' toward what is possible. To fully expl oit the possibilities of new information technologies, we may need to expan d our thinking to include 'radically decentralized organizations' - like th e Internet and market economies.