Configuração e design de organizações: um estudo sobre o grau de centralização na tomada de decisões

Abstract

This research studied the setting and the design of the companies, as well as their degree of centralization in the decision taking process in the best and largest Brazilian companies mentioned in the "Anuário Valor 1,000" of 2010, which is an annual publishing of the "Valor Economico" Newspaper. The main purpose of it was the analysis of the different degrees of centralization in the decision taking process, together with the organizational setting proposed by the national and international literature. In the designs were also examined the structure variables, strategy, staff and processes and, in each and every one of them it was investigated how the decision taking process happened. As methodology, the investigation within the companies was carried out through a survey which was composed of 36 objective questions divided in two blocks, being the purpose of the first one to identify the setting, and the second, the centralization degree. The data was analysed in two phases: first, by factorial analysis, as a way to put together the questionnaire variables, and second, by cluster analysis. As an analysis closing, it was performed a cross-reference of the findings with the researched literature. The main discoveries of this research were the clusters behavior as it pertains to the characteristics of the companies settings, which in its whole, was not possible to identify due to the fact that the companies use a mix between one setting and another: as to the degree of centralization in the company’s decision taking process, in its majority, they presented a high degree in all the investigated variables, different from what the Brazilian literature states about the subject.