Read the following article. Relate the ideas of centralization versus decentralization to the impact of technology on our society. Be creative and think outside the box. There are no right and wrong answers. Your response must be at least 2 solid paragraphs longs. Feel free to research some other articles to use in your response but make sure you paste the link at the bottom of your reply.
http://adamp.com/management/centralization-vs-decentralization/
These two ideas seem pretty simple to understand and are found in all aspects of our society including technology.
ReplyDeleteCentralization as the article explained was more of a one man show or a small group calling all the shots. This sounds to me a little bit like the Apple company on a larger scale. Even though they are a large company, they seem like they are calling the shots for the rest of the technology world. They come out with a new product and the rest of the technology world is forced to follow or fall behind.
Decentralization is caused a lot by the consumers of these products. The large companies make the products and then by a ton of people buying the product is kind of like Decentralization. By all the consumers buying the product, they are giving their input on the quality of the product and how useful it is. This starts at the top, but seems to include all those associated with the device.
Centralization is when a company gives the power of making desicions to the top of there company and leave it at that. An example of this would be in my opinion the owner of a small town buisness who makes all or most of the descisions for that said buisness.
ReplyDeletedecentralization is the exact opposite. where the power is spread out through the company. an example of this would be walmart where they have hundreds of stores each with managers with the job and responsability to run that store.
Well the article seemed a little biased lol. But it got the point across and at least gives the reader the general idea of centralization versus,
ReplyDeletedecentralization.
Decentralization in companies that research and attempt to forward technology tend to make better progression then most of their counterparts. Their scientists and lower management officials all have the ability to improve and forward without having to pitch ideas and wait your turn.
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ReplyDeleteI think the beginning stages of facebook may relate to a centralized process. Mark Zuckerberg was in charge of the site when it was first starting out. I assume now he has many people working for him so facebook might now be a part of the decentralized process. I don't know a whole lot about the history of facebook so I am just assuming.
ReplyDeleteMicrosoft is a form of decentralization. In the company there are different branches which each serve a specific purpose in order to split the work and be more efficient. But I'm probably completely off.
While Steve Jobs was working for Atari, there was an offer to change how it was made. Atari wanted to lessen the number of chips in their product. I am guessing that previously they decided to do things their own way and in a way they were centralized on the design of that product. They had found a way to do what they wanted and they had stuck to it. Eventually cost started catching up with them and they needed to change. So they sent out this offer to employees.
ReplyDeleteSteve Jobs didn't have very much intrest in this field, but made a deal with a co-worker who hadn't heard of the bonus yet. In the end, the co-worker had mimimized the number of chips in Atari's product and the team had earned the bonus. With that money, Steve Jobs and that co-worker set off on a journey that eventually led to the creation of Apple, a main company that deals heavily with technology. If Atari hadn't changed from centralized to decentralized about how their product was made we could quite possibly not have Apple.
Both centralization and decentralization have had an impact on technology in our society. The area that centralization has impacted the most would be smaller businesses or new businesses. Most tech businesses that start up are relatively small and may have been created by a small group of people or even one person. The founders kept their vision in mind as the company grew and introduced to society their new technology, whether it be computers, phones, etc. This is where centralization has most impacted society.
ReplyDeleteDecentralization is more prevalent in the larger companies, which also have a big impact on society. As a company grows, it becomes much harder for one person to be in charge and come up with all of the ideas for the company. Thus, they decentralize in order to keep the company going. More input from others in turn results in more ideas and more variation of products. Because of decentralization, the technology we already had, as a product of centralized businesses getting started, becomes more advanced and easier to use. This is how decentralization has had an impact on technology in society.
Decentralization and Centralization are two common words that have been around this world for a long time. You can think back to a time of dictatorships and monarchys and notice that those used centralization. All of the power was with one person. Now these terms can be streched even further from how a country is ran. Technology is a huge part of our society and many people do not notice it, but there is centralization and decentralization in the world of technology. Many huge factories are ran on a centralized unit. There is power coming from one spot. This can mainly be seen in a power plant. There is one room where people control everything that is going on in a plant. That is also seen in the large factories where robots are used. Decentralization can mainly be seen in a computer. A computer has several parts that help make it run. There is the CPU, the memory card, the graphics card, the fans, etc. Several parts are used in a computer that make it run and bring it power. With out many of the items a computer could not function.
ReplyDeleteDecentralization and centralization affects society with the use of technology by giving us many options. It is not a bad things to be centralized or decentrallized in the technology world because each one works differently. Decentralization allowed for us to have computers, laptops, and smartphones. They are all made with different components and they all seem to work together as a team to get something accomplished. Centralization has allowed for factories and Power plants to run properly. Without the main system of control, the parts could not work and the dams or the nuclear power plants would not be working to the best of there ability. It is an intresting concept that I am sure no one really realizes until they actually have to think about it.
http://cdn.ttgtmedia.com/searchNetworkingChannel/downloads/network_centralization_decentralization.pdf
Centralization organizations aren when they consolidate power and decision making at the top of the organization, whether it be the CEO, Owner, President, or Board of Directors. An example of this would be a busniess owner in a small town who is in complete control of his company and has the authority to call all of the shots.
ReplyDeleteDecentralization is when an organization takes advantage of a division of labor by spreading out the decision makers throughout the comapny. Microsoft would be a good example of this, because I know that they have a lot of different divisions and many different people have the authoirty to make decisions for them.
I can only think of an example that kind of relates these two topics. Technology in the classroom used to be very rare. When I was in younger we did not have our own cell phones or laptops. So when you went to school it was a very centralized set up. The teacher controlled their class and had each and every day structured and planned. There was no input from students on how class should be taught; they showed up and learned. More students stayed in school and did very well without the technology present to distract them. Education did very well in the past without technology. It pushed students to have to actually pick up books and read to do research and listen to everything the teacher said.
ReplyDeleteTechnology is more prevalent in classrooms today. Almost every student has their own cell phone or brings their personal computer to school to use instead of the school computers. I feel that the classroom setting has become very decentralized. Most students are checking Facebook or texting on their phones and not paying attention to the teacher. Classroom settings have definitely lost the structure and organization that used to be present. Yes technology has been very beneficial to learning because of using different forms to do research and make presentations. But there are many reasons technology is bad for education because it provides one of the biggest distractions in the classroom.
Technology is very beneficial to students to help expand their knowledge. But if more technology is added to everyday classroom use how much are the students actually comprehending of what the teacher says or just playing games and checking up on the stuff the care about at the time.
When I try and think of centralization in technology I think of how the cameras are run during games. How they have a bunch of different views constantly and one person who decides which view to use during the game.
ReplyDeleteDecentralization to me would be like in any type of situation where they let the people vote for a winner between two things. If people are allowed to vote on a winner on anything that is decentralization.
An orginization is centralized when its top managers are the ones calling the shots without input from people of lower positions. This happens alot when one CEO is trying to obtain their specific vision, in turn centralizing as much of the company as possible to keep majority of power in their hands. Centralised organizations have more disadvantages than advantages, leaving only a few remaining today. Failure to lead, and lack of employee motivation can cripple the company.
ReplyDeleteDecentralized organizations win the peoples vote. The advantage of division of labor and the sharing of decsion making activities makes this popular among employees. Employees have the motivation because they can improve, advance, and get ahead in the company. With employees feed back reaching the top their opinions are heard and considered.
Hypothetically speaking, If apple is centralized then the top CEO's might not have heard people, or cared, when they said "why was the iPad not HD to begin with. Why is it goiong to have to be reissued 19.37 times before its complete." The whole nation got buzzed over the release of the new iPad, and the same thing with the iPhone. Now im not saying Apple is Centralized because i dont know that, it just seemed like a fitting example and it was all i could come up with. If the company had be decentralized taking in the peoples opnions maybe someone would have had enough smarts to say hey lets get this right in one shot and not reissue the iPad 45 times, and create something new and diffrent that could possibly benifit others.
In a centralized company, the decisions and ideas come from the very top. For centralized, they don't rely on their lower employees to give any of their own advice. In the article, it said that centralized companies are becoming more and more rare. I think that the reason they're becoming more rare is because it doesn't work as well.
ReplyDeleteDecentralized companies are the opposite of a centralized company. They share their own individual ideas within their organization and ultimately the executives makes a final decision. In a decentralized company, lower employees may fix problems in their own areas without addressing it to the top. For the majority of companies, I think that decentralization is the way to go. Everyone can use their own ideas, making them feel more connected and useful to the company.
Centralization and decentralization have both had an impact on technology in society. Centralization has impacted technology in many ways such as TV, General Motors, and Microsoft. All of these are examples of centralization because they all have power under a central control. The TV has impacted society by letting people learn more about opportunities that can benefit them. General Motors had impacted society because they have showed us over the years how a vehicle can change. Last but not least Microsoft has impacted society in many ways such as introducing us to computers therefore changing the lives of many people forever.
ReplyDeleteDecentralization has impacted technology in ways such as the Internet and Alcoholics Anonymous. The Internet is a strongly decentralized organization because everyone who helps work with this company can voice their opinion on what they thing will work and what they think will not work. Alcoholics Anonymous is a strongly decentralization organization except in this one the lower level workers have little freedom to make decision about the company and the way that it works.