Decision Rights: Who Gives the Green LightHow a company decides who is authorized to make what types of decisions can have a profound (21) on its business, both in terms of everyday effectiveness and the (22) line.Consider the experience of one global conglomerate that recently shifted to its U. S. headquarters final decision (23) for the pricing of bids made by its foreign subsidiaries. The company believed that its U.S.-based (24) would be more effective in making pricing decisions because they had a broader purview of the company’s needs. But the time needed to (25) the relevant information to headquarters, and for executives there to absorb and react to it, reduced the company’s ability to respond to bid requests on a timely (26) Alert to this change, a European (27) added a 24-hour limit to its competing bids, forcing quick decisions from clients and winning new business as a result.Such a scenario "happens all too often, "says Michael Jensen, professor emeritus at Harvard Business School and managing director of Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Monitor Group’s organizational strategy practice. "Allocating decision rights in ways that (28) organizational performance is an extraordinarily difficult and controversial management task."And therein lies a big problem, because how effective an organization is at making high-quality decisions (29) with its mission and objectives, the experts note, is a prime determinant of its ability to compete in the marketplace. It is found that though the (30) to effective decision-rights distribution can be high, several best practices promise to lower them. 27（）

A. end
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