OFMA Practice Exams

Decentralised authority means decision-making power is shared or delegated to lower levels of management, closer to where work happens. This lets local managers quickly respond to issues, apply their on-the-ground knowledge, and motivate their teams by giving real responsibility. It prevents bottlenecks at the top and improves adaptability in dynamic environments. The other statements describe different ideas: formal authority is the official power tied to a job position; line authority means direct command over subordinates; staff authority is advisory rather than direct command. So the description of distributing decision power downward best fits decentralisation.