The principle of subsidiarity and its impact on companies

For different reasons and using a variety of methods, companies are increasingly encouraging subsidiarity. This includes decentralising decision-making and allowing employees to make decisions as close as possible to the area of their work ; giving them more authority to react to the content of their work ; and to deliberate on the objectives and organisation of their units and even those of their company. In order for this managerial innovation to gain ground, the manager or director has to simply ‘let go’ and to allow the employees a certain degree of freedom. To understand this movement in detail, a team from MINES ParisTech questioned a number of people who have observed these changes, and studied a wide range of organisations in depth. These are the results of their study.