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Decentralized decision-making is any process where the decision-making authority is distributed throughout a larger group. It also connotes a higher authority given to lower level functionaries, executives, and workers. This can be in any organization of any size; it may be present in a governmental authority to a corporation. However, the context in which the term is used is generally that of larger organizations. This distribution of power, in effect, has far-reaching implications in the fields of management, organizational behavior, and government.
The decisions arising from a process of decentralized decision-making are the functional result of group intelligence and crowd wisdom. Decentralized decision-making also contributes to the core knowledge of group intelligence and crowd wisdom, often in a subconscious way à la Carl Jung's collective unconscious.
Decision theory is a method of deductive reasoning based on formal probability and deductive reasoning models. It is also studied in a specialized field of mathematics, wherein models are used to help make decisions in all human activities including the sciences and engineering. (See also Game theory, Uncertainty, Expectation maximization principle.)