Final answer:
Decentralized decision-making is a key characteristic of decentralized organizations, promoting innovation and quick responses to market changes, unlike centralized organizations which follow a bureaucratic structure with a hierarchy of authority and explicit rules.
Step-by-step explanation:
A typical characteristic of a decentralized organization, as opposed to a centralized one, is decentralized decision-making. Decentralized organizations empower lower-level employees with the authority to make decisions and foster on-the-ground innovation and responsiveness. In a decentralized structure, high consumer satisfaction and a large variety of goods and services may also result due to quick adjustments to local preferences and market changes.
This is in contrast to centralized organizations which generally feature a hierarchy of authority, clear division of labor, and explicit rules—which are all characteristics of bureaucracies as defined in the classic sense.