ABSTRACT
This chapter tells the story of accounting decentralisation in the process of being carried out by the Ford Motor Company. The company is a vertical integration which provides basic raw materials, to be fabricated or processed to produce automobiles, trucks and tractors. Up to 1946, this complex industrial machine had been operated under the direction of a highly centralised management; after the war it became evident that operations had become so complicated that decentralisation was imperative. The organisational pattern adopted resulted in six principal divisions. The Ford division, the Lincoln-Mercury division, the International division, the Rouge division, the General Manufacturing division and the Parts and Equipment Manufacturing division. The return which competitors realise on their invested capital is regarded as an all important yardstick by which tome asure the over-all effectiveness of the company's operations - the aim being to provide a better job under this inexorable standard.
