While the study, "Corporate Real Estate Trends in OrganizationalStructure," found a few examples of departments being run by 10 orfewer people, most departments are run by larger staffs. The studypoints to globalization and outsourcing as the reasons behind thecentralization of corporate real estate. The findings are based onsurveys of 56 of 112 invited experts in the corporate real estateindustry. The experts were comprised 89% by end users--94% of whichhailed from Fortune 500 companies--and 11% by serviceproviders.

"The evolutionary cycle of the corporate real estate departmentis in overdrive," says CoreNet Global director of global researchEric Bowles. "We predicted with 2004's Corporate Real Estate 2010report that centralization would occur, but globalization andoutsourcing has greatly accelerated its occurrence."

The study also found that there are wide variations in sizes ofdepartments, outsourced organizations still need senior managersinside, increased centralization is more for cost reduction andless for driving mission and conflict arises between centralizationand the need for flexibility and speed.