Features

Published June 2008

Centralization and Decentralization: The Need for Coexistence

Lindsay Edmonds Wickman

Continued

With globalization on the rise, today’s corporate learning strategy has to be a hybrid: The most centralized strategy has to embrace decentralization and vice versa.

“If there are small deviations here and there, you’ve got to have that. You can’t run your business and dictate everything about it,” Gordon said.

Successful Change Management
As with any learning overhaul, success partially depends on how well change is managed. When transitioning from a centralized to a decentralized system, learning leaders should consider communication as key to a smooth transition, as employees may be reassigned, resent the new structure and stall success.

“Let people know as things evolve what’s going on; keep them informed and ask for their opinions,” White said. “It’s also important to honor the past. Change comes about because it’s time to change in order to meet the evolving needs of the business, not because what happened before was bad. No matter what the previous structure, people worked hard and cared about what they did, and that needs to be respected while looking to improve things in the future.”

When Scotiabank shifted from a centralized to a federated model in 2001, White, who was head of training for the bank’s brokerage subsidiary, felt like her voice mattered and that she was a team player.

“I was treated like a client,” she explained. “One of the things that works well with our model [is] that it’s based on goodwill and influence rather than a reporting structure, and I never felt like I was being forced to do anything. I was being invited to participate in something that would have benefits for me. That’s very attractive.”

When Scotiabank moved to a federated strategy, there was change, but it wasn’t drastic, which helped ease the transition.

“It was a change, larger for some groups than others,” White said. “The central group was affected the most, whereas for some of the smaller units, they had a place to go for help that they didn’t have before. One of the positive things was that we introduced our learning management system at that time so we had a concrete project that benefited everyone and that all training units across the bank could get involved in.”

Maintaining a Hybrid
White believes Scotiabank has found the right blend of centralization and decentralization in its model, and they are sticking with it.

“Everybody’s quite happy with the way it is,” she said. “We are going to review our model this year to ensure that it’s working as well as it can be, but we don’t foresee any big changes. There are some aspects of the training function that we might consider centralizing in the future. But overall, we are happy with our federated model, and we believe it’s the right one for Scotiabank.”

Lindsay Edmonds Wickman is an associate editor for Chief Learning Officer magazine. She can be reached at editor@clomedia.com.

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