Core organization design frameworks.
We know the joke: consultants use way too many frameworks. But these are our favorites. Rooted in Jay Galbraith’s methodology and refined over years of practice, these are the essential models we rely on to guide our clients.
How centralized should a function be?
Fully Centralized
Every HR capability sits centrally. Business lines have no dedicated HR presence of their own.
- Cost-effective, with consistent processes across the organization
- Simplest structure to govern and staff
- Limited flexibility and responsiveness to business-specific needs
Once you know what a function’s work is, a second question follows: where should that function sit, relative to the businesses it serves? The options run along a continuum from fully centralized, where one team owns everything, to fully embedded, where each business line runs its own version of the function. Most functions land somewhere in between, and the right answer is rarely permanent.
How we use it with clients
We use this framework after the function-value work is done, once we know which activities are policy, expertise, delivery, or partnership. This is where those activities get placed on the org chart, and where leaders have to decide how much consistency they are willing to trade for how much local responsiveness.