Organizations are just like architectural buildings a way to manage activities. Religious activities require a "church," recreational activities require most of all space, but in general the form that is chosen for the building will shape the way in which the activity is performed. Imagine an Olympic swimming final in a pool with a length of just 25 meters. Serious activities require a serious form, in this case 50 meters. Just as in business. But the same (serious) form might also cause friction.
Organizations also choose an architectural-kind of form to shape their activities. One of the many distinguishing mechanisms to shape activities is the choice between a centralized organization and the de-central counterpart. An operational organization is often decentralized so that the specific business is literally located close to the market where it is used. Regional shops are an example of operational organizations. Project organizations require often a more centralized approach. A project within an organization often serves difference areas in the organization and it is more efficient to centralize this knowledge so that the project team can concentrate on one main goal with is the new development.
A competence center is an organizational construction that serves the goal of managing knowledge. In difference with a project that also requires knowledge from specific business areas, the competence center is no short term goal other than to gather knowledge and make it available to make it available for the rest of the organization. A competence center could be compared with a think-thank but in addition to the think tank, the competence center may also gain experience on a certain area. The think tank would concentrate on strategic issues and scenarios, the competence center build knowledge for issuing possible new projects in a near future.
Some advantages of a competence center as a formalized central organization are:
- Its visibility. A central unit will be - due to its formality - a visible part which signals that the activities that are managed there are serious.
- Priority. A competence center is able to present new ideas to higher management and will give it a higher priority and raise more means
- Ease of control. A central unit dedicated to a certain task is more easily to manage as the same task that would be catered in various decentralized parts of the (operational) organization.
Some disadvantages are:
- A competence center like a central unit will become an additional source of power and stakeholder in the organizational arena with goals that interfere with operational goals. The centre could become an arbitrary (or elite) unit in the organization that issues initiatives that are not understood by others (an island within the rest of the organization).
- Prepared initiatives by a competence center might raise more resistance than decentralized initiatives that have a lower barrier and could be executed with less means without formalities.
There is no good way in architecture; a church will not automatically motivate people to believe more in God. Choose your form and make the best out of it.
© 2007 Hans Bool
Hans Bool writes articles about management, culture and change.
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