A centralized organizational structure has many benefits to J&J.
With the centralization
of the organization, the business decisions that are made are more efficient since it follows a
single direction rather than in a decentralized structure where there are differing interests to
consider. The benefits of using a centralized structure are evident in the sense that it focuses all
the interests of the company in a more specific direction, especially for J&J where it would be
easier to streamline processes as there would be no decision making made at the lower levels of
the organization. J&J made a strategic business decision when they restructured from
decentralized to centralized as the previous decentralized structure has many problems for such a
company. In a decentralized organization, the multiple levels of management often become an
inconvenience when the company is executing orders as these individuals in the different levels
of management have the freedom to make different decisions and this can be a problem for J&J
who have businesses in many different locations. There are cons for both of these structures, for
the centralized organizational structure a problem of being inflexible as there are many different
backgrounds and locational differences in each J&J business. As for the decentralized
organizational structure, it is mentioned above that the freedom of decision making is sometimes
problematic.
In the aspect of forecasting personnel needs, the problem of transitioning into a
centralized structure from a decentralized one is that the requirements for employees of different
levels are different in the centralized structure compared to the decentralized. In a centralized
organizational structure, there is less need for incorporating the locational advantages of the
different businesses of J&J, as there is a centralized structure, the power of decision making of
the company is mainly on the president of the business. This means that there is less need for
managers at the different levels and there would be less lag time when orders are being
distributed. In the aspect of sourcing applicants, as mentioned earlier, with a centralized
structure the need for managers at the different levels is less and this means that there would be
freed up space to have more employees in general. Because of the restructuring from a
decentralized organizational structure to a centralized one, the requirements for applicants should
be less than before as applicants previously had the freedom of decision making but in the
centralized structure the freedom of decision making isn’t available and this makes everything
more streamlined.
There are quite a few steps that the J&J can take to achieve a successful training plan
using the ADDIE 5-Step Process,( Analyze, Design, Develop, Implement, and Evaluate). Below
is an example of the possible questions for each step that can help create the ideal training plan
for J&J’s employees.
Analyze:
1. How can we improve the situation of the business whilst moving from a decentralized to
a centralized management structure?
2. What is the most efficient way to train employees to be as productive as possible?
3. What is the need for training and what are the requirements that need to be met for each
employee.
Design:
1. What steps can be taken to design a plan to achieve the goal of training?
2. Is the prototype of the plan feasible in all aspects?
3. How can we improve the prototype to fit the different needs of the employees?
Develop:
1. Was the prototype successful in its initial design and what improvements can be made to
it upon completion?
2. Is the designed plan appropriate to be able to have an effective workforce?
3. Can learners progress through the training plan given their different backgrounds and
locations?
Implement:
1. What learning management systems are set in place to be able to achieve the goals of the
training plan?
2. Which parts of the training plan were not able to achieve the goals of the plan.
3. How can we effectively analyze the results of the training plan?
Evaluate:
1. Were the goals that were set at the analysis stage achieved by the training plan?
2. Is a required survey enough feedback to prove the effectiveness of the training plan?
3. What other forms of feedback can be used to test the effectiveness of the training plan?
A centralized organizational structure allows for a more objective view of the
performance of each employee as it can be standardized across the organization as compared to
the previous decentralized structure where it can be difficult to standardize the objective analysis
of the performance for each employee. There is also an added benefit of being able to
standardize the objective analysis of the performance of each employee, this benefit is that
employees would be able to easily find out what they can do to improve their performance in
their given tasks. Using the performance management system, J&J, in a centralized structure is
able to find out which skills and gaps that their employees require more knowledge on. Knowing
that J&J has many different branches is also important because a centralized structure allows for
a more streamlined set up and requires less adjusting for each branch therefore allows for an
easier implementation of different rules.
