AmalfiCORE Blog

Does Decentralized Help Resilience?

In my experience with the public sector I have found most organizations to be ‘spider’ type arrangements. ‘Spider’ refers to  organizations which are predominantly commanded and controlled in a traditional top-down fashion. There is one person in charge, a CEO, and there is a hierarchical structure. Decisions are usually made from a central point of control. [1] These organizations are centralized.

Brafman and Beckstrom provide a number of real life stories of the success of a decentralized structure including the Apache’s fending off the Spanish to modern day creative internet ideas beating the odds against major corporations like Napster vs the music industry. [2]

The value of decentralizing parts of an organization will vary with the type of organization. I’m not convinced that decentralization is always best. In the example of one of my case study organizations, a hospital, I think a more centralized structure benefits patient outcome on the clinical side. Physicians may gather viewpoints, trusted opinions, and do research to determine a best course of action or additional options to help a patient survive and improve. This activity goes on everyday whether a crisis occurs or not. I cannot imagine a patient treatment being reliant on attributes like there is no one (physician) in charge and that if a unit, say X-ray was dismantled, that the rest of the organization would be able to provide the patients with full service.

If organizational resilience means continuing core objectives through the toughest of events, than I think that hospitals may need to remain more centralized.

I recognized that there are many other types of businesses and organizations which can benefit from more of a decentralized structure. The examples that come to mind are in the electronic world of computers, libraries, higher education, and other social structures. These groups can grow in a viral manner by taking more effective advantage of a larger collective group of intellect and ideas.

References

[1] Brafman, Ori, and Beckstrom, Rod A., “The Starfish and the Spider-The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations“, 11th printing, USA, Penguin Books Ltd. 2006

[2] Ibid, Chapter 1