The BASK splits how HR is organized into two separate lists. Service models are about where decision authority sits. Structural models are about how work is grouped. Mixing the two lists is the main way this unit is missed.
The three service models
The BASK names HR function and service models as centralized, decentralized and global resources. Only those three.
- Centralized: HR policy, compensation design and employee-relations decisions run out of one corporate team, and units route requests through it.
- Decentralized: decision authority is pushed out to regions or units, which set local hiring practices, pay adjustments within guidelines and scheduling rules.
- Global resources: structuring HR delivery across countries and regions so local requirements are met while corporate standards hold.
What is not on this list
- Center of excellence, shared services, business partners, matrix are the structural models.
- Recruiting, benefits administration, payroll, legal, contract management, investigations are examples of outsourced HR functions.
- HR staff per full-time employee, customer satisfaction, KPIs, balanced scorecard are the HR-function metrics.
All four lists sit in the same key-concept block, which is exactly why the distractors are drawn from them. If an answer says matrix or shared services to a service-model question, it is wrong on the label alone.
The judgment pattern
When a scenario gives you a merger, three acquired HR teams, and leaders who want both consistency and fast local answers, the keyed action is not to pick a model. It is to assess which HR services should be delivered centrally and which require local delivery before choosing a service model.
That follows from the definition of the functional area: services that create and drive organizational effectiveness. Deciding structure before analyzing service needs is the error in every distractor. Announcing one corporate team eliminates roles before you know what must stay local; committing to decentralization forfeits the consistency leaders asked for; outsourcing settles a vendor question before the service design exists.
Carry this: diagnose the services, then pick the model.