What are the advantages of having a centralized staffing function as opposed to letting each manager be totally responsible for all staffing activities...

One major
advantage of centralizing staffing is specialization. Although unit managers may know the
business of their units (e.g. manufacturing, web design, etc.) they are unlikely to be up to
speed on human resource issues such as regulatory compliance, detecting fraudulent applications,
attracting an ideal applicant pool, disability accommodation, managing diversity, etc.


Another issue is efficiency. If unit managers are being trained in and
handling HR issues, that is time they are not devoting to their actual jobs of managing their
units.

Optimal staff development may requiring grooming people for
managerial or executive positions by moving them from unit to unit, something a unit manager
would not be in a position to do.

Finally, in a large corporation, strategic
HR goals might include rotating people through positions in several countries to forge a
globalized corporate culture and filling high level positions through intra-company transfer
when possible, issues that a unit manager is not placed to address.