Change Strategies

Chapter 12 of Human Resource Management in a Business Context (3rd Edition) by Alan Price - published by Cengage

Contents

Objectives

The purpose of this chapter is to:

• Introduce the concept of transformational human resource strategies.
• Compare incremental and packaged change programmes.
• Discuss the HR role in mergers and acquisitions.
• Consider the issue of behavioural transformation and negative change.

Topics

Transformational HR strategies

Change and organizational structures

Shrinkage

Incremental change

Action learning

- Action Learning

Business process re-engineering (BPR)

Strategic alliances

Mergers and the HR function

Mergers and Acquisitions - Project Planning

HR due diligence

Behavioural transformation

Negative change

Summary

In this chapter we investigated transformational or change management. Nowadays, change initiatives are common elements of human resource strategies as companies and public sector organizations struggle to achieve their objectives in a competitive environment. Frequently these involve some form of organizational restructuring using a change programme such as business process reengineering. Change programmes are fashion-driven and quickly become obsolete, to be replaced by the next heavily-touted set of magic solutions. Some of the most difficult aspects of change management for human resource practitioners come from mergers and acquisitions where their involvement is often late - if not too late to rescue a disastrous situation. Finally we looked at behavioural transformation, involving attempts to change corporate culture and recognised that negative attitudes to change are to be expected and are not necessarily unhealthy. > Chapter 11   >  Chapter 13