Facilitating Organizational Change
Introduction
Change in any organization is important, according to the expectation of all key stakeholders (Entrekin & Scott-Ladd, 2013, p. 2 ). The role of human resource management becomes more perceptible when the company intends to make major changes in the whole human resource system. In this study, the focus is on the role of human resources in the change process, and this study elaborates the case with the perspective of success.
Thesis Statement
“Any change in the company needs flexible plans and deep sponsorship to gain and sustain the success for a long run, and the role of human resource management is critical in the change a process, as it can set goals and objectives and gather all key stakeholders. Facilitating the organization’s change is a responsibility of the HR department of the company, which can be justified through better change strategies and goals.”
Brief Summary of the Case
The construction material company intended to make major changes in the HR system, as the management aimed to roll out the human resources information system in different countries. Several changes champions and vendor were the part of the tea. The employee needed appropriate training to navigate the new system and derive information. However, the project depicts its failure due to lack of flexibility, limited sponsorship, and immense resistance to the change. New vice president of human resource, a transformational leader, came forward and made the team of internal stakeholders along with effective cost examination, reset plans, and several alternatives. She identified the need for change and created visions to determine the change. When all external change champions left the project, internal stakeholders decided to lead the change under the leadership of VP of HR. Finally, the firm managed to conduct the change, as HIRS rollout in almost 12 countries, and remaining four are expected to complete at the end of the year.
Kotter’s 8-Step Model
The case depicts some change concept. Of course, when conducting the change, there are some action plans, which are to be taken to make the difference. Accordingly, aspects of Kotter’s 8 step model can be applied to this case, and the elaboration is as under
Establishing the Sense of Urgency
After judging the possible failure of HIRS project, the VP of human resources created the sense of urgency. Immediately, she gathers the executive team and other stakeholders to finalize things as soon as possible to save the project. To protect the project, this urgency was necessary (Peacock, 2017, p. 21 ).
Creating a Guiding Coalition
The two-day meeting of vice president was the depiction of guiding coalition. For in this guiding Coalition, she guided all stakeholders regarding the project opportunities, low-cost strategies, and external stakeholder engagement and project alternatives (Shrm.org, 2017). Fortunately, VP managed to guide all these aspects to demonstrate the integrity.
Develop Both Vision and Strategy
Developing a vision and strategy for the project is good to ensure the success and avoid the failure. Deriving insights from this case, the management created the vision to engage people with effective and integrated human resource information system in different countries. The strategy of the company was to add new features to the system to help 100,000 employees use new ways of information. This aspect is quite triggered, as the management made the strategy to involve external stakeholders (Entrekin & Scott-Ladd, 2013, p. 63 ).
Communicate the Vision
Industry downturn and the high cost of the process compelled the management to create the new vision and communicate it to all stakeholders. VP of human resource department shared the vision with the executive team and external stakeholders. The VP made the meeting a source to communicate the vision (Ramana, 2013, p. 27 ).
Empower Employees to Act
The most important thing a for the employee is to access information. The management in this case or project process empowered employees through engagement, motivation, and training. Through appropriate training, employee knew the reason for the change and acted accordingly.
Generate short Term Win
Assessing the project failure on time and pertinent intervention was the short-term win for the management (Peacock, 2017, p. 72 ). Successfully, the VP worded with teams to examine cost, opportunities and alternatives emerge in the global competition and despite having the industry downturn.
Consolidate Gains to Build Momentum
HRIS has been rolled in 12 countries, and all project champions and external stakeholders have been engaged. To attain the 16 target countries, the momentum can be built and sustained through consolidating the need for change in every country (Entrekin & Scott-Ladd, 2013, p. 126 )
Institutionalize New Approaches
Exceptionally, the new approach was to enable the short of goals from efficiency and consistency to preparations for improved global competition (Peacock, 2017, p. 73 ). Also, the management has to assess the current state of affairs to install new human resource information system, and it seemed the most prominent approach, which was institutionalized.
Areas of Resistance and Embrace of the Organizational Change
The possible areas of resistance in the case seem employees’ resistance to the change. It can be a new system for employees, and they usually like to work on known systems. Through training and development, the organization can embrace the change. Furthermore, according to revelations regarding the case, the big resistance came due to the industry downturn and lack of cost control. Stakeholders put pressure to stop the project and restore the previous one. The best strategy that the management could adapt to reset the plans with the new vision to embrace the changing sustainability of the project was also a prominent factor to embrace the change (Ramana, 2013, p. 45 ).
The HRM’s Role in Ensuring Success
To ensure the successful outcomes, the role of human resources management has been observed. VP, president played a role of leader in identifying key people to assign different roles and responsibilities in this particular project. Moreover, to initiate with new HRIS, the HR manager has to train employees, as it can facilitate the fulfillment of the need of each country. The role of HRM seems visible because it can create the culture and set some performance measures to contain the continuous improvements. Having the best people to implement the HRIS project in different countries has also justified the role of human resource management in this fastidious project (Entrekin & Scott-Ladd, 2013, p. 40 ).
My Thoughts to Ensure Further Success
To ensure the success, some initiatives could have been taken to produce extraordinary results. For Instance, work delegations look rare in the whole case. I think the management could initiate several phases with appropriate delegations to have control of cost and efficiency. Despite containing the flexible plan for the project, the change during the process looked rare. According to my opinion, the flexibility of the project can be utilized, as change must be considered according to new trends in each country. When a project improvises with the passage of the time, further success can be ensured along with sustainable competitive advantage.
Conclusion
In the end, I have learned that the management should never give up in the project process despite facing several challenges. An immediate change in plan is a big learning aspect. Currently, I am working in an organization, which has recently initiated some projects. Being a project manager, I can collaborate with HR management to shape the team of project and train each member to learn new system integration traits to face different issues. All these aspects have been learned from this case, and I can apply them successfully in my organization to ensure the success.
References
Entrekin, L., & Scott-Ladd, B. D. (2013 ). Human Resource Management and Change: A Practising Manager’s Guide. Routledge.
Peacock, M. J. (2017 ). The Human Resource Professional’s Guide to Change Management: Practical Tools and Techniques to Enact Meaningful and Lasting Organizational Change. Business Expert Press.
Ramana, T. (2013 ). Impact of Change Management on Human Resource Management. Lap Lambert Academic Publishing GmbH KG.
Shrm.org. (2017, July 12). Managing Organizational Change. Retrieved from https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/tools-and-samples/toolkits/pages/managingorganizationalchange.aspx
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