HRD AND ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE

INTRODUCTION

Change has been a central concept in Human resource development from the beginning.

Thinking about change in HRD has emerged from two basic directions: individual change

and organizational change. Individual change model focus on way individual’s change.

While this may affect the organization, the primary emphasis is on the individual and helping

the individual change himself or herself. Career development specialist focus on helping

people to change their lives and jobs.

Organizational change embraces the individual, but within the context of changing the

organization. Most of these models emerge from what is generically known as organizational

development.

PERSPECTIVES ON CHANGE FOR HRD

Change is a familiar construct but one that is seldom explicitly defined.

Change as a individual development

Some definitions of change first focus on fact that change in organizations always involves

change in individual: “introduction of new patterns of actions, beliefs, and attitudes among a

substantial amount of population”. From this view, organizational change is getting the

people in organization to do, believe, or feel something different. It is the view of change that

has dominated training oriented change interventions.

Change as learning

“Change is a cyclical process of creating knowledge, disseminating it, implementing the

change, and then institutionalizing what is learned by making it part of the organization’s

routines”. Change is a learning process and change is a learning process. This fundamental

relationship points out why change is a one of the core constructs for the discipline of human

resource development.

The existence of special events that forced the change: For example, the merger between the

two organizations. Merger process undertaken will bring change, especially in terms of

organizational culture. In the merger process, organizational leaders must agree on what culture

is used during the merger process. Based on facts and experience much conflict, but if this can be

managed well so that this new organization will open the opportunity for success.

Sociopolitical factors: Substitution of the applicable regulations or policies will force the

organization to adapt to regulations and new policies. As a result, the organizational culture will

be “forced” to change.

Pressure from Stakeholders: Pressure from stakeholders can trigger changes, including

changes in organizational culture cultural intervention. For example, stakeholders of demanding

an increase in dividends earned each year. This will trigger an “improvement” in the

organization’s workload and of course will be able to influence the prevailing culture within the

organization.

Basically, the change in organizational culture, meaning a learning process again. Re-learning

this is driven by several elements: crisis, leadership, accepted definition of success, and the

process of continuous learning within the organization.

APPROACHES TO ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE

Management is said to be an agent of change. It means that management has to introduce change

successfully in its organization. It has to overcome the resistance and make it a successful

venture. The management must realize that resistance to change is basically a human problem,

though on surface, it may appear to be related to the technical aspect of change. So, it must be

tackled in a human and social manner. Management has to take the following steps to implement

the change successfully.

1. Participation of Employees:

Before introducing any change, the employees should be fully consulted and they must be made

a party to any such decision. The meaning and purpose of the change must be fully

communicated to those who will be affected by it. Enough time should be allowed for

discussion, and pros and cons of the change should be explained, in detail, to employees.

2. Planning for Change:

Before implementing any change the management should plan for it. Employees should get an

opportunity to participate both in planning the change and installing it. This will help the group

of the affected employees to recognize the need for change and thus prepare them for receiving it

without any fear.

3. Protecting Employees Interests:

Management should ensure that employees are protected from economic loss, loss in status or

personal dignity. If those things are protected, the degree of resistance to change will be at the

lowest ebb

4. Group Dynamics:

Group dynamics refers to the ever changing interactive and adjustments in the mutual

perceptions and relationships among members of the groups. Such group interactions are the

most powerful instruments which facilitate or inhibit adaptation to change. Adaptation is a team

activity which requires conformity to the new group norms, moves, traditions and work patterns.

If these could be positively articulated by management the results are likely to be more

successful and durable.

5. Cautions and Slow Introduction:

The management should not introduce any change suddenly and abruptly. It must be an objective

for the management to build in the organization an awareness of change and an ability to forecast

it, and also to construct an attitude of welcoming change. Change must be introduced in

sequential parts, if possible, the results must be reviewed, and required adjustments must be

made in it.

6. Positive Motion:

The management should use the policy of positive motivation to counteract negative resistance.

It should be the attempt of the management to make the job easier and less exerting. The

management should impart proper training to its employees in new techniques and work

knowledge etc. The leadership styles should also be supportive and human oriented. This policy

will also bring down the resistance to change.

7. Career Planning and Development:

Organization on the basis of change plans and redesigned jobs should plan for career of

employees, possibilities to move the employees to the higher levels and develop them. The

developed employees for future careers demand the management to implement change.

8. Organizational Development:

Organization development aims at molding and development of employees in the psychological

and behavioral areas with a view to achieve organizational effectiveness. Employees with

enriched behavior welcome the change.

The conclusion is that the Management should plan for change. Based on the change plan, the

job should be redesigned. Management should train the employee before hand and prepare the

employees to invite change. Normally trained and developed employees will not resist change as

they cannot keep quiet with enriched skill and knowledge. Any change whether technical, social

or economic will be least resisted by the employees if the management permits the employees to

share benefits which arise out of the change. So, the management must see that employees are

not only assured of it, they are given due advantage of it as well.

HRD IN MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS

Develop an Integration Strategy:

Typically, the focus of pre-M&A planning is on financial and legal issues. Very little attention is

given to the problems of transition, e.g., staffing decisions, organisational design, management of

change, etc., which emerge once the takeover is completed. For a smooth and synergistic

integration, it is essential for the acquiring company to consider and plan for managing these

issues at the time of the pre-takeover planning itself.

Prepare People for the Cultural Transition:

A successful takeover, above all, calls for a synthesis of two dissimilar cultures. The acquiring

company, for example, may have an entrepreneurial and risk-taking style of functioning, while

the target company may have an extreme bureaucratic and procedural orientation. Such cultural

collisions have an unsettling impact on employees of both the organisations.

It is necessary, therefore, to not only familiarise the new management team about these cultural

differences, but also to help it develop relevant skills for managing through them. Similarly, in

the post-takeover phase, joint workshops for the key and influential executives of both the

organisations can be of immense help in sharing mutual perceptions and evolving a common

understanding of the problems of transition.

Develop and Implement a Communication Plan:

Availability of accurate and reliable information has an important role in managing the changes

which follow the takeover. The acquiring organisation, therefore, must make a consciously

planned and systematic effort at informing people about its plans, policies, corporate values, etc.

It is also necessary to regularly update people regarding the changes occurring in the

organisation (its strategies, structure, procedures, etc.) through an extensive use of a variety of

channels of communication, e.g., meetings, circulars, house journals, etc.

It is important to note that the aim of these communication efforts is not to tell the employees

only about the positive side of the changes; this may, in fact, create more misinformation, and, in

the long run, harm the credibility of the new management. Nor it is necessary for the

management to wait till they can provide the "final" picture; besides the fact that people do not

really expect stability to arrive very soon after the takeover, the delay in receiving information

would confirm their worst fears, and aggravate their anxieties.

Generate Involvement and Participation:

The introduction of the new norms, culture and systems have the potential of alienating the

employees of the target organisation, and thereby, decreasing their commitment to the change

process. It is worthwhile, therefore, to involve the employees, particularly the key personnel, in

the formulation of the action plans, system building and execution of policies.

As a matter of fact, the executives of the target organisation, due to their native experience, can

provide better insights and resources for a smooth transition. Moreover, such participative

activities also provide opportunity for interaction between the executives of the two companies.

This helps paving way for a healthy assimilation of the two cultures.

Strengthen HRD Role:

The human problems associated with the takeovers require humane handling. A smooth

transition means that people perceive the change as desirable, and not as threatening. The

changes which follow a M&A, for example, create career dilemmas for people, change the role

alignment between people and departments, make demands for adjustments to new routines and

culture. Helping people to cope with these changes necessitates strengthening the role of HRD in

M&A planning and implementation.

There are many ways in which HRD interventions can make people comfortable with these

changes.

- Career counseling,

-stress reduction workshops,

-inter-role negotiations,

-training for developing new skills and

-competencies,

etc.

HRD ACTIVITIES IN MERGERS AND AQUISITIONS

§ Designing teams

§ Creating new structure

§ Retain key employees

§ Motivating employees

§ Managing the change process

§ Deciding HR policies

The implications for the HRD manager in this stage are many but one of the most important one is to decide who will stay and who will be leaving. The HRD department should be very selective in their task, because the selection of the employees is one of the critical issues at the time of any merger. Many other actions should also be performed by the HRD department.

§ Selecting the appropriate candidate

§ Creating new teams

§ Communicating is essential

§ Establishing the new culture and structure

§ Solidify leadership and staffing

§ Assessing new culture

§ Assessing new strategies and structures

§ Assessing new employees culture

Some of the actions and implications of the HR department under this stage are as follow.

§ Creating and evaluating new structure is important

§ Molding the 2 new cultures into each other

§ The concern of the stakeholder should be taken under consideration.

There are numerous conclusions that can be made while talking about the HR issues and activities in mergers and acquisitions. Some conclusions are as follow.

§ HR issues should not be neglected while having any merger or acquisition because Human resources are the real assets of any organization.

§ Many organizations failed due to negligence of HR issues while their mergers.

§ Keep track of the Human issues in all the 3 phases of the M&A, so that no issue remains unfocused.

§ Employee communications, retention of key employees and cultural integration are the most important activities in the HR area for successful M&A integration.

Here are some recommendations for those companies which are looking to have any sort of merger and acquisitions keeping in mind the human issues.

§ Companies should put their best people in charge while implementing M&A

§ HR department should be included in all decision making right from the start to the end

§ The integration manager should be selected very carefully

§ Retain your key personnel

CHALLENGES AND ISSUES OF HRD

Changing workforce demographics

The workforce’s nature and compositions has undergone significant changes in terms of

employee qualification, skills and other personal characteristics. With increased spread of

education, on one hand, more and more young people with higher qualification and skills are

joining the ever increasing workforce. They have higher aspirations and are highly career

minded and want to achieve excellence in short span of time. And on the other hand ,

increasing number of women employees is making up significant proposition of the

workforce.

Competing in global economy

Globalization has transformed the way organization used to do business earlier. Highly

complex, complicated and competitive environment has made the organization to focus on

their last reliable source of competitive advantage i.e. human resources. Newer and

innovative human resource development programmes, strategies and processes are required

to continuously develop human competencies and enable people to adapt to a uncertain and

complex business environment in order ensure the competitiveness and survival of the

organization.

Eliminating the skills gap

Increasing customer orientation, fast changing technology, increased competition, etc. has

resulted in fast obsceneness of skills of the employees. Organizations in their bid to stay

afloat have to continuously develop and upgrade skills of their employees through human

resource development programmes.

Need for lifelong learning

Organizational learning has become a vital to continuously develop employee skills and

competencies for value addition to the organization. Employees themselves have to take

charge of their learning themselves. Self directed learning is more effective, meaningful and

goal oriented. Learning provides knowledge, knowledge provides wisdom and wisdom

provides direction.

Need for organizational learning

Every organization intending to say competitive and agile needs to become a learning

organization, where all employees are learners. Organizational learning is necessary to say

provide the tool to employees to adapt to fast changes in internal and external environment of

the organization such as competitor strategies, customer expectations etc.

HRD SCENARIO IN INDIAN ORGANIZATION: ITS PROBLEMS AND

PROSPECTS

The company introduced a system of work plan and review for all the class I officers of the

organization at all levels in all its offices. Through the instrument of WPR, an attempt was

made to integrate the individual growth and the organizational growth through a process of

SWOT Analysis, role scanning, job survey and periodic review of result areas and

monitoring of performances as per work plan drawn by each individual officer for a

particular financial year.

HRD Function needs to focus on:

1. Mangers should fulfill a key role in changing HRD practices but it has been found

that it is sometimes difficult to get them to fulfill this active role, either because of

their workload, lack of affinity with HRD tasks or a lack of skills in this field.

Therefore in the short run, it is necessary to find strategies to involve managers in

HRD, by changing their views on learning and increasing their motivation to support

learning. In the long run, consideration should be given to incorporating HRD skills

in all management training programmes.

2. HRD functions should be more precisely defined and recognized by top management

as a major part of the global development strategy of the organization and seen as an

investment rather than a cost.

3. Professional associations from different organizations and countries should organize

events where HRD professionals can reach a common terminology, exchange ideas

and collectively try to solve difficult challenges.

4. There is a need to change the view that learning is just a classroom, teacher-based

activity.

5. Organizations should seek cooperation with institutions for vocational education and

with universities in order to assist in the creation of an infrastructure for lifelong

learning.

The human resource development refers to a range of actions that can be taken by the

organization to strengthen the contributions of all the employees to the success of the

organization.

It essentially refers to:

The work and career development of all employees.

Increasing productivity, annual sales turnover and profits.