Key elements in successful planning and implementation of change management have been identified as organisational culture and structure, human resources and leadership within an organisation.
Based on the human relations approach Torrington, Hall and Taylor (2005) suggest that human resource management is the basis function of all management pursuits. It is as such about getting the right people to work in the most productive way. In other words HRM requires managers’ strike a balance between people’s needs in the organisation with those of all related groups external to the organisation.This links with the pluralistic approach and the nature of organisational strategic objectives. The traditional view of employees as economic entities ignores the psychological needs common to human beings.
HRM activities more recently focus more on the quality of the human resource available in terms of elements such as know-how expertise and psychological well being in relation to levels of productivity. According to Boxall and Steeneveld (1999) the quality of HRM is a significant element in the performance of achieving an organisation’s strategic objectives.Therefore the implications of a human relations management approach is associated with growing concerns with the training and development of human resource as well as related areas such as employee retention and motivation. HRM techniques Management literature focuses on getting the most out of the workforce through techniques such as those contained with Taylor’s Scientific Management framework. New techniques have instead begun to consider psychological issues to do with motivation and leadership in relation to an organisation’s performance.Also of importance is that the physical environment in which people work in has changed dramatically and thus the management of organisational performance has to be adjusted in correspondence to emerging forces both internally and externally to the organisation.
It is also believed that rewards provided in exchange of performance will be effective maintaining good performance however as demonstrated performance is influenced by a range of factors such as national culture, industrial relations as well as organisational culture.There is a bias for action rather than bureaucracy a bias towards individual creation supported by corporate culture organisations will be successful such as those outlined within many US models of organisational culture. Effective HR practices to a large degree can lead to better organisational performance as well if implemented incorrectly lead to failure. In contrast the success of Japanese companies has been widely discussed since the strategic performance management to a large extent contributes to effective organisational performance.Indeed Japanese organisations reflect Japanese national culture in their structure through their reliance on collective team working and strong individual leadership styles. Delbridge and Turnbull (1992) argue that a Japanese organisation’s performance management focuses on motivation, flexibility and company loyalty.
From this point to view organisational performance is closely linked with collective learning in the organisation while instead in Western organisations focus on these issues and aspects tends to be relatively low.In particular a survey carried out by CIPD revealed that spending on training in public sectors fell while in private companies it increased in recent years (Community Care, 2005). Similar to Japanese companies’ successful experiences CIPD’s research also noted that there is a vital relationship between ‘'employability' related learning and organisational performance. Thus it is vital for organisations within a change situation to exploit corporate missions and leadership resources as a tool in building up employee loyalty (Gill & Stanistreet, 2004). HRM learning practices and people interactionsAlso in response to the dramatic changes caused by the development of new information technologies organisations have sought to achieve and maintain competitive advantages in new ways principally through learning practices.
This is then a central issue for both organisations and individuals. This makes human resource development in terms of learning a key activity in organisational behaviour. Research suggests that learning contributes to creating competitive advantages hence organisational learning and development is of crucial and strategic importance to organisations (Edmondson & Moingeon, 1998).However, due to the complex nature involved in individual learning in return some researchers argue that the concept of the learning organisation is an unrealistic one as it is impossible to measure accurately learning outcomes and the wider impacts of such outcomes. Tsoukas (2000) represents then the realist outlook in terms of organisational behaviour in seeing it as natural and social phenomena represented by complicated structures. Hence the extent to which organisations influence and their practices are in turn shaped and produced by people is a key issue.
Human resource management literature suggests that strategic human resource is closely related to an organisation’s performance. However, it may be seen as unnecessary to prove the relationship between organisational behaviour and HRM since it is clear that the quality of human resource has a critical bearing on the strategic implementation of policies in organisations in aiming to achieve their goals and objectives (Torrington, Hall & Taylor, 2002; Beardwell, Holden & Claydon, 2004).In terms of learning then it is useful to begin with looking at concepts linked to individual learning as a fundamental concern for organisational learning. In this vein Burnes (2000) argues that the rate at which individuals and organisations learn has become one of the most significant sustainable advantages for organisations due to the modern dynamics of change found in extrinsic and intrinsic environments within organisations. Human resource is identified as one of the most important resources in modern rganisations since even with cultural differences there are three key elements in an organisation which are people, objectives and structure (Mayo, 2001; Mullins, 2005).
This is to say organisational objectives can be achieved through people’s interaction within certain kind of organisational functional architectures as well as cultural elements. Torrington, Hall and Taylor (2002) as such argue that people are the most important resource for an organisation and people’s behaviour shapes an organisation’s behaviour.Specifically people can be critical value adding factors but might also impede in negative ways an organisation’s value chain. From this perspective it is vital that organisations integrate individual behaviour into value-adding organisational behaviour. Individual members who wish to achieve better performance and success should be involved in a cognitive process such as learning which facilitates and satisfies these needs.
However, finding out the critical factors which have influences on the successful management of change in light of organisational management principles, organisational structure and culture is a vital task. “Hard” and “Soft” approach Based on traditional management theories personnel management approaches have often seen human resource as comprised of simple economic entities. Marxist informed theory believes that organisational behaviour is based on conflicts between organisation and individual members and the management of conflict determines successful organisations (Boxall and Purcell, 2003).As such an organisation which adopts a ‘hard’ HRM approach pays little attention to the well being of employees in a broader sense or even in terms economic benefits. However, the adoption of a more ‘soft’ approach aims to secure a positively integrative process between the needs of an organisation and the needs of an employee.
Bases on more recent human-relations theory human resource management now seeks to enhance co-ordination through shared belief among organisational members in order to smooth integration between an organisation and individuals within the organisation.An appropriate organisational structure and culture is able to ensure that the right human resource is operating at certain functional positions within the organisation. The mission statement as an indicator of the organisation’s premises and its basic assumptions on its organisational purpose and values are the types of things which are essential in integrating individuals efficiently into an organisation (Stoner & Freeman, 1992; Boxall & Purcell, 2003). Reward system and improvements of organizational performanceThe Scientific Management approach focuses on getting the most out of the workforce based on the assumption of employees as pure economic being. From this point of view a reward system should be based on an assessment of past performance and the allocation of monetary rewards based on this (Walker, 1992).
Therefore a reward system is used here as an exchange based on quantitatively assessing performance. Such measures are still deployed through for example benchmarking schemes yet arguably on their own they are limited in their effectiveness.As such with the development of management practice which views human resource as a strategic resource in the creation and maintenance of competitive advantage reward systems, but which are broadly conceived that just economically, are likewise important since effective job enlargement and enrichment through motivation as well as rewarding contributes to the improvement of organisational performance (Bratton & Gold, 2003). Thurley (1982) claims that performance, motivation, flexibility and mobility are the most important elements in HR management activities.However, the key concept here is that, organisations view employees as a ‘strategic resource’ while staff in turn show a high level of loyalty to the organisation.
However, from a psychological perspective people as human beings have various levels of demands and different expectations towards jobs than that of their employers. Jocobs (1993) claims that when an employee’s involvement and satisfaction is low in respect of their job roles then task performance will be low.This is to say when employee satisfaction is low there will be inefficiency. Therefore human resource managers should find an effective manner of measuring people’s psychological reactions to rewards and assess levels of self-esteem, self adjustment and work satisfaction.
The improvement of employee performance not only depends on the reward system but also factors including employee relations, safe and supportive working environments as well as management styles in terms of leading people.The concept of relationship management has been widely used by organisations in order to maximize organisational performance. It is argued that well designed relations procedures are able to satisfy the needs and demands of different interest groups associated with an organisation including employer, employees, suppliers, customers as well as the general public (Egan, 2001). Reports also suggest that there is an increasing role for line managers in career development relating to employees’ life and work balance.They can contribute as such to relationship management practices between employers and employees (Dick & Hyde, 2006). The concept suggests that the role of social responsibilities which organisations are associated with and the management of employee relations must factor in sociological concerns.
It is also necessary to mention that government plays a major role in the improvement of working conditions which shapes an organisation’s behaviour.Historically issues related to working conditions, employee’s benefits such as pensions and their quality of life have been argued to be critical in terms of broader employee relations linked to the successful management of people at work (Edwards, 2005). The term work-life balance for example has been widely used to improve organisational performance as well as ensure higher levels of employee satisfaction by providing a better workplace environment through balancing external needs of employees.The management of employee relations has shifted from the management of employment contracts to finding and identifying what is the right balance between employers’ and employees’ demands. Particularly in terms of the management of change it is claimed that good employee relations are able to help complete the changes necessary in the shortest time which is a key ingredient for success (Lewis and Cooper, 2005).
Conclusion Human resource management strategy aims to increase people’s quality and kills in a way in which an organisation’s productivity can be improved. It is important that managers be aware of the challenges to be faced and the most effective means of managing them during the change and implementation process. A key objective of management then would appear to be communicating and demonstrating plans to employees at all levels of how these benefits will impact them directly in terms of job security.From an organisational management perspective an organisation’s learning capability determines the efficiency of change management.
From a HRM point of view, organisational learning relies on individual learning abilities (Dixon, 1994; Torrington et al, 2002). Therefore the creation of a learning culture is considered to be a critical successful factor in the management of change. In terms of human resource management employee training and a team working based ethic is equally important.
