Role of HR in Change Management

Question: Identify and assess the process of planning and managing change within an organisation. What role should HR play in change management? Answer: What Role Should HR Play in Change Management? The competition within the business environment has increased to such an extent that it drives the organizations to be creative and innovative in their approach which in turn drives them towards implementing change (Armenakis et al., 1993). This is important because change is the only constant thing and an organization while conducting its operations is likely to get affected by various external forces which can be depicted with the help of the following figure: [Source: www.changeboard.com] However while implementing change; the organization might various challenges out of which resistance to change on the part of the employees is looked upon as one of the most important factors (Burke et al., 2008). The main reasons on the part of the employees to resist change can be depicted with the help of following figure: [Source: www.changeboard.com] So this demands that the Human Resource Management should play an important role in managing the people so that changes can be implemented in an effective and efficient manner. The HR department within the organization is involved in recruiting, training, developing and monitoring the performance of the employees i.e. takes into consideration the various aspects that are related to the employees together with their level of motivation and job satisfaction and thus it can be said that it tend to play a major role in change management (Farndale Paauwe, 2010). So in this context the HR department strives to provide various resources that facilitate an organization to identify the processes which are essential in managing change and this reveals the fact that HR department involves in formulating strategies in order to ensure that the members of the organization readily and successfully adapts the change (Murray et al., 2008). Thus the role of HR as a change agent can be illustrated wit h the help of the following table: [Source: www.managemetnstudy.com] [Source: www.managemetnstudy.com] Thus it can be inferred that facilitating an organization with the tight kind of motivated employees is the responsibility on the part of the HR department and thus they strive towards recruiting the candidates who possess the ability to think out of the box can thus come up with fresh perspectives (Han et al., 2006). On the other hand it is also the responsibility of the Hr department to encourage and mentor the employees recruited in such a manner that they can act as future change agents. Again HR department also focuses upon organizing various training and development programs in order to equip the employees with the necessary skills which would facilitate them to adapt the change and remove their fears regarding the change. Again this can be illustrated with the help of the example of Royal Philips Electronics which has experienced various changes from both the internal and external forces. In the external context, it can be said that business environment is changing at a rapid pace and also has to deal with high price of raw materials due to inflation. Moreover in the year the company faced an internal change when Frans Van Houten was appointed was the CEO in place of Gerard Kleisterlee who was the former CEO. The newly appointed CEO announced various change areas like they have to operate faster and also announced that the management of the company is centralized. These responses reveal that the new CEO is looking forward towards minimizing the costs, motivating the employees to work with their full potential and enhance the organizational agility. Thus there was a shift in the culture of the organization and the values created were as follows Taking ownership Teamwork Eager to win Thus if the above changes is taken into consideration it can be said all these can changes within the organization can be successfully implemented only if the employees are motivated and are ready to accept the change. So in this regard, the HR department of the origination should strive towards establishing an effective communication with the employees in order to communicate the various aspects of change focusing mainly upon the benefits of change (Kotter, 1995). This would facilitate in reducing the uncertainty on the part of the employees and provide them a clear idea regarding what is expected from them. So it would facilitate in accelerating the process of the change implementation. So analyzing the incidence in the concerned organization it was observed that the company focused upon the above mentioned aspects and motivated HR department to play the major role in the change implementation and this facilitated the organization to occupy the position in the market it is experien cing at present. Thus HR change management competency model can de illustrated with the help of the following figure: [Source: www.amo.uvt.com] References Armenakis, A. A., Harris, S. G., Mossholder, K. W. (1993). Creating Readiness for Organizational Change. Human relations: studies towards the integration of the social sciences, 46 (6), 681. Burke, W. W., Lake, D. G. Paine, J. W. (Eds.) (2008) Organization change: a comprehensive reader. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Farndale, E. Paauwe, J. (2010) Context-bound configurations of corporate HR functions in multinational corporations. Human Resource Management, 49 (1), 45-66. Han, J., Chou, P., Chao, M., Wright, P. M. (2006). The HR Competencies HR effectiveness link: a study in Taiwanese high-tech companies. Human Resource Management, 45 (3), 391-406. Kotter, J.P. (1995). Leading change: Why transformation efforts fail. Harvard Business Review, March-April, 59-67. Murray, J., Markides, C., Galavan, R. (Eds.) (2008). HR Dreams: Where Human Resource Management is Headed to Deliver Value. Oxford: Oxford University Press