Reflection on role for human resource management professionals in the design and delivery of major change initiatives

Key Concept Exercise: Implications for managers

The material you have studied this week is intended to isolate and evaluate a recommended role for human resource management professionals in the design and delivery of major change initiatives.

The key concept that emerges from this material can be summarised in the following statement:

The essential function of 21st-century human resource management personnel is to work in partnership with the management and staff of the organisation to develop the collective employee capability to a point at which it is optimally equipped to meet future environmental demands.

This objective requires the creation of a positive organisational culture that reflects a unitary perspective on the management-staff relationship within the firm, and in turn mandates a strategic approach to all change initiatives of any significance.

This Key Concept Exercise requires you to reflect on the extent to which the management of your current employing firm, or an alternative firm with which you are familiar, is effective in progressing towards achievement of that status. In short, how well does the organisational culture at that firm align with the demands of a unitary perspective on the workplace environment?

To prepare for this Key Concept Exercise:
  • Read the Required Learning Resources for Week 7.
  • Reflect on the ideas presented in the Week 7 Key Concept Overview and the assigned journal articles in the light of your own practical experiences in the workplace.
To complete this Key Concept Exercise:

In formulating your Key Concept Exercise, consider the following issues:

  • Recent changes in the business environment have not been accompanied by similar changes in human resource management processes.
  • It is the HR department’s responsibility to correct this failing.
  • This responsibility requires the HR department staff to develop a range of new skills that will support a unitary perspective on employment relationships.
  • HR department staff needs to develop a broader understanding of the firm, its markets and its business model.
  • The most effective response to those demands, for any firm, is to implement the principles of strategic human resource management (SHRM).
  • The character of the individual firm, its markets and its business model will influence the applicability of a strategic HRM approach.

In an approximately 500-word response, address the following issues/questions:

Use those six propositions as the basis for an assessment of the organisational culture in place at your own employing firm, or another firm with which you are familiar. The post should include:

  1. An identification of areas in which the firm is especially effective,
  2. Areas in which an improvement would be desirable, and
  3. A brief comment on specific actions that the firm could take that would assist in improving its alignment with the six propositions above.

 

When writing your responses you should synthesise the theory with real world experience and use examples of the theories in action in a real organisation about which you have read or one in which you have worked.

Module Project: Final submission – report

For this final submission, you will prepare a final project plan in support of the implementation of the change initiative introduced in the previous two submissions.

In your first submission to the Module Project report requirements of this module, you produced a proposal that did four things:

  1. Identified a relevant change driver impacting upon an organisation,
  2. Suggested a suitable change process that would appropriately respond to that change driver,
  3. Predicted likely stakeholder reactions to the change process you advocate, and
  4. Described how an existing organisational design might be amended to best accommodate the planned change.

In the second submission, you designed an expanded change management framework to support your intended change process.

For this final submission, you will prepare a final project plan in support of the implementation of the change initiative introduced in the previous two submissions.

Scenario Reminder

Your role in this project is to identify a specific change driver that you consider especially relevant to an organisation of your choice, and to apply the theoretical principles discussed in this module to the specification of an appropriate process that will successfully respond to the demands of that change driver.

You are encouraged to use your own current employer, and its current operating environment, as a base for the preparation of this project. It is however permissible to use an alternative organisation with which you are sufficiently familiar.

To prepare for this Module Project:
  • Review the material studied during the seven weeks of this module.
  • Review the feedback received on your Module Project proposal submitted in Week 3, and your Module Project outline submitted in Week 5. Ensure you incorporate any feedback suggestions into the final Module Project report you present in response to this week’s requirement.
To complete this Module Project:

Prepare and submit a final version of your project report that contains the following sections:

  • Organisational Profile: what is the name of the organisation you propose to use, where is it located, what is its primary business and approximately how many staff does it employ?
  • Organisational Structure: how are human and other resources arranged within this organisation, what levels of seniority exist and how are those levels of seniority connected through formal reporting lines? (A structure diagram would be useful here.) To what extent is the decision process centralised in the senior management team, and to what extent is it devolved to lower levels in the organisation?
  • Change Drivers: What are the factors in either or both of the external or internal operating environments, which suggest a significant element of change, are needed to the way in which this organisation works?
  • Key Stakeholders: who are the individuals, groups and organisations who will be most directly affected by the type of change that is indicated by change driver analysis?
  • Change Initiative Overview: what is the primary aim of the change initiative that you recommend be introduced, and how should this initiative be classified?
  • Key Success Factors: what specific factors and/or influences will you need to take into account in order to ensure maximum chances of a successful implementation, and what are the principal implications of those factors on the way that your change initiative is designed?
  • Change Initiative Process: what process will you follow to ensure that the planned change initiative is successfully implemented within the allocated time span? What steps will you include in this process in order to enhance the chances of success in this project? To what extent will technology be used in the implementation of this process?
  • Stakeholder Reactions: to what extent do you expect each stakeholder’s reaction to be positive or negative? How do you plan to deal with those reactions? What ethical considerations will need to be taken into account during this process?
  • Evaluation and Assessment: how will you measure the extent to which the project is deemed to be successful, and when will this evaluation be carried out

Solution:

Key Concept Exercise: Implications for Managers

In the organization I work for, the areas that evidence its effectiveness include; the ability of the Human Resource (HR) department staff to develop a broader understanding of the firm, its markets of venture and business model. In addition, the organization was primarily affected by the global economic crisis and as such the HR department has set out clear measures of ensuring that they approach the recent changes in business environment effectively with a similar change in its human resource management process. In order to ensure a comprehensive understanding of the firm, its market, and model the management is not predominantly involved in the overall decision making or initiatives by the organization. However, they involve HR in the development of structures, systems, and ways of working and ethical values of the organization. On the other hand, to ensure adequate response to environment change, the organization recruits and retains top talents. The enlisted personnel’s have a capacity of creating competitive advantage from the opportunities selected by the changing markets with outstanding abilities to influence long-lasting and effective partnerships.

Despite the above effectiveness, some areas still need an absolute improvement. First, the organization has not been in a position of implementing the principles of strategic human resource management (SHRM). As compared to other leading companies in the same market of our operations, it is evident that its ability to plan on how to match its internal strengths and weaknesses with its external opportunities and threats to ensure it leverages on competitive advantage is weak. For instance,…. Please click the paypal icon below to buy this solution for only $5. For the rest of the assignment, kindly contact us for guidance.