The role of HR in Organisation Development was highlighted well in a research undertaken by CIPD a few years ago. A summary of findings are as follows: Organisational change is a regular feature of life. For HR professionals, dealing with reorganisations is now a regular part of the job. But there is substantial evidence that organisations are not very good at organising. They don’t have the capability for successful repeated reorganisation and they don’t fully use the expertise of HR professionals.
This research report focuses on the practical skills and capabilities required by HR and line managers to effectively undertake reorganisations. It focuses on reorganisations involving changes in organisational structure and on changes in softer features, such as culture.
The three central themes are:
The positive role HR professionals can play in reorganisations as shapers of change Te challenge of accumulating learning about change at the organisational level, rather than relying on the personal knowledge of a few key individuals . The potential relevance of a core set of generic skills and capabilities across a wide range of organisations and sectors. Reorganisations are an endemic part of managers’ roles and the pace of change is increasing. Today’s relentless pace of reorganising requires a shift of mindset – from looking for the perfect organisation designs to building the skills and capabilities needed for rapidly and repeatedly designing more fluid forms of organisation structure.
Drawing information from surveys and case-study reviews, the report identifies many skills and capabilities. It focuses on what are called the ‘seven steps to successful organising’. These are based on the statistical analysis of performance outcomes. These ‘seven steps’ highlight the importance of:
sustaining top management support, especially personal commitment and political support avoiding piecemeal, uncoordinated change initiatives by making a strategic business case that anticipates implications across the entire organisation achieving substantive, rather than tokenistic, employee involvement in the change process, moving beyond communication to active engagement investing in communications with external stakeholders, including customers, suppliers and financial stakeholders involving HR professionals closely, right from the start – involving HR has been proved to positively impact on a range of performance outcomes maintaining effective project management disciplines that are embedded in the organisation building skilled change management teams, with the right mix of experiences and abilities, that can work together. The report concludes by discussing the implications for HR professionals’ training and development. HR professionals need to rise to the challenge of shaping change, rather than simply sweeping up afterwards. They will need a diverse range of skills and capabilities. Prime among these will be the ability to make a strategic business case, to situate any change initiative within the overall functioning of the organisation, and to employ sound project management abilities.
The skills and capabilities required for a shaping role in reorganisations can be acquired through training and development within the HR functional career track. But, from the examples of successful change leaders and project teams in the case studies, the message comes through that HR professionals need to combine the knowledge and experience on their project teams from across organisations, sectors and functions. Taking a more people-orientated approach, led by HR professionals, would improve performance as well as people’s experiences of reorganising.
This is the final report from a major research project on reorganising. The focus of the research has been on the ‘how to’ of reorganising, including:
a review of current trends in organisational structure and design
the identification of current and emerging forms of organisation
providing understanding of, and guidance on, the practice of organisational restructuring and the capabilities required for effective restructuring
raising awareness about, and influencing practice in, effective organisational restructuring among senior executives
analysing the contribution of effective people management for effective restructuring
drawing conclusions and providing recommendations that support HR members in improving their contribution to the practice of organisational restructuring.
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