Qualitatively Researching Innovation

1. Human Resource Development and the Management of Change EMBA 642 Management ofChangeThornhill et al Chapter 6 - Robin Snell

A. Exemplary case: Human Resource Development (HRD) at Xerox Document Company, UK.

B. HRD as a vital but neglected lever of organisational change.

C. The contribution of HRD to business strategy implementation and formulation

D. The contribution of HRD to work restructuring and job design

E. The contribution of HRD to changes in other human resource management functions

HRD is at the heart of managing change, because any change process requires people to act +/or think differently

Many companies mistakenly neglect the importance of HRD as a vehicle of strategic change .

HRD can contribute to all levels of strategic change

Three visionary means of achieving effective, continuous change management (F, G & H).

F.Manager Development- the development of managers as developers of others

G. TheLearning Organisation- is it a realistic strategic vision?

H. TheStrategic Human Resource Management Learning Cycleas a means of supporting organisational learning

I. Are these visions feasible?

To raise three CRITICAL QUESTIONS regarding the three visionary means

1.Manager Development- what would motivate managers to see themselves as developers of others?

2. TheLearning Organisation- what would make this compatible with the way people, cultures and organisations operate?

3. TheStrategic HRM Learning Cycle- what would relax senior managers defensiveness, and allow this to happen?

A UK subsidiary of Xerox Corporation, employing 2300 staff.

The company business strategy is to gain competitive advantage through customer satisfaction (supported by company-wide programmes).Teamworkingsupports this.

Four programmes have built the company commitment toteamworking :

Team Xerox

Self Managed Work Groups

Employee Motivation & Satisfaction survey

X Team Initiative

Decisions have been progressively devolved to the level of the team

The X teams programme is designed to enable the teams:

to take more responsibility for day to day running of their work area

to manage their own performance

to manage continuous improvement

Teams volunteer to try to become X teams

Volunteering teams must find a sponsor (often their line manager). 36 teams have registered.

They must conduct a self-assessment against 4 sets of criteria:

customer assurance

process management

team motivation & satisfaction

empowerment

They must get the sponsor to approve their self-ratings, which are them validated by an assessor

10 teams have had their ratings validated.

Only if a team has received a validated rating does it qualify as an X team.

Ratings are on a 1-7 scale (7= world class)

So far one team has got a 5 rating, six team have got a 4 rating.

Teams must decide how to improve their performance (e.g. through re-engineering, skill development, etc) and then re-assess themselves.

The sponsors role is to:

help with the self-assessment

provide clear direction, goals, performance measures

engage in coaching, facilitating & counselling

The X team programme builds on the company's long-established values, but has had a big impact on the knowledge, skills & attitudes (KSAs) of the workforce, because of:

job redesign (job enrichment)

emphasis on the interpersonal skills of managers

empowerment

The teambuilding programme has been supported by many HRD initiatives.

Team building days

Each team audits the skill development of members, using the Learning Matrix.

The HRD department has adopted a Skills Partnership mission, with an office layout more like a retail shop. There is a full time team facilitator

Training needs identified from the bottom up

Training needs met through a mixture of formal training programmes and planned self-development and planned on-job developmental experiences

A concerted effort to identify performance discrepancies and Training needs through

the X team itself

the sponsor

annual performance review, which has a set of competency dimensions

leadership attributes (e.g.)

decision making

quick study

Cultural dimensions (e.g.)

open & honest communication

organisation reflection & learning

Training for Sponsors of an X Team:

a detailed support pack gives guidance of responsibilities and self-assessment

Own needs are identified by consultation with the team facilitators and with the X Team

Needs met through mentors, shadowing, formal courses, etc., as appropriate.

HRD is the set of processes that are directed towards equipping employees with the KSAs that are necessary to achieve corporate objectives.

Needs can be met by a mixture of top-down initiatives and self-development

HRD and recruitment & selection are not competing alternatives

They go hand in hand

Choose and train the best

If training and development is not a high priority, if it is not seen as vital to the implementation of business strategy, then the company is unlikely to have any commitment at all to human resource management. (see diagram on p. 161)

Consider whether Hong Kong has similar problems to the UK:

historical under-investment in HRD both by government and by companies themselves

government-led vocational training is present-oriented rather than future-oriented

business strategists at Board of Director level

think only of short-term finance and accounting logic

lack understanding of or concern for HRD

HRD is a key component of wider HRM strategies designed to:

create new working practices

build motivation and commitment

build a flexible, empowered workforce

Neglect of HRD leads to:

decline in a companys ability to innovate

decline in a companys ability to respond to change

This is called first-order strategic integration

Strategic HRD(SHRD) involves alligning HRD activities with the company's vision, mission, and strategic goals, so that enhancing the KSAs of employees at all levels grows both the individual and the organisation.

SHRD can ensure that employees possess the necessary KSAs to manage new demands arising from changes in the competitive environment

How SHRD can help implement business strategy:

1. Identifying what do our people need to be good at? (and then helping to provide these KSAs)

2. Fostering a learning climate that prepares people to cope with uncertainty and mindset-shift

3. Through running training programmes (e.g. superior quality service) to support a wider change programme

4. Supporting the development of change agents and transformational leaders

5. By adjusting training to the companys business life-cycle

induction & career development when co. is growing

outplacement & job enlargement training when the company is downsizing

6. By remedying top managers KSA discrepancies: leadership, vision, communication, team building, etc

7. By forewarning top management of likely KSA discrepancies that would block an envisaged business strategy (e.g. shift to emphasise quality)and by meeting these needs in advance

8. Enabling employees to become more innovative and drive business strategy from the bottom-up

How SHRD can help with second-order strategic integration

Enables the implementation of cost reduction strategies by helping remaining employees learn to do more with less

Enables rapid adjustment to changes in market conditions, and the implementation of customer responsiveness strategies, requiring multi-skilling, lean production, autonomous working groups, empowerment, delayering, matrix structures, project based teams, etc etc.

employees will need to be prepared for and helped to adjust to job enrichment and teamworking

All this restructuring and job redesign, entailing job enlargement and job enrichment, will give rise to training & development needs:

Technically-oriented KSAs, (quality, inventory management, maintenance, etc.)

Conceptually-orientedKSA (problem-solving, risk assessment).

Behavioural KSAs for teamworking and managing others: leadership, giving & receiving feedback, appraisal etc.

See egs on the table on p. 168 of Thornhill et al

This is called third-order strategic integration

HRD is nearly always a necessary vehicle for enabling changes in other HRM functions.

e.g. training performance appraisers and appraises in the use of a new appraisal system

e.g. career management and HRD go hand in hand

e.g. HRD is an integral component of skill based reward management systems

e.g. HRD is one key ingredient in a corporate culture change programme, and a major training programme is often a key symbol of such change

Exemplary case: Human Resource Development (HRD) at Xerox Document Company, UK.

HRD as a vital but neglected lever of organisational change.

The contribution of HRD to business strategy implementation and formulation

The contribution of HRD to work restructuring and job design

The contribution of HRD to changes in other human resource management functions

The case is on pp. 180-184 of the Thornhill et al textbook

The questions are on p. 184

The THEME IS: The role of managers in change management

The development of managers (manager development

The learning organisation: is it a realistic strategic vision?

The role of strategic Human Resource Management in supporting organisational learning

Manager development refers to the learning and growth of managers based on an analysis of their learning needs.

Manager development is an important factor in organisational change, because

The quality of an organisations managers has a big impact on organisational performance

Managers have a key role in developing their own staff (and for that, they themselves must undergo development)

1. Managing ongoing organisational change

2. Competence as a developer of staff:

acceptance of the developmental manager role

ability to listen to & empathise with subordinates

counselling skills

staff appraisal skills

coaching and mentoring skills

facilitating experience sharing among staff

being a positive role model of learning and growth

But managers may not see staff development as part of their role, possibly because of:

preoccupation instead with short-term profits

lack of collaboration with HR specialists

lack of motivation, possibly because of lack of incentives

their own lack of necessary education

Managers may have no alternative but to take on this role, as organisations must change to keep up with changing market conditions

Organisations are required, under pressure, to innovate and take risks

Managers are often required by culture change programmes to take on a developmental role.

Managers who have undergone development themselves may be inspired one to adopt a developmental role

Closer partnership between HRD specialists and line managers (less training based, more learning oriented)

It seems to be an emerging trend, at least in the West

A learning organisation facilitates the learning of all its members while continually transforming itself

It must constantly adapt to a changing environment

A very seductive idea

Has been heralded as the only means to sustained competitive advantage

The LO derives behavioural implications from both successesandfailures

Learning is valued as a necessary ongoing process

Learning to learn is seen as important

Learning from outside and outside,at all levels of the organisation.

Learning from outside and outside,across specialist boundaries

Learning is continuous, ongoing

Unlearning, and knowledge management

Learning is a means to enable organisational transformation

Some theorists argue that learning organisations are able to engage indouble-loop learningon a collective basis.

So lets look at the concept of double-loop learning...

Single-loop learning = detecting errors in organisational processes (e.g. students falling asleep in lectures) and correcting them (waking them up)

Double-loop learning = building new conceptions of what organisational processes should be (e.g. co-operative learning) by challenging existing values, procedures, knowledge and cultural values (e.g. constructive controversy).

Employees

who are committed to managing their own continuous development

who are capable of managing this

Mechanisms

that support mutual learning

that capture and share learning

A culture that supports

experimentation & risk taking

independent thinking, constructive conflict, pluralism

authority based on expertise rather than position

Bureaucracy

Command & control mentality

Monolithic authority (not pluralistic)

The blame culture

The genuine difficulty and stress of living and working gladly through transformations

single-loop learning is easier to handle

perhaps we humans can only handle a mild version of the learning organisation!

Aim of Strategic HRM Learning Cycle :

to develop an organisation that is capable of implementing strategy and learning by institutionalising an organisational learning process

4 key groups at Unit level:

senior management team (SMT)

employee task force (best employees) (ETF)

process consultants (profilers)

teams led by general managers (GM), reporting to SMT

The SHRM cycle identifies the management practices and capabilities/incapabilities from top to bottom of the org., that are helping or hindering the achievement of business strategy goals

It assesses the impact of these internal strengths and weaknesses on business stakeholders and on staff co-ordination, commitment and competences

It identifies HR-related remedies

Deep examination of the organisations management philosophy, values and practice

Selecting and developing managers who possess the competencies to manage change and promote a learning culture

Poor teamwork in the top management team

Poor communication upwards & downwards

Unclear or conflicting strategic priorities

Inappropriate management style

Poor co-ordination between functions/divisions

Deficient career development

Lack of management competence

Managers accepted the diagnosis (even when there were implied criticisms of their own behaviour/output)

SMTwere committed to SHRM

Better co-ordination between the functions

Better performance of the SMT

When SHRM learning cycle was tried among various units in one case study company, researchers found:

Failure to involve the ETC (employee task force) in the process

Failure to repeat the cycle after the first time round it.

Less commitment to the cycle at lower levels

Lack of upward appraisal

Little done about promotion criteria

Little interest shown in job satisfaction

Key managerial deficiencies were not addressed

Senior mgt are uncomfortable discussing difficult issues (e.g. their own deficiencies) with subordinates.

They may not want open, fact based conversation.

They may not know how to receive feedback without loss of self esteem

They may not know how to admit to weaknesses without feeling incompetent

Senior mgt may want to preserve managerial prerogatives and hierarchical designs

they may not really want employee involvement

They may want to preserve existing relationships, careers, self-esteem

They may see the SHRM learning cycle as time-consuming

If senior mgt. dont listen, employees become cynical, learn to stay silent next time around!

1.Manager Development- what would motivate managers to see themselves as developers of others?

2. TheLearning Organisation- what would make this compatible with the way people, cultures and organisations operate?

3. TheStrategic HRM Cycle- what would relax senior managers defensiveness, and allow this to happen?

The case is on pp. 180-184 of the textbook

The question is the last one on p. 184

Qualitatively Researching Innovation

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