Role of Human Resource Practitioners for an Effective Change

Process

Nisreen Shaheen

ABSTRACT

This paper discusses the role Human Resource (HR) practitioners play in organizational change.

It outlines the several roles that were tasked to HR when contemplating such changes inclusive

of the role of change agent. It discusses how the HR mandate has developed in recent years and

why many investigators believe that they are well placed to play a leading role in change

management. The paper presents the areas of expertise and other qualifications required to

lead the change process. It also enumerates the skills that are deemed essential to be able to

support managers who are leading organizations through periods of change. Finally, the paper

discusses some of the published experiences where HR led the management of organizational

changes and how it has contributed to an effective change process.

INTRODUCTION

Natural forces of change are exerted on organizations, some of them are internal and others

are external. Organizations feel the need to change to enhance their positioning in the market

and also to adapt to market changes and volatility (Leana and Barry 2000). As a response,

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organizations develop measures to deal with change. These measures help the organization to

adapt but as well to mitigate the risk, in essence, to provide stability (Leana and Barry 2000).

Managing change is a crucial exercise, in fact, it is one of the most important management

responsibilities, as organizations are constantly faced with change and need to properly

manage it (Kanter et al 1992). It is reported that among those organizations, large and small

that have contemplated change, only a minority wes able to implement change effectively

(Kotter, 1996).

Managing change is done through a process that would continually renew the organization

direction, structure and capabilities with the aim to fulfill the ever-continuing demands of the

various stakeholders, mainly the market forces, customers and employees (Moran and

Brightman 2001). These changes affect employees emotions and practices and hence their

performance (Al-Jaradat et al 2013). The Human Resources (HR) department is closely

connected to the employees, which are impacted by change, and their reaction to change is: to

resist or to accommodate. This reaction will make the change exercise either a success or a

failure, hence the employees are the key in the change process (Choi 2011). It is hence clear

that HR has to play a role in the process of change. In addition, HR does possess the leadership

capabilities to impact employees’ beliefs, motivation, attitudes, values, and behavior (Ganta

and Manukonda 2014).

The objective of this paper is to seek an answer on how HR practitioners can help managers to

manage the change process and how to make it effectively. Therefore, the role that an HR

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practitioner can take in the process of change. The paper will also explore the skills considered

essential for managers leading organizations through periods of change. The research design of

this study is based on examination and review of the literature to answer the question.

Contemporary Role of HRM

The role played by Human Resource Management (HRM) has shown a radical change in the last

few decades. Traditionally, HRM was playing a support role for the core activities of the

organization and its activities were tending to be disconnected from the real work of the

organization (Ulrich 1998). Traditional HRM roles were limited to the areas of: recruiting, hiring,

training, performance appraisal and discipline (Packard 2012). Schuler proposed that HR

strategy must be designed to support business strategy (Schuler 1992). Since then the concept

of Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM) started to develop (Packard 2012). SHRM

has revolutionized the practice of HRM into a strategy to implement HR activities, policies and

practices that would support and improve the organization operations and strategic objectives

(Pynes 2009). The newly developed HR practices have shown to create long-term advantage to

organizations as they lead to employee motivation, increase knowledge, and enhance synergy

and engagement of employees (Hislop 2003). The most common HR practices that are

discussed in the literature are: performance appraisal, reward systems, training and

development, and recruitment and selection (laursen and Foss 2003) (Shipton et al 2005). Such

has moved HR to a real business partner focusing on essential strategic HRM problems to

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contribute to the organization development and hence increase the organization performance

(Ulrich et al 2009) (Truss and Gratton 1994).

In such a role, HRM becomes a full member of the team managing organizational change and is

becoming a change-agent that would either advise management on change or even leading and

managing such a process (Alfes 2010). Noting that such an agent is supposed to have the skills,

power to stimulate, facilitate, and coordinate the change effort (Lunenberg 2010). HRM will be

using to play such a role, activities inclusive of communication processes and staff surveys on

the organizational changes as well as other activities and tools targeted towards towards

leadership and management such as management development and leadership training (Alfes

2010).

Incorporating SHRM to Corporate Strategy

It has been reported as far as forty years ago on experiences of SHRM of Fortune 500

companies such as IBM, GE, and INTEL and how it helped major organizations steer through

organizational change (Fomburn et al., 1982). A framework for SHRM was established based on:

selection, appraisal, reward, and development and that SHRM should be fully integrated into

the other control systems of the organization: planning, budgeting, and information systems

for an effective management system (Fomburn et al., 1982). The literature shows that there are

mainly two predominant approaches: A one-way fit of SHRM with company strategy and a two-

way fit. Some authors advocated a one-way approach, believing that organizational strategy

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should be the driving force, based on which HRM strategies and policies should be developed

(Ferris, et al. 1984) (Smith 1982a) (Smith 1982b). An example that was reported in the literature

of the use of one-way fit to integrate and align HRM systems with the corporate strategies was

analyzed by Mirvis on Caterpillar and Graphic Control (Mirvis 1985). Others suggested a two-

way approach where SHRM and overall strategic management are fully integrated and by which

HRM are involved in the overall strategy formulation (Golden and Ranujam 1985) (Alpander

and Botter 1983) (Dyer 1983) (Dyer 1984). When HRM is involved with the overall strategy, this

will benefit the organization as HRM will be able to provide the required manpower, processes,

and capabilities to implement such strategies. Investigators developed comparative studies and

have proved that trends show that HRM is becoming a strategic business partner and that they

are showing greater participation in both the development of the organization strategy and its

implementation (Lawler and Mohrman 2003) (Becker and Huselid 2006). Furthermore, the

results of such organizations show that they benefited the most (Lawler and Mohrman 2003). In

addition, the two-way fit does appear to be prevailing (Purcell, 2001). The Resource-Based

View (RBV) of organizations as seen being made of a combined bundle of human and physical

resources backs up this trend (Barney 1991).

HRM Change-Agent Role

The new HR role model developed by Ulrich established four roles for HRM that cover both the

strategic/operational dimensions as well as they are people/process oriented (Ulrich 1997).

These roles are: administrative expert, employee champion, strategic partner and change agent

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(Ulrich 1997). Since then, HRM of many organizations that are undergoing organizational

changes is being more responsible in playing strategic roles in managing changes (Antila 2006).

In addition, the advantage that HRM has in behavioral sciences is believed by many

investigators to be a requirement for change agents (Cummings and Worley 2001). Guest adds

that HRM does not only have the behavioral science advantage but the business strategy of HR

that results in competitive advantage (Guest 1990). Story developed a model of four roles that

HRM can play in organizational change: advisers, change makers, handmaidens and regulators

(Storey 1992).

Many investigators have studied several aspects linking organizational changes and HRM,

inclusive of the importance of HRM in the change process (Antila 2006), and how

communication influences employees’ participation to the change process (Rafferty and

Restubog 2010), influence of existing systems and practices on employee commitment to

change (Conway and Monks 2008), and HRM role and contributions to the change process (Den

Hertog et al 2010).

In a study, focusing on HR professionals' perception on the roles they have played in the

management of change in their organization, the majority of respondents confirmed that HR

professionals hold several roles inclusive of change-agents and consultants (Benjamin et al

2018).

Essential Skills for Managers Leading the Change Process

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There is a considerable debate in the literature on who should be the change agent and the

skills that change agents should possess. Some authors believe that professionals with a

behavioral science background are more suited for the role than technical or project-based

background (Cummings and Worley 2001). On the other hand, Crawford and Nahmias have

investigated the growing role of Project/Program Managers and Change Managers on

organizational change projects (Crawford and Nahmias 2010). The study concluded that the

role of Change Manager is not having much professional formation support unlike

Project/Program management, yet Project/Project managers do not have the competencies to

implement changes (Crawford and Nahmias 2010). The study presented a set of change

management competencies required to play such a role (Crawford and Nahmias 2010) as

shown in Table 1.

Change Activities Required Competencies

Changing behaviors and organizational Leadership

culture to achieve goals

Preparation of users Stakeholder Management

Organizational structure Planning

Political diffusion Team selection/Team development

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 Impact analysis Communication

Selling the change Decision-making and problem solving

Champion schemes Cultural awareness/skills

Involvement in process analysis work Project management skills

Training and education to affected staff

Table 1: Activities required to manage change and the corresponding competencies (Crawford

and Nahmias 2010)

HRM Contributions to Change Increase Efficiency

Raeder has pointed out the lack of published research on the evidence that HRM contributions

during the change process are effective in managing that change and demonstrated such

effectiveness in a case-based approach (Raeder 2019a). The case study showed that

organizations that have adapted the full range of HRM prepared practices to manage changes

have benefited (Raeder 2019a). However, HRM should carefully prepare for the changes and

well before the measures of change begin. Communication design is crucial to this endeavor as

well as training and developmental activities (Raeder 2019a).

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Raeder pointed out the lack of attention given to the impact of HRM practices on employees

commitment to change (Raeder 2019b) (Fugate 2012) and concluded that there is a need for

organizations to invest in HRM practices that support change as they help to improve

employees’ commitment to change and create among them a positive behavioral environment

supportive of change (Raeder 2019b)

Zeng examined the role played by HRM as a change-agent on employee behavioral flexibility as

such would contribute to enhancing the organization's competitive advantage (Chang 2020).

The study concluded that HRM role as change-agent is more effective with employees for which

their lower-order needs are satisfied and such employees would develop higher-order aims

such as flexibility (Chang 2020). These findings were confirmed as HR has the ability to

implement practices that would increase positive perception by employees and their

commitment to change (Maheshwari and Vohra, 2015). Research also suggests that

transformative HR practices have a positive influence on employees adapting to change (Bodha

and Ningyu 2017). In addition, HR practices can mitigate employees’ resistance to change on

creativity (Hon et al, 2014).

Hertog et al. have analyzed the strategic change contribution of HRM in ten major European

steel factories and concluded that HRM played a role as a strategic partner. HRM contributions

were twofold: organizing the change process and creating the conditions to facilitate the

implementation of the new strategies (Hertog et al 2010). This study has also noticed that

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while some HRM strategies were proactive, others were driven by short-term objectives and

industry dynamics (Hertog et al 2010).

Adeniji et al investigated the relationship between HRM interventionist strategies and

organizational change and concluded that it affects positively flexibility, which made employees

more adaptive and receptive to change (Adeniji et al 2013). It also induced effective

communication and employees’ commitment (Adeniji et al 2013).

CONCLUSION

A literature review was provided to discuss the role HR practitioners’ play in organization

change. The paper discussed how the role of HR has evolved throughout the years. It also

discusses how the HR strategy is becoming an integral part of the organization strategy and

how the increasing role of HR makes it well placed to lead organizational change in addition,

that it is the department with ability to manage employees’ reaction to change and

communication, two main cornerstones that determine the success of change process. The

paper discusses the role of agents of change that was played by HRM and the other roles that

HRM have played in managing change. The paper discussed the different other managers that

literature believes that they are well placed as change leaders and they are mainly project

managers and program managers in addition to change managers. However, many

investigators believe that HRM are better suited because of their expertise in behavioral

science. They do also have the business strategy and the practices that allow them to be more

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successful in managing such processes. However, such a process would not be successful

without the involvement of the leadership of the organization. The paper enumerated the

activities and the skills that are required from the agents of change which are mostly skills that

are available in HRM, except for the involvement in the process analysis work which requires

skills in project management.

The experiences that were presented in the literature has shown that HRM involvement in the

management of change has led to a more effective change. However, published research on the

topic is limited as pointed out by Raeder (Raeder 2019a).

As a conclusion, HRM does possess the skills, strategic and operational tools to develop and

implement effective change management programs. HRM is uniquely positioned to manage

employees during a change process, communication and changes in behavior and culture.

However, HRM does not possess many of the processes that are required during change,

inclusive of the operational processes. HRM also does not have all the capabilities, which makes

HRM not effective in every stage of the change process. HRM should work together with other

stakeholders, especially with task-oriented change agents.

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