01. Introduction to HRM and change management

Change is inevitable and in order for businesses to stay afloat and strive, businesses must adopt systematic approaches and applications of growing technology and knowledge to manage change. Change is a wave that has a significant impact on people, products, and processes (Brown and Harvey, 2021). Implementing change is difficult and the most challenging component is the management of people as employees quite often resist change.

▪         Briefing of few challenges of HRM

There are many challenges that a business would face when trying to implement change. A major complication would be challenges arising with managing human resources. As businesses evolve, they require a variety of individuals ranging from different professions, ages, races and so on. Adopting employees to workforce diversity is a core challenge that arises from this scenario (Kanter, 2003). People would find it difficult to get along with others with different backgrounds and thus this will raise complexities in coordinating work in a team.

Moreover, aligning the values of the employees with the company changes is important for the success of the change process. However, seasoned and experienced employees would have strong opinions and values which would be difficult to alter. Hence, these employees would resist change and they would not feel the importance of particular company changes (Stern, Shiely and Ross, 2002). This could cause the change process to collapse.

A primary cause of change is technology and a primary requirement of successful change management is adopting new knowledge and technology (Harmon, 2003). Introducing generation Z to new technology is seamless however, Generation X and Baby Boomers would have a difficult time adjusting to changing technology.

▪         Brief intro for change management

Many researchers explain that change within the workplace can cause stress and fear among the members of the staff. Throughout the process of change management, utmost attention is devoted to avoiding resistance to change, by alleviating stress through effective communication.

Another important aspect of managing change within the HR department is offering support systems and also training that would assist seamless implementation of change (Brown and Harvey, 2021).

To add more, key objectives of change management in HRM include building values within employees, developing unique skills and capabilities to gain an edge over competitors when surviving in a changing environment, organizing the workforce and so on. 

▪         Kurt Lewin's 3-stage model of change

 

Stage 1: Unfreeze – this stage communicates and prepares the workforce for change and develops strategies for the upcoming change.

Stage 2:  Change – this stage is about implementing change where the status quo is already challenged. The main focuses of this phase include: ensuring a continuous, uninterrupted flow of information, organize and setup change management workshops and keeping the employees motivated (Shirey, 2013).

Stage 3: Refreeze – through change employees should be directed toward stabilization. Identifying and rewarding early adopters, maintaining communication and gaining employee feedback and reacting to employee demands would help in cementing the implanted change (Shirey, 2013).

 

▪         Conclusion

To summarize, change can be defined as the groundwork for the development of an organization. The objectives of HRM can be identified and aligned with the goals of the company (Hunter, Saunders and Constance, 2016). Change is important for the survival of the organization in this competitive and evolving market and hence the importance of Human resource management on change management is growing exponentially. The Kurt Lewin’s 3-stage change management model is the fundamental model that describes the successful implementation of change into an organization.

 

References:

• Brown, D.R. and Harvey, D., 2021. An experiential approach to organization development. Pearson Education.
• Harmon, P., 2003. Business process change: a manager's guide to improving, redesigning, and automating processes. Morgan Kaufmann.
• Hunter, I., Saunders, J. and Constance, S., 2016. HR business partners. Routledge.
• Kanter, R.M., 2003. Challenge of organizational change: How companies experience it and leaders guide it. Simon and Schuster.
• Shirey, M.R., 2013. Lewin’s theory of planned change as a strategic resource. JONA: The Journal of Nursing Administration, 43(2), pp.69-72.
• Stern, J.M., Shiely, J.S. and Ross, I., 2002. The EVA challenge: implementing value-added change in an organization. John Wiley & Sons.