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Organisational Change and HRM A Longitudinal Case Study

Organisational Change and HRM A Longitudinal Case Study Management Research News Volume 15 Number 5/6 1992 23 CORPORATE CULTURE STREAM ii) the dysfunctional consequences for management of separating the design and implementation phases of Organisational Change and HRM: new technology; A Longitudinal Case Study iii) a recognition of the fact that workforce responses to dissatisfaction consequent upon organisational P. B. Beaumont and L C. Hunter (University of Glasgow) change do not always fall neatly into either the exit (quit) or voice (grievances) categories; In the existing literature on organisational change (with a strong emphasis on human resource management) iv) the limitations of a TQM programme as an all-power­ the cases discussed are frequently at the opposite ends of ful instrument of organisational (cultural) change a spectrum: a new plant or greenfield site situation or a when the knowledge/appreciation of such a system brownfield site where change is sought in an older, estab­ is embodied in only a limited number of members of lished organisation. This paper reports the interim results senior management. of an on-going investigation of a hybrid case study, which involves the building of a new factory on an existing site In this particular piece of work we have sought t o find where the other on-going businesses of the company are a middle ground position between being paid consultants located. seeking to facilitate the processes of organisational change and disinterested researchers who are simply • The organisation concerned has essentially four sep­ seeking to 'objectively document' what has occurred. arate business areas on the one site. A decision was taken That is, we have not received any fees or payment from to close the factory for one of these areas and to build a management (in order to try and ensure our credibility with new one on the same site. This new factory, which was for the workforce), but at the same time have actively sought the leading edge (high value added) business activity of to use the information/knowledge obtained from the re­ the organisation, embodies state of the art new technol­ search to try and influence the various stages of this ogy. This first phase of organisational change (centring on-going organisational change process. The possible around a new physical environment and technology) was strengths and weaknesses of this approach to studying to be followed some eighteen months later by a second organisational change will be discussed. change phase involving the introduction of a TQM pro­ gramme. The research point of entry to the case study organi­ sation involved discussions with the relevant members of senior management concerning the reasons for building the new factory and the processes involved in bringing it on stream. This was then followed by a series of interviews with approximately 10 per cent of the new factory work­ force concerning their views of and reactions to this phase of the organisational change process. The results of this investigation were then fed back to the management (and workforce) with a view to trying to 'positively influence' the state of employee-management relations on the shopfloor prior to the introduction of the second phase of organisa­ tional change, centring around TQM. The state of play in this regard is to be investigated, which will then be followed by a repeat of the employee interviews on the eve of the introduction of the TQM programme. In addition, the re­ searchers have sought to influence the process of intro­ ducing the latter. Among some of the leading findings to emerge from this on-going work to date are the following: i) the importance of inter-firm linkages (suppliers and customers) in driving the organisational change pro­ cess; http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Management Research News Emerald Publishing

Organisational Change and HRM A Longitudinal Case Study

Beaumont, P.B.; Hunter, L.C.
Management Research News , Volume 15 (5/6): 1 – May 1, 1992
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Emerald Publishing
Copyright
Copyright © Emerald Group Publishing Limited
ISSN
0140-9174
DOI
10.1108/eb028218
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Abstract

Management Research News Volume 15 Number 5/6 1992 23 CORPORATE CULTURE STREAM ii) the dysfunctional consequences for management of separating the design and implementation phases of Organisational Change and HRM: new technology; A Longitudinal Case Study iii) a recognition of the fact that workforce responses to dissatisfaction consequent upon organisational P. B. Beaumont and L C. Hunter (University of Glasgow) change do not always fall neatly into either the exit (quit) or voice (grievances) categories; In the existing literature on organisational change (with a strong emphasis on human resource management) iv) the limitations of a TQM programme as an all-power­ the cases discussed are frequently at the opposite ends of ful instrument of organisational (cultural) change a spectrum: a new plant or greenfield site situation or a when the knowledge/appreciation of such a system brownfield site where change is sought in an older, estab­ is embodied in only a limited number of members of lished organisation. This paper reports the interim results senior management. of an on-going investigation of a hybrid case study, which involves the building of a new factory on an existing site In this particular piece of work we have sought t o find where the other on-going businesses of the company are a middle ground position between being paid consultants located. seeking to facilitate the processes of organisational change and disinterested researchers who are simply • The organisation concerned has essentially four sep­ seeking to 'objectively document' what has occurred. arate business areas on the one site. A decision was taken That is, we have not received any fees or payment from to close the factory for one of these areas and to build a management (in order to try and ensure our credibility with new one on the same site. This new factory, which was for the workforce), but at the same time have actively sought the leading edge (high value added) business activity of to use the information/knowledge obtained from the re­ the organisation, embodies state of the art new technol­ search to try and influence the various stages of this ogy. This first phase of organisational change (centring on-going organisational change process. The possible around a new physical environment and technology) was strengths and weaknesses of this approach to studying to be followed some eighteen months later by a second organisational change will be discussed. change phase involving the introduction of a TQM pro­ gramme. The research point of entry to the case study organi­ sation involved discussions with the relevant members of senior management concerning the reasons for building the new factory and the processes involved in bringing it on stream. This was then followed by a series of interviews with approximately 10 per cent of the new factory work­ force concerning their views of and reactions to this phase of the organisational change process. The results of this investigation were then fed back to the management (and workforce) with a view to trying to 'positively influence' the state of employee-management relations on the shopfloor prior to the introduction of the second phase of organisa­ tional change, centring around TQM. The state of play in this regard is to be investigated, which will then be followed by a repeat of the employee interviews on the eve of the introduction of the TQM programme. In addition, the re­ searchers have sought to influence the process of intro­ ducing the latter. Among some of the leading findings to emerge from this on-going work to date are the following: i) the importance of inter-firm linkages (suppliers and customers) in driving the organisational change pro­ cess;

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Management Research News – Emerald Publishing

Published: May 1, 1992

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