Assessment 3: Reflective Learning Journal Report

Nowadays, change is inevitable for most organizations, and applying effective organizational change could direct organizations to reach a competitive advantage (Armenakis & Harris, 2009; Clegg & Walsh, 2004). In most cases the effort in achieving success in organizations fails due to the lack of people’s commitment and misdiagnosis of change (Armenakis & Harris, 2009; Oreg, 2003). Therefore, in relation to my previous experience and relevant studies, I will argue that leaders support in leading the change, Human Resource Management (HRM) intervention and the process of building commitment in organizations will enhance the success probability of change. The outline of the reflective journal will be as follows. The first section will be highlighting reflective observations of these three topics, and the second section will give an abstract generalisation where it shows the relationship between these three topics in the change management context. Subsequently, the application of the principles in my future career will be discussed. Finally, conclusion will be provided in the final section.

HRM planning and intervention are encompassing all steps of the change process framework adopted from Härtel and Fujimoto (2010). Molineux (2013) found that the implementation of systemic HRM is considered to have a strategic function in change management. The ideas of systemic HRM have not been applied in my organization where the HR practices are not integrated well. Strategic HRM intervention could enhance the change enablers in the organization in an effort to increase the probability of success (Al-Haddad & Kotnour, 2015). Jiang et al. (2012) in their research construct the HR system and define the relationships within the system which is influencing employees’ abilities, motivation and opportunities. The relationships within the HR system have gained comprehensive understanding of how the process works and how it aligns with business strategy. Nowadays, strategic HRM intervention from transactional to transformational activities has made HR professionals gain more strategic values which also relates to organizations’ performance (Buller & McEvoy, 2012). In my opinion, E-HRM and/or outsourcing HR role play important roles in supporting the shift, as it is provide time for HR practitioner to work more in strategic role. From my experience, the application of E-HRM is not as easy as it seems, due to the lack of knowledge, skills and readiness with new technology. Therefore, Parry (2014) suggests that organisations should carefully design and implement E-HRM to adjust with the condition of members in organizations.

The second topic is leading change. Leaders’ support in change process is needed to influence the willingness to change among employees (Bass, Avolio, Jung, & Berson, 2003; Van der Voet, 2014). From a contemporary perspective (Gilley, Gilley, & McMillan, 2009), transactional and transformational leadership are both effective in building employees’ commitment to change (Bass et al., 2003), even though Tyssen, Wald, and Heidenreich (2014) study shows that transformational leadership is more effective than transactional leadership. I would like to say that the degree to which both behavioural leadership models are needed will be contingent on different context. High level transformational leadership is needed for emergent approaches (Bass et al., 2003) and/or for senior management. Even though I am still questioning Avolio, Bass, and Jung (1999) individualized consideration components of transformational leadership. In my point of view, personalisation of individual differences is very hard for high level management since there is hierarchical distance (Hill, Seo, Kang, & Taylor, 2012). Moreover, the public sector in Indonesia mostly needs transactional leadership at low to middle management levels to be effective. This has happened because of their high score of power distance (Hofstede & Hofstede, 2005) and the majority of employees still have low education. Those types of employees need clear direction on expectations and objectives in order to maintain the day to day routines and ensure the achievement of the objectives (Bass et al., 2003; Tyssen et al., 2014). The reason why high level of transformational leadership does not appear to be important is because almost all the activities in the organizations do not require much innovation (Paulsen, Callan, Ayoko, & Saunders, 2013) and are more transactional activities (Parry, 2014).

The third topic is diagnosing change. As change is usually seen as traumatic events which might produce resistance to change (Barclay & Kiefer, 2014; Oreg, 2003), there is a need of organisations to cautiously assess readiness for change. I find that force field analysis proposed by Lewin (1948) is very useful to use in the organization where I worked. However, I am questioning how to reduce biases in giving the score which are identified by Barker III (2005). In high hierarchy organisations, many people will be involved in the decision making, so misdiagnosis of change forces and restrainers will produce false directions such as failure to recognize negative events as explained by Barclay and Kiefer (2014). In diagnosing change, individuals sometimes involve their own values and experience (Doorewaard & Benschop, 2003) in the scoring activities. Therefore, the use of Barker III (2005) guidelines is beneficial to reduce bias among decision makers.

Leadership and HRM play important roles in the three stages of change (Lewin, 1948) especially in diagnosing change. In diagnosing change, organizations need employees’ commitment to give honest and open feedback, so the assessment will be analysed accurately (Barker III, 2005). In relation to the AMO framework, HR practices have capabilities to enhance ability, motivation and also give employees opportunity to participate in the process (Jiang et al., 2012). The integration of HR practices will gives distinctive and valued contribution to the change process (Molineux, 2013; Wylie, Sturdy, & Wright, 2014). Moreover, in order to generate the urgency for change (Kotter & Cohen, 2002), leaders are expected to reduce biases in search of sources for diagnosing readiness for change (Barker III, 2005). Leaders’ effectiveness in gathering the sources will depend on organizational effort to foster leaders’ transformational and transactional behaviours (Bass et al., 2003; Crook, Todd, Combs, Woehr, & Ketchen Jr, 2011). Therefore, the role of leaders and HR practitioners in analysing the situation could generate the most effective strategy and modes of change as explained by Dunphy and Stace (1988).

In one case study of Aerotech, Inc. (Anderson, 2012), Patrick Delacroix as a Vice President of Engineering faced problems in maintaining team productivity especially in the Laser System team after structural change. The failure of one team to meet performance requirements clearly showed that the organization had not comprehensively assessed the readiness for change. The organization did not seem to have understood the team’s underlying problem such as low organizational justice perception (Linna et al., 2012) and they were not able to see the urgency of change (Kotter & Cohen, 2002). Therefore, effective diagnosis of change will lead the organisation to gain a better understanding of the problem and the action requirement to prevent failure (Anderson, 2012).

The R&D division does not usually have high hierarchical structure and requires people to make creative and innovative contributions where the role of transformational leader is very significant (Paulsen et al., 2013). Patrick’s leadership behaviour was also considered as less transformational. He was not able to accommodate individual considerations as identified by Avolio et al. (1999) where hierarchical distance were absent (Hill et al., 2012) due to low hierarchical structure. Therefore, Patrick needs to be aware of the development of his intelligence, personality and emotional intelligence towards transformational leadership (Cavazotte, Moreno, & Hickmann, 2012).

Moreover, the delegation of Patrick’s power to the managers was supposed to provide benefit to increase employees’ productivity by leveraging peoples’ ability, motivation and giving them the opportunity for greater involvement at work (Jiang et al., 2012; Linna et al., 2012). Performance appraisals has play a significant role in leveraging employees performance through an AMO framework in order to leverage organizational justice perception (Linna et al., 2012). But, Patrick did not realize that prior to the delegation of power, he needed to develop managerial leadership skills as explained by Mumford, Zaccaro, Harding, Jacobs, and Fleishman (2000) through a set of HR practices such as training and development. The integration of an HR system helps line managers in aligning individual and team performance with their business goals (Molineux, 2013). Therefore, integrative HR practices (Molineux, 2013) and appropriate leader behaviours from a contemporary perspective (Bass et al., 2003; Gilley et al., 2009) provide considerable benefits in gathering adequate information or feedback to diagnose the underlying problems (Anderson, 2012).

By attending organisational change course in this semester, I have gained comprehensive knowledge of change management. In line with several studies such as that by Armenakis and Harris (2009) and Oreg (2003), which mention the failure of most organizations in dealing with change, The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources of The Republic of Indonesia has been trying to conduct change, but always failed due to the lack of knowledge in change management. As an HR professional in my organization, I became more aware of my role as a change agent. I will propose the use of performance appraisal as a part of our strategic HRM. I feel the need to integrate the HR system and make it more strategic by shifting from transactional to transformational activities as suggested by Molineux (2013), Härtel and Fujimoto (2010) and Jiang et al. (2012), so it would shift the role of HR from transactional activities into more strategic or transformational activities (Härtel & Fujimoto, 2010). As the organisation does not have an appropriate performance management system, I will try to develop the system and integrate it with other HR practices. The help from E-HRM will be very beneficial in order to support the movement from routine activities into more strategic ones as suggested by Parry (2014). Based on his recommendation, of course I need to be very cautious in the design and implementation of the new software or application to get maximum benefit. I think PeopleSoft which is used at Griffith University will be beneficial to support HR roles in my organisation. The potentiality of using PeopleSoft will be considered for future improvement.

In relation with leading change application in the organisation, it will be run parallel with my own individual development. Individually, the development of my leadership skills will be leveraged through training, courses and other development programs. For the organisation application, as HR division member, I also have responsibility to develop leadership skills as suggested by many authors such as Mumford et al. (2000) and Bass et al. (2003). More comprehensive and advanced leadership development programs will be needed to leverage human and social capital in the organisation as suggested by Crook et al. (2011).

Diagnosing change will have to be applied at the initial stage of change process to analyse the underlying problem in the organisation as suggested by Anderson (2012). The adoption of force field analysis designed by Lewin (1948) in diagnosing the readiness of change will be encouraged in my workplace. I also recognise the importance of finding high quality information gathered from peoples’ commitment to give honest and open feedback in the organization. The support from strategic HR function and leaders in reducing resistance and build employees commitment to give honest and open feedback will enhance the quality of information (Barker III, 2005). I will initiate establishment of diversified management team and seek advice from outside the organization in order to have greater quality of information (Barker III, 2005). The method of gathering data suggested by Anderson (2012) will be assessed to adjust with the organisation’s conditions and needs.

The reflective journal discussed three major topics which I have chosen from the course material. The topics are HRM change, leading change and diagnosing change and building commitment. The relation between topics and the implementation of these three topics in my career in the future have been examined. In summary, the shift of HR roles transactional to transformational roles will be executed. Secondly, the development of leadership skills through training and development programs whether for me or the organization will be enhanced. Finally, diagnosing change as an initial part of change process will be implemented.

Al-Haddad, S., & Kotnour, T. (2015). Integrating the organizational change literature: A model for successful change. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 28(2), 234-262.

Anderson, D. L. (2012). (Ed). Cases and exercises in organisation development & change. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.

Armenakis, A. A., & Harris, S. G. (2009). Reflections: Our journey in organizational change research and practice. Journal of Change Management, 9(2), 127-142.

Avolio, B. J., Bass, B. M., & Jung, D. I. (1999). Re‐examining the components of transformational and transactional leadership using the multifactor leadership. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 72(4), 441-462.

Barclay, L. J., & Kiefer, T. (2014). Approach or avoid? Exploring overall justice and the differential effects of positive and negative emotions. Journal of Management, 40(7), 1857-1898.

Barker III, V. L. (2005). Traps in diagnosing organization failure. Journal of Business Strategy, 26(2), 44-50.

Bass, B. M., Avolio, B. J., Jung, D. I., & Berson, Y. (2003). Predicting unit performance by assessing transformational and transactional leadership. Journal of Applied Psychology, 88(2), 207.

Buller, P. F., & McEvoy, G. M. (2012). Strategy, human resource management and performance: Sharpening line of sight. Human Resource Management Review, 22(1), 43-56.

Cavazotte, F., Moreno, V., & Hickmann, M. (2012). Effects of leader intelligence, personality and emotional intelligence on transformational leadership and managerial performance. The Leadership Quarterly, 23(3), 443-455.

Clegg, C., & Walsh, S. (2004). Change management: Time for a change! European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 13(2), 217-239.

Crook, T. R., Todd, S. Y., Combs, J. G., Woehr, D. J., & Ketchen Jr, D. J. (2011). Does human capital matter? A meta-analysis of the relationship between human capital and firm performance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 96(3), 443.

Doorewaard, H., & Benschop, Y. (2003). HRM and organizational change: An emotional endeavor. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 16(3), 272-286.

Dunphy, D. C., & Stace, D. A. (1988). Transformational and coercive strategies for planned organizational change: Beyond the OD model. Organization Studies, 9(3), 317-334.

Gilley, A., Gilley, J. W., & McMillan, H. S. (2009). Organizational change: Motivation, communication, and leadership effectiveness. Performance Improvement Quarterly, 21(4), 75-94.

Härtel, C. E. J., & Fujimoto, Y. (2010). Human resource management (Vol. 2nd). Frenchs Forest, New South Wales: Pearson Australia.

Hill, N. S., Seo, M.-G., Kang, J. H., & Taylor, M. S. (2012). Building employee commitment to change across organizational levels: The influence of hierarchical distance and direct managers' transformational leadership. Organization Science, 23(3), 758-777.

Hofstede, G. H., & Hofstede, G. J. (2005). Cultures and organizations: Software of the mind. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Jiang, K., Lepak, D. P., Han, K., Hong, Y., Kim, A., & Winkler, A.-L. (2012). Clarifying the construct of human resource systems: Relating human resource management to employee performance. Human Resource Management Review, 22(2), 73-85.

Kotter, J. P., & Cohen, D. S. (2002). The heart of change: Real-life stories of how people change their organizations. Boston. MA: Harvard Business Press.

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Linna, A., Elovainio, M., Van den Bos, K., Kivimäki, M., Pentti, J., & Vahtera, J. (2012). Can usefulness of performance appraisal interviews change organizational justice perceptions? A 4-year longitudinal study among public sector employees. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 23(7), 1360-1375.

Molineux, J. (2013). Enabling organizational cultural change using systemic strategic human resource management–A longitudinal case study. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 24(8), 1588-1612.

Mumford, M. D., Zaccaro, S. J., Harding, F. D., Jacobs, T. O., & Fleishman, E. A. (2000). Leadership skills for a changing world: Solving complex social problems. The Leadership Quarterly, 11(1), 11-35.

Oreg, S. (2003). Resistance to change: Developing an individual differences measure. Journal of Applied Psychology, 88(4), 680.

Parry, E. (2014). e-HRM: A catalyst for changing the HR function? Handbook of Strategic e-Business Management, 589-604.

Paulsen, N., Callan, V. J., Ayoko, O., & Saunders, D. (2013). Transformational leadership and innovation in an R&D organization experiencing major change. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 26(3), 595-610.

Tyssen, A. K., Wald, A., & Heidenreich, S. (2014). Leadership in the context of temporary organizations a study on the effects of transactional and transformational leadership on followers’ commitment in projects. Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, 21(4), 376-393.

Van der Voet, J. (2014). The effectiveness and specificity of change management in a public organization: Transformational leadership and a bureaucratic organizational structure. European Management Journal, 32(3), 373-382.

Wylie, N., Sturdy, A., & Wright, C. (2014). Change agency in occupational context: Lessons for HRM. Human Resource Management Journal, 24(1), 95-110.

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