Human resource management trends David Pollitt (May 2001) (Edited version) Many organizations have a gap between the culture they say they have and the one that actually exists. Claims about quality, teamwork, customer service and safety are often not met in practice. A company may, for example, have safety banners posted prominently in the production area alongside an unguarded piece of machinery. Buch and Wetzel describe a process that can be used to identify and rectify such cultural misalignments. Most processes designed to change organizational culture are estimated to take ten years or longer. They focus on closing gaps between present and desired cultures, and involve the difficult task of changing underlying assumptions to meet present and future conditions. The authors describe instead a process which focuses on alignment among the elements of culture - artefacts, espoused values and basic underlying assumptions - which can therefore be accomplished in much less time. The article presents a range of change initiatives that may be used to correct cultural misalignments. 'Tune ups' are actions that can be taken relatively quickly. The immediacy of the changes produced by tune ups can build trust and commitment to the change process. 'Rebuilds' take between one and six months to complete. 'Replacements', meanwhile, are longer term interventions requiring significant investment of time and resources, and represent change at its deepest level. Another way of achieving fundamental change is to replace the chief executive. Appointing a new person to the top post almost always galvanizes an organization - just as struggling football teams can often be turned around by the appointment of a new manager, without the need to sign expensive new players. But organizations should not resort too often to this technique, or instability and change fatigue may set in. There may be too little time for the new chief executive to work through the multiple interests. Many of the world's most successful organizations attribute their success to stability at the top. The authors highlight the importance of five factors: the chief executives had founded the organizations; they were continuing to develop initiatives for their organizations; they were involved in appointing employees and members of their organization's board of management; they were powerful individuals within their organizations; and they had begun to address the issue of who should succeed them as chief executive. Excerpt from "human resource management trends" by David Pollitt (May 2001) Always be ready for a change of cheese (april 2001) Change management a corporate challenge (april 2001) Demands become more complex (april 2001)