There are a number of interesting issues in this real-life example. The
first that came to mind was the power of an informal group dedicated to
sharing knowledge, rather than a formal functional group, which is often
more dedicated to establishing and fulfilling its procedures. I worry
whenever I hear of a company that has changed the name of its training
group to "The Organizational Learning Center" with a new "Director of
Learning." Knowledge sharing and learning are not functions of a
department--they're practices for employees in all departments, at any
level or rank. I fear that what happened at Axiom will happen at many
other companies that attempt to bureaucratize something that should be
part of the culture--just "the way we do things around here."
Mary Beth's "lessons learned" are so important--things worked well when
they were part of the corporate culture and people were committed to
communicating openly. The question for further reflection might be about
how their new HR department remained so thoroughly separate from the
existing organizational culture and how they in fact changed the culture
through their new structures and procedures (if this is indeed what has
happened).
One hypothesis: As the policy-setters and implementors in a company, the
HR department shapes the fundamental forces and norms for behavior in the
organization--for example, personnel reviews are often designed by HR and
HR informs (through training) supervisors on how to conduct a performance
review. I keep thinking that until we rethink our coded HR policies and
practices that these will form a ceiling on what we can accomplish in
organizational development. None of the organizational change initiatives
I have worked on have included a fundamental exploration of the impact of
HR policies--at least, not any that could or did change HR significantly.
I would love to have the chance to work with a company ready, willing, and
able to rethink HR in concert with other corporate goals and strategies...
To stand in someone else's shoes for a moment, though, I should say that I
do know many professionals in HR who are thinking and trying to lead
change in their organizations and their departments. The difficulty seems
to be the very reason for it being so necessary to do it: HR policy
affects everything!
It would be great to hear other people's experience with this.
Diane Weston DMWeston@AOL.COM