The roles and responsibilities of its board of management have been redefined, with an emphasis on a new set of manage¬ment values, behaviours and competencies. It is also being used at Coles Myer Ltd. (See ‘Change management in action: Corporate university’)
Staffing the organization
An organisation’s ability to implement change and successfully derive competitive advantage depends largely on the quality of its workforce, because it is people who commit to the organisation or otherwise, learn and innovate, lead and manage, make decisions, design, develop and produce new products, penetrate new markets and serve customers more efficiently.73 The organisation must ensure it attracts qualified appli¬cants, has mechanisms to identify the best candidates to fill its jobs, and has the appropriate strategies in place to motivate them to perform, and to satisfy and retain them. It also has to have legal and equitable exit strategies where downsizing or retrenchments are necessary but unavoidable elements of the change initiatives. (We return to this issue later in the chapter.)
To ensure recruitment and selection policies and processes operate to leverage the desired changes, managers and HR professionals designing and implementing these policies need a clear understanding of the organisation’s vision, mission and values, and its goals for change. They also require sound knowledge of the business, the industry and the wider social context, and insight into the kind of people needed to fill these jobs, and the work behaviours and values to be demonstrated. Maund, using a competency perspective, suggests that key activities are required in developing a recruitment strategy.74 These key activities include the identification of the organisation’s required competency profile; an assessment of the organisation’s existing competency profile (that is, the gap analysis); the design of staff and management development programs (to close the gap between existing and required competency profiles); and the design and implementation of an organisation-wide policy on staff selection, career develop¬ment and staff retrenchment if applicable.
One of the critical staffing decisions often concerns whether to recruit and select can¬didates from inside or outside the organisation. The organisation may wish to change an entrenched culture that operates as a barrier to change. For example, when long¬standing employees have become so embedded in the old culture and ways of working that they are resistant to the proposed changes and even may not be capable of acquiring the new skills, competencies or work values and attitudes, external recruit¬ment is an option.75 (Resistance to change and approaches to managing these issues are examined in more detail in later chapters.) Recruiting externally can act as a mechanism to change unwanted work attitudes and behaviours, and communicate to current employees the need to change. This was NAB’s approach when it recruited ‘new blood’ from outside the organisation for the board of directors and its senior executive ranks. As the board and senior executives are key change leaders in any organisation, ensuring that not only the structure of the board, but its collective competencies and values reinforce the desired culture and set the organisational climate is critical.