Research Paper- "HR as Change Agent"

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International HR Conference 2013
Institute for Technology & Management
Kharghar, Navi Mumbai– 410210
Conference Theme: “To Build a Resilient Workforce beyond Boundaries”
Paper Title:
HR as change agent for organizational excellence- A literature based secondary data
study
by
-Monika Sinha, PGDM-HR 2013-15
-V. Swathi, PGDM-HR 2013-15
-Mr. Vijay Karvande, Manager – Course Coordination
- B. V. R. Murty, Deputy Director, ITM- Kharghar
Monika Sinha,
ITM- Navi Mumbai
25&26 Institutional Area, Sec 4,
Kharghar, Navi Mumbai- 410 210
Monika.s@itm.edu
V. Swathi,
ITM- Navi Mumbai
v.swathi@itm.edu
Vijay Karvande,
ITM- Navi Mumbai
Vijays@itm.edu
B.V.R. Murty,
ITM- Navi Mumbai
murtybvr@itm.edu

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Abstract:
The purpose of this research paper is to identify why Human Resources (HR) is a
change agent in any organization to drive organizational excellence. HR practitioners, as
change agents, are responsible for easing the impact of changes in their organization and to
empower employees against the consequences of these inevitable changes. Sometimes, the
change helps to produce a significant increase in performance excellence and the company
can boost sales and production without major additional cost.
Several vital competencies that are reviewed in this paper include how HR
practitioners are path creators amongst the path breakers of organizational culture, by being
change drivers and business focused. HR practitioners who are unable to function as change
agents will inevitably create a barrier against their becoming a well-integrated strategic
partner. Therefore, the role of change agent also mediates the relationship between certain HR
competencies and organizational performance. This involves monitoring employee
engagement and keeping levels high, developing strategies to retain top performers, and
continuing to provide value-added services to employees.
Key words
Change agent, organisational excellence, empower, culture, strategic partner, competencies
“Without changing our pattern of thoughts, we will not be able to

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solve the problems we created with our current patterns of thoughts’’
-Albert Einstein
What is change?
Change is to transform or convert from the original form to a form which is different.
Change happens.
It is in the technology that makes our cell phones, Internet devices and our seemingly new
products out of date. It is in the demographics of the diverse workforce as baby boomers learn
to work aside Millennial. It is in changing global economic cycles with simultaneous growth
in some markets and recession in others. It surrounds us.
In organizations, Change matters.
An executive recently said that a business that took 50 years to build could be lost in two if it
does not change. As a distinct organizational capability, change goes by many names: agility,
cycle time, flexibility, responsiveness and transformation. Organizations that change respond
to external demands, create higher intangible market value, implement strategies, plan for the
future and create excitement among employees.
Instead of winning through innovation, customer service and globalization, leaders demand
fast innovation, rapid customer service and swift globalization.
Change could also be defined as everything from re-engineering, right sizing, restructuring to
cultural change, and companies have many proven and valid reasons of why they are willing
to spend a huge deal of effort (money, time, resource etc.) on such investments. One of those
reasons is to ensure that they are improving their competitiveness on the market. Or as
Vincent Barabba, a retired General Manager of General Motors Corporate Strategy and
Knowledge Development explained it: “We recently joined, as a founding member, the
“Internet Home Alliance”, one might respond, “What is GM doing in an Internet Home
Alliance?” The idea behind is to take customers needs into the consideration with questions
such as: “When I'm in my vehicle, wouldn't I like to know what's going on in my home?” If
the alarm goes off in my home, then I want to know about it just as soon as my neighbours do,
no matter where I am. From that perspective, our management has had to rethink the
boundaries of the General Motors enterprise”. What Barabba describes is a way of adapting in
order to ensure the existence of General Motors for a long time ahead.
Change does not happen overnight and most people know that. To have sustainable change
that is meaningful to people, it is something that they will have to embrace and see
importance.
Most people need to experience the need for change before they really understand that. With
that being said, many can get frustrated that change does not happen fast enough and they tend
to push people further away from the vision, than closer. Every step forward is a step closer
to a goal; change agents just help to make sure that people are moving ahead.
Who are change agents?

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Change agents are the people who act as catalysts for the change.
A change agent can be defined as a person responsible for organizing and coordinating the
overall change effort. A change agent can either be internal change agents, who are most
frequently a sub-set of organizational leaders, or an external change agent, who are most
likely to be consultants or managers brought in to invoke change.
The role of a change agent is to bring about change in his/her area in the organization or
business. A change agent does not have to be the person in authority, but they do, however,
have to have a clear vision and be able to communicate clearly with others. Where people can
be frustrated is, if they feel that someone is all over the place on what they see as important
and tend to change their vision often. This will scare others away as they are not sure when
they are on a sinking ship and to start looking for ways out. Frequently, Change agents are
involved in helping a team implement new organizational systems to achieve a higher degree
of output. The result expected of a change agent is to enable people to do more and find a
better perspective on life. So although a change agent can trigger growth in an organization,
the culture in which they exist or are brought into has a huge bearing on their success. If a
school embodies itself as a true learning organization, change will happen much quicker. What
is important to note is that being a “charismatic leader” is not something that is essential.
For example, was Steve Jobs a change agent, or a charismatic leader? Apple is not doing
as well since he has passed away and their innovation has seemed to slow down. Steve
Jobs was known for being notoriously tough to deal with and the trust that is essential to
building a strong culture was probably lacking to some degree. We believe that change
agents will help to create more leaders, not more followers.
Researches show that the most significant characteristics that conform to the ideal view of
change agents are:
• A person of great analytical skills coupled with good listening skills
• A person with great mediator skills who is also an excellent architect
• A person with good teacher skills in whom there is a wise coach as well
• A person who has a good understanding of the goals to strive for by being persuasive and
arriving at a consensus
• A person who has a good understanding of the methods and the communications styles
to use in a given phase of organizational development
• A person who has a clear understanding of his roles in organizational development
• A person who has a clear understanding of the goal of the change process
• A person who has a clear understanding of what his activities should be in each phase of
organizational development
• A person who has a clear understanding of the theoretical tools useful for promoting
innovation and creativity
• A person who has a clear understanding of who the stakeholders to communicate with are or
how it should be performed
Now having detailed change and change agents, what does organisational excellence mean to
any employee?
Excellence is to have excelled in that industry by being a benchmark for every other bud

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whose turn now is to bloom into a flower.
Does achieving organisational excellence involve only gaining overwhelming profits, or to
excel in being a model organisation as well?
Explanation follows,
Organisational Excellence
“Organisation Excellence is delivering sustained superior performance that meets and where
possible exceeds the expectations of stakeholders”
The drastic change in the business scenario calls for a speedy transformation of
mission, vision, core values, core competence, management style, policy
framework, management system, structures & process, renewal mechanism etc.
of organization. Any change program would revolve around people - changing
their mind set, behaviour and motivational level.
An Excellent Organisation, by definition, is one that has successfully worked out
its integrated portfolio of needs, results, work and competence. First it has
identified the needs of its three main stakeholders: Customers, Employees and
Shareholders. Next, it has translated these needs into objectives or results to be
achieved that will satisfy these needs. As its third step, the organisation has
articulated the work that has to be done to achieve these results.
Someone or a group provides Visionary Leadership. There is a group of
Committed and Competent Management Leaders equipped with the necessary
competencies. The organisation’s management spends much time and energy to
build a strong Organisational Culture. Finally, the organization has to put in place
a system of identifying and developing core competencies needed to carry out
the work, including leadership succession development plans.
Not always a desired visionary set by the A Team in an organisation is welcomed
with open arms and minds. There are different aspects in looking at a phase. To
be persuasive and accepting diversities and arriving at a consensus in leading a
change is how a solution is obtained.
Following are the common hiccups faced in any organisation.
Barriers to Organizational Excellence
The need for rapid change is a fact of life in today's business environment. While
there may be few companies whose leaders are committed to a belief that it is
good for everyone to "change things up" from time to time, most change is
undertaken to accomplish key strategic goals. No matter how necessary change
seems to upper management, many barriers must be broken down if a planned
strategic change is to be implemented successfully. The key to successful change
is in the planning and the implementation. The three greatest barriers to

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organizational excellence are most often the following.
1. Inadequate Culture-shift Planning. Most companies are good at planning
changes in reporting structure, work area placement, job responsibilities, and
administrative structure. Organizational charts are commonly revised again and
again. Timelines are established, benchmarks are set, transition teams are
appointed, etc. Failure to foresee and plan for resultant cultural change, however,
is also common. When the planning team is too narrowly defined or too focused
on objective analysis and critical thinking, it becomes too easy to lose sight of
the fact that the planned change will affect people. Even at work, people make
many decisions on the basis of feelings and intuition. When the feelings of
employees are overlooked, the result is often deep resentment because some
unrecognized taboo or tradition has not been duly respected.
2. Lack of Employee Involvement. People have an inherent fear of change. In
most strategic organizational change, at least some employees will be asked to
assume different responsibilities or focus on different aspects of their knowledge
or skill. The greater the change a person is asked to make, the more pervasive
that person's fear will be. There will be fear of change. More important, however,
there will be fear of failure in the new role. Involving employees as soon as
possible in the change effort, letting them create as much of the change as is
possible and practical is key to a successful change effort. As employees
understand the reasons for the change and have an opportunity to "try the change
on for size" they more readily accept and support the change.
3. Flawed Communication Strategies. Ideal communication strategies in
situations of significant organizational change must attend to the message, the
method of delivery, the timing, and the importance of information shared with
various parts of the organization. Many leaders believe that if they tell people
what they (the leaders) feel they need to know about the change, then everyone
will be on board and ready to move forward. In reality, people need to
understand why the change is being made, but more importantly, how the change
is likely to affect them. A big picture announcement from the CEO does little to
help people understand and accept change. People want to hear about change
from their direct supervisor. A strategy of engaging direct supervision and
allowing them to manage the communication process is the key to a successful
change communication plan. By planning and dealing with these three areas
thoroughly, carefully, and sensitively, people will be most likely to get on board
and help implement the change and adapt to drive organizational excellence far
more readily and supportively.
Handling the Change
Change management is commonly defined as both a) the set of skills and
aptitudes an individual needs to successfully initiate and implement change, and
b) the applications of tools for change (e.g. training, communication, process re-design,
etc.) in adding value to an organization.
“The Change Problem” is discussed by Fred Nickols in his research article

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Change Management 101. He mentions changes as a “what” problem and
changes as a “how” problem to find out the ends of a problem.
Nickols’ writes that, “it is often a person who is not responsible for results, who
typically ask the questions; perhaps that is why people don’t see the point of
change”. A. J Schuler lists the top ten reasons of why people are change resistant,
some of which we will see are described as problems in other literature. An
example of this is “The risk of change is seen as greater than the risk of standing
still”, so is “People have no role models for the new activity” and “People
genuinely believe that the proposed change is a bad idea”. When change agents
reach the point where they need to understand the actions of people in the
organization they need to have an understanding of their psychology.
For instance Abraham H. Maslow’s Human Motivation and Fredrickson’s
Positive Psychology dwell upon just that and provide psychological explanations
to resistance of change. These changes all have the same effect when they’re
announced: they create fear! Why? Because: “change is good, except when it
applies to me!” People don’t like to go out of their comfort zones, to be rushed.
And even if the change could be synonymous with hope and joy for some, most
often, the majority will dread it.
In the face of the unknown, fear manifests as resistance, an unconscious
emotional reaction usually related to our defence mechanisms.
Let’s take a specific example. In a highly technical enterprise, management
decides to focus on behavioural skills (in recruitment, evaluations and
promotions) to try to eradicate abusive behaviour by some of the managers and
staff members who capitalize on their technical expertise to come out on top.
Such an announcement will generate resistance, particularly among those who
have established their credibility through technical prowess. These heavyweights
usually hold key positions and are therefore “untouchable.” It’s normal that some
of them will be opposed to this new concept. We’re proceeding, then, faced with
negative attitudes from people who are resistant and protesting loudly. They can
have a negative impact on others who were neutral towards the announced
change. As in a mutiny, there are opposition leaders who must be “dealt with”
quickly and efficiently.
Human Resources- The Current Scenario
Human resources are a set of individuals who make up the workforce of an
organization, business sector, or economy. "Human capital" is sometimes used
synonymously with human resources, although human capital typically refers to
a more narrow view (i.e., the knowledge the individuals embody and can
contribute to an organization). Likewise, other terms sometimes used include
"manpower", "talent", "labour", or simply "people".
The professional discipline and business function that oversees an organization's
human resources is called human resource management (HRM, or simply
HR).The field of Human Resource Management (HRM) focuses on achieving

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corporate strategy through the effective management of people in organizations.
It examines the link between people, satisfaction, and productivity. Effective
HRM results in a higher quality of work life, higher productivity, and an
improved readiness for change. The role of the human resources manager within
a corporate environment has been undergoing rapid change. In the past,
personnel managers served primarily as administrators, policing and maintaining
the organizational status quo. However, the role of the modern human resources
manager has become more ambiguous, shifting in the direction of business
partner, employee champion and change catalyst, and focused on strategic
leveraging of human capital.
Strategically applying/utilizing the various disciplines within human resources in
order to cause organizational change and add value is often referred to as
“change management.”
HR professionals are increasingly being asked now than before, to develop
personal skills and attitudes for implementing change as well as a technical
understanding of how to apply the tools for change.
In the past, HR management positions were primarily held by people with master
level degrees in organizational design, human resources management,
organizational psychology, etc. However, with the shift of attitude toward people
in organizations, it has become very important for HR managers to have a strong
business background, as well as clear strategic and financial experience.
Roles and Responsibility of HR
The core roles of human resources professional are grouped into four broad
roles: a strategic partner to the organization, an administrative expert, a change
agent, and an employee champion.
Strategic Partner
As a strategic partner, the HR professional must be able to partner with the
organization in developing plans that will align the firm's human resources with
its long term corporate goals and vision. He or she should be able to contribute to
business strategy development by aligning HR jobs with strategic goals, and
provide tools and create an enabling environment to actualize these goals. The
HR professional should be able to analyze work processes and recommend
improvements where necessary. He or she should develop policies that will
benefit the firm, management, and employees alike.
Administrative Expert
As an administrative expert, the HR professional is expected to carry out
administrative duties like providing the tools needed for the organization to
operate successfully. He or she should be able to manage the overall labour costs
in the organization and plan for administrative budgets. As an administrative
expert, the HR person should be an information manager, and should be able to
discover new and evolving trends that will be beneficial to the company. The HR

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professional should be able to manage HR budgets (recruitment, selection,
training and development, etc), and should be a good negotiator in times of
salary decisions.
Change Agent
As a change agent, the HR professional should be able to find new ways of doing
things that can move the company forward. He or she should be able to convince
management of the need for the change and address employees about changes.
He or she should coordinate and facilitate the change process, and provide the
tools and structures needed during the change period. As an expert, he or she
should be able to create a new organizational change without disrupting the
firm's business.
Employee Champion
As an employee champion, the HR professional should be able to manage the
staff selection, recruitment, training, development, career planning, performance
management, succession planning, and retention exercises. He or she is
responsible for determining the firm's long-term human resources needs,
assessing current resources, and determining areas where change is needed. He
or she should determine whether human resources needs can be sourced
internally or externally. The HR professional is to conduct training needs
assessments and determine the type of training that will benefit the staff and
organization. The HR professional manages and carries out career management
in a way that aligns the employees’ dreams with the organization's requirements.
The HR expert is also expected to carry out performance appraisal exercises to
determine staff performances in their present responsibilities; he or she
determines those that will be rewarded, promoted, demoted, and recognized. As
an employee champion, he or she should be involved in handling grievances and
disciplinary issues in the firm. The HR professional is to handle all employee
related matters like leave issues, medicals, pension matters, housing, and general
welfare issues.
Hr as change agents
HR strategy can play an important role in helping organizations achieve change.
HR has always been central to organizations, to-day it has taken on an even more
central role in building a firm's competitive advantage. Success increasingly
depends on "people- embodied know-how". Thus, includes the knowledge, skills,
and abilities imbedded in an organization's member. In fact, the key to a firm's
success is based on establishing a set of core competencies - integrated

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knowledge sets within an organization that distinguishes it from its competitors
and deliver values to customers. Globalised economy has resulted in new
business concerns, where future and success depends on how well change is
managed. The dynamic of change becomes one of the central facets of any
business where the role, function and process of HR must be redefined in the
context of change. HR Strategies and practices explain how to manage the
transition smoothly, rapidly and successfully and make the organization
competitive always. Competitiveness is the best parameter which determines the
survival of enterprises and organizational excellence in this scenario.
In absence of organizational change management, organization as a whole may
find mere sustenance of existence difficult. Change in organisations covers a vast
field of business activity, generally aimed at improving performance and
productivity through growth, innovation and skills development; through shifts
in assets, resources or market shares, or a combination of more changes. HR
managers can look to bring about change in the organizational structure by
Lewin’s three steps of organizational change: unfreeze, change, and refreeze.
Unfreezing is related to creating willingness and motivation for change through
anticipating the future and analyzing the possibilities of change, change means
seeing things differently and acting to move toward a more desired state, and
refreezing establishes new ways to affirm the change and secure the new desired
structure.
For any organization looking to bring about culture of change, Human Resources
Department is best placed to bring in employee management, engagement,
motivation and commitment. Hence, HR managers have the strategic ability to
be the change agent for successful organizations by incorporating change in its
own functioning, developing change leaders in organization, anticipating
resistance, planning accordingly to develop sustainable change culture and
bringing in change in organizational structure.
Why HR as a Change Agent?
HR professionals help turn what we know into what we do by bringing the
discipline of a change checklist to any project or initiative. Pilots, surgeons,
merger specialists and fast-food restaurant managers find that the discipline of a
checklist increases performance. An HR professional may regularly perform
change audits by making sure that the key elements of successful change are
diagnosed and implemented in a disciplined way.
When HR professionals are change agents within an organization, they can
diagnose what investments should be made to make change happen. In many
cases, this diagnostic can identify where not to invest change resources, since
that one particular discipline is already sufficient for change, while other
disciplines are in short supply.

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In one case, the first three dimensions (leadership, need and vision) scored high,
but decision protocols and institutionalizing the change scored low. This team
did not need to spend more time on discussing why the change should occur or
what the outcome of the change was, but on how to make it happen. In another
case, leaders scored high on the change disciplines, but employees did not. HR
professionals who do a change checklist should make sure that knowledge about
change is turned into action that delivers change.
In organizations, HR professionals help make change a way of life by seeing that
it becomes assimilated into how work is done. Change is not something that
happens in a workshop, team meeting or process review, but occurs naturally and
continuously during all work activities.
Creating a mind-set of change means that HR professionals model and encourage
leaders to constantly learn, unlearn, improve and accept the inevitability of
change.
A pattern means that a new culture is created. We have found that organizations
are more likely to change their culture when they begin the culture discussion by
focusing on customers outside the company and what the company wants to be
known for by their best customers. The changes employees and organizations
make inside can and should be clearly and directly linked to the expectations of
customers. Change is not an idle hazing meant to distract employees, but a
means of serving customers. When inside change links to external expectations,
HR programs (staffing, training, compensation, communication) and leader
behaviours occur because they deliver value to the marketplace. HR
professionals who ensure that internal changes are linked to external expectations
see change less as an event and more as a pattern or culture.
In our research on competencies for successful HR professionals as change
agents, the ability to manage change and be a cultural steward/hostess were
among the most critical differentiators for an effective HR professional. Change
happens and it matters.
Personal views:
Of all the departments in an organisation, the only department that does not
generate profits directly to the company, yet plays with figures of the men who
bring in the money to the company is the HR department. In an organisation, the
silent witness, the strong supporter, serious consultants, sure backbone, sensory
organs, smiling faces, stylish work desks are owned by the HR personnel. To
believe, to drive, to challenge, to update, to upgrade, to recruit, to restructure, to
train, to storm brain, an HR personnel is behind and in the front stage. Feeling of
having earned extraordinary profits to the company is realised when that extra
kitty from Santa is banked in the employee’s basket. Having to promote and
appreciate, to explain and motivate, a parent who is running alongside kids to
make both ends meet, an HR professional, if not them, who else would fit right
in being a change agent to drive organisational excellence?

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When the men go street smart during the day, HR professionals go mind smart in
watching the employee’s behaviour round the clock. Having to align each being
with the culture, to keep up the feeling of oneness with each one of them, to own
the brand and be ambassadors to eyes that watch the markets, make HR
professional’s days’ a lane to cherish.
An HR professional who acts as a change agent would play a key role in
improving work processes and in designing and implementing working
conditions of the future. Their work goes far beyond transactional and
administrative tasks – They are the agents of transformation and change, they are
trusted partners of teams and design the company of tomorrow together with
functional leaders and employees. Thus in this literature, we have externally
recognized HR as market leaders, the ultimate Change Agents.
HR is a great place to learn and work for people passionate about enabling the
business performance. They people who want to make the difference by applying
business knowledge to design a framework that enables businesses, organizations
and people to be at their very best and to bring purpose to life.
Recommendations:
Being the Change Agent, HR shares the responsibility for strategizing and
planning the change management program. They should be the one who would
spread a positive message about the coming change. They should be the ones to
clear all doubts of the employees.
They should answer the questions like why change is happening, what are the
risks of not changing, why change is happening now, etc. They should also
inform employees about the personal impacts of the change - how will this
change impact their day-to-day work, how will it impact their group. But the real
scenario is quite different. Employees do not want to hear from HR, or a
communications specialist, or the project leader or the change management
consultant. They want to hear from someone at the top and the person they report
to. So, the responsibility of HR is to enable themselves as the preferred senders
to deliver these messages. They can segment the audience, create talking points,
build presentations and even schedule communication events, but the messages
should be delivered by the Main Change Agent.
The primary task of HR as change agent in this environment is to:
· assess the organization's change readiness
· develop a change management strategy
· identify and prepare the change management resources
· assess and prepare executive sponsors
· create and manage the change management plans

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· audit compliance and design methods to reinforce the change in the
organization including activities to celebrate success
Thus these vital competencies are necessary for an HR professional. They should
not only be the change drivers, motivators and messengers but also they should
be business focused, so as to be a well integrated strategic partner in building the
organizational excellence.
The Requisite abilities would be that they should keep the employees engaged by
keeping energy levels high, develop strategies to retain top performers, and
continue to provide value-added services to employees such that diagnose
problems coming between the transition of transformation.
“HR should be the change designer, Change Facilitator, Change Demonstrator,
Change Architect and Change Champion in his own way.”
REFERENCES
· Choi Sang Long; Wan Khairuzzaman Wan Ismail; Salmiah Mohd
Amin(2013), International Journal of Human Resource Management
· Journal of Change Management (2010), Volume 10, Issue 1
· Rachele Williams and Lawson Arnett (2009), Workforce Management
· Andrew Sturdy, University of Bristol and Nick Wylie, Oxford Brookes
University(2011), INTERNAL CONSULTANTS AS AGENTS OF
CHANGE
· Dr Andrew Dean(2011), An examination of the innovative role of Change
Agents in workplace and community settings
· Organization Excellence Journey(2007), Dr. Hesham A. E. Magd
· Ester Kruger, Bioss Southern Africa, HR As Change Agents: What
Competencies Do We Need?
· Human Resource Strategy: A Tool of Managing Change for Organizational
Excellence(2011),International Journal of Business and Management Vol. 6,
No. 8.
· Xuan Pham,University of Missouri-Kansas City, Five Principles of Path
Creation
· Diane E. Ragsdale(2010), THE EXCELLENCE BARRIER
· Gayla Hodges,The Three Greatest Barriers to Organizational Change
· Martin Coskun Armin Krdzalic, The Characteristics of Change Agents In
The Context Of Organizational Development
· John P. Kotter, (1995), Leading Change: Why Transformations Effort Fail

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· Jim Canterucci, Change Project Management-The Next Step,
http://www.corpchange.com [Accessed 20/5-08]
· Russell L. Ackoff, Understanding the enterprise as a system_VB Interview
(Vincent Barabba)
· Albert A Angehrn and Jill E M Atherton, Conceptual Framework for
Assessing Development Programmers for Change Agents
· Dave Ulrich (1998), A New Mandate for Human Resources
· J. Schuler (2003), Overcoming Resistance to Change: Top Ten Reasons for
Change
Resistance,http://www.schulersolutions.com/resistance_to_change.html
· Abraham. H. Maslow (1943), Human Motivation
· Fredrickson (2007), Positive Psychology - Positive Psychology Principles
Applied to Consulting – Psychology at the Individual and Group Level
· Fred Nickols, (2006), Change Management 101
· Gail Swift, Human Resource Service Delivery

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