Organizational Change: Perspectives From Human Resource Management

How human resource management professionals view organizational change and their roles in it matters because those perceptions serve as a foundation for how they define their roles and as a boundary for what they might see as possible. Despite the importance of understanding these perspectives, few studies have explored human resources professionals’ views of organizational change and their roles in it. Data from 547 human resources professionals across a wide range of industries and organizational levels reveal the perception of top-leader involvement in 80 percent of successful changes. The data also suggest that human resources professionals hold numerous roles in change efforts, including those of ‘change agent’ and ‘consultant.’ Additionally, the data revealed that most human resource management professionals tended to view successful organizational change as primarily occurring in a top-down, hierarchical manner. A minority – yet potentially consequential – portion of the respondents viewed their role in organizational change as limited or not very important. We discuss these findings in light of relevant theoretical frameworks of organizational change, offering practical and scholarly implications.