Does HRM really matter in bringing about strategic change? Comparative action research in ten European steel firms

Friso Den Hertog, Ad Van Iterson and Christian Mari

European Management Journal, 2010, vol. 28, issue 1, 14-24

Abstract: Summary This paper discusses the contribution of human resource management to major transformations in ten European steel companies during the 1990s, and is based on an exchange program organized by the European Confederation of Iron and Steel Industries (Eurofer). The study focuses on three aspects of HRM's contribution to strategic change: (1) the context in which change was embedded, (2) the implementation process of the change, and (3) the communication strategies used by management to create trustworthiness regarding the change process. Some firms proved to be supporters of "long marches" (incremental change over an extended period of time), while others were rather involved in "short strokes" (rapid overall change) (cf. [Kanter, R. M., Stein, B. A. and Jick, T. D. (1992). The challenge of organizational change. Free Press, New York]). We conclude that HRM has played a role as strategic partner in most steel companies, particularly those who made short strokes, while also a trend towards closer integration of HRM with line management became evident, primarily in those firms taking long marches.

Keywords: Human resources management Strategic change management Communication; rhetoric and trust building European steel industry (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0263237308001308
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:eurman:v:28:y:2010:i:1:p:14-24

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/115/bibliographic
http://www.elsevier. ... me/115/bibliographic

Access Statistics for this article

European Management Journal is currently edited by Michael Haenlein

More articles in European Management Journal from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().