Case Analysis: Autoliv Australia
1. Using Schuler and Jackson’s framework, outline the key HR policies, practices and initiatives that Autoliv has introduced to facilitate the delivery of its intended changes.
The strategies and objective of Autoliv focuses on their statement that their skilled and educated people helps them to produce as well as sell the most reliable, high quality, cost effective, innovative as well as environmentally friendly automotive safety system. Thus the company focuses on changing the entire human resource aspects in order to obtain their desired result, in terms of their customer relationship and global performance.
It is important to consider that the entire values of the company focuses on the high performance values like trust, openness, integrity, teamwork, equity and fairness, equal job opportunity, participation, consultation, communication and accountability. Thus, supported by the open leadership style and valued leadership approach that is used and applied by the CEO and management team. This has been done by a great communication process.
The changes in the company focus on different important aspects or areas of human resource such as: performance management, work design, staffing the organization, education, training and development, career development and succession planning, reward and recognition, and equal opportunity and work life balance.
Based on those different areas, and on the Schuler and Jackson’s framework, it can be said that the management of the Autoliv applied the innovation strategy, in order to implement change in the human resource management process. It is important to take note that in order to support the innovation strategy, it is important for a company to have high levels of creative, risk-oriented as well as cooperative behavior. Thus, the entire people management practices must focus on the process of encouraging cooperation as well as creativity, and provide considerable opportunities for career development (Ingham, 2006, p. 74).
As a result, the company focuses on the process of selecting the highly skilled individuals, giving the employees more discretion, using minimal controls, making greater investment in human resources, providing more resources for experimentation, allowing as well as focusing on the even rewarding occasional failure and then appraising performance for its long run implications (Schuler & Jackson, 1987 at Ingham, 2006, p. 74). As a result, all of the changes that have been implemented resulted to the willingness of the employees to accept and endure uncertainty and irregularity as well as the demand and need to be creative, together with risk taking (Nickson, 2007, p. 11).
This can be seen in the process of performance management of the company which focuses on the different key performance indicators that flow up to the lower level of management. In addition, the detailed job competencies have been clearly defined and each and every employee is informed regarding the skills that are required to do a given job or to be promoted into a specific job. Aside from that, the company uses two tests that will ensure that the work practices as well as decision are on the right track: proactive self assessment and benchmarking. The most important is the proactive self-assessment approach that helps to provide a large measures of consistency, at the same time helping to limit and thwart any possible misunderstanding that will result to undesirable as well as expensive industrial disagreements.
As a support for the innovation strategy of the company, its staffing process ensures that the organization attracts the qualified applicants by using a method that will recognize the applicable strategies that will help to push the employees to perform, while satisfying and keeping them. In addition, the company also focuses more on recruiting their permanent employees, but include the casual workers that help to provide for changes in demand of the customers. This helps the organization to have a better job security, training opportunities as well as career choices.
In the innovation strategy, a given firm or company focuses on ensuring that they have the best group of talented and skilled people in order to gain their competitive advantage in the aspect of human resource management. Thus a continuous process and flow of learning and development is essential. This can be seen in the implementation of the company of an integrated training as well as development strategy that strengthen by a continuous improvement philosophy. Thus, the company focuses on redesigning of its training and career policies as well as programs that will facilitate the movement of the staffs, primarily women to move into the management level.
Another important movement of change focuses on the process of career development and succession planning, together with the reward and recognition. The career development helps the company to ensure that their employees are gaining new knowledge and skills in other field or profession. This is important because the entire innovation or differentiation approach or strategy focuses on ensuring that the employees are creative and talented enough in order to drive innovation and development that will later on result to the improvement of the company’s entire performance. On the other hand, the reward and recognition focuses on supplying motivation for the employees in order for them to strive for the best and maintain their interests.
2. There are many theorists who argue that the scope and leadership style of change management are important considerations and that different organizational personnel carry responsibility for aspects of change management.
Based on the case of Autoliv, it can be said that the CEO and the HR Director are the one that are responsible for change or known as the change agents. It is important first, to consider that change helps the way people in a given organization think; change the norm; as well as change the organization’s systems or processes (Pyzdek, 2003, pp. 15 – 16). Thus, the change agent helps to achieve and complete these goals (Pyzdek, 2003, p. 16). In addition, there are five vital modes that a change agent can relate throughout the entire change process, the roles of the change agent can be as: a catalyzer; a process helper; a solution giver; a resource linker, a stabilizer (Chartier, 1985, p. 178).
The change agent helps his or her respective organization in the process of organizing an assessment of the organization in order to identify its current strengths and weaknesses. That is the reason why change agent plays a vital role in the entire quality improvement and placed in the strategic positions in the entire organization. This helps them to assist the coordination and connection of the development as well as implementation of the quality improvement plans (Pyzdek, 2003, p. 16).
This can be seen in the effort of both the CEO and the HR Director to focus on the different important aspect of the organization, with accordance to the different HR practices and programs.
The entire change process of Autoliv focuses on the change by rational problem solving. The said process is strict with connection to the different phases that are included in the entire process of problem-solving process. Kepner & Tregoe (1981) identify five-phases of problem solving: problem definition, problem specification, generation of possible solutions, testing solutions as well as verification. It shows that any one phase should not be started before the preceding process has been successfully completed (van Aken, Berends & van der Bij, p. 18).
The change process occurred in the organization focuses on the changes regarding the human resource management, particularly in the different aspects that can push or make the most of motivation of the employees. Aside from that, it also focuses on the image of the organization towards the outsider, or those applicants. This is because, the said change enables the company to gain popularity as well as attention from other companies and other award-giving organization, regarding the programs and rules and regulations that they are implementing in order to ensure good working environment.
Thus, all of the said scope is supported by different management and leadership style that contributed with the success of the said change. In addition, the leadership and management approach and style mainly focus on good communication flow and process inside and out the organization, particularly within and from the different managerial levels.
The CEO and the HR Director uses open leadership style in order to manage the entire change as well as the employees. It is important to consider that the open leadership style helps to produce more suggested solutions as well as the use of different available and accessible facts, compare with the closed leadership style (Hart, Stern & Sundelius, 1997, p. 64). As a result, it enables the company to maintain pure, unfiltered line of communication (Harari, 2003, p. 47).
Above all, the company is using the hands-on approach of management that shows great attention that is given by the organization towards the employees that includes the aspect of knowing how the people spend their time; matching the skills and task; using different techniques in reviewing and evaluating the skills and job requirements; together with the process of applying and implementing technology (Taylor & Macfarlane, 2005, p. 40).
As a result, the implementation of open leadership and hands-on approach of management enables the head management to focus on the demand and needs of their employees, at the same time, ensuring that the employees know their responsibilities towards the organization, in order to sustain its competitive advantage and maintain its position in the market at the same time, helping to maintain sound and good relationship inside the organization.
References
Chartier, M. (1985). ‘Functional Roles for Facilitating Organizational Change’. In L. Goodstein & J. W. Pfeiffer (Eds.) The 1985 Annual Developing Human Resources (The Fourteenth Annual) (pp. 177 – 182). San Diego, California: University Associates. Inc.
Harari, O. (2003). The Leadership Secret of Colin Powell, McGraw-Hill Professional.
Hart, P., Stern, E. & Sundelius, B. (1997). Beyond Groupthinking: Political Group Dynamics and Foreign Policy-Making, University of Michigan Press.
Ingham, J. (2006). Strategic Human Capital Management: Creating Value Through People. Butterworth-Heinemann.
Nickson, D. (2007). Human Resource Management for the Hospitality and Tourism Industies, Butterworth-Heinemann.
Pyzdek, T. (2003). The Six Sigma Handbook: A Complete Guide for Green Belts, Black Belts and Managers at All Levels, McGraw-Hill Professional.
Taylor, S. & Macfarlane, I. (2005). ITIL Small-Scale Implementation, Britain: The Stationary Office.
van Aken, J., Berends, H. & van der Bij, H. (2007). Cambridge University Press.
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