Due to the relevance involved in change management, there are many scholars who have covered the topic in their attempt to demystify what a good change management approach should look like. Review of literature gives a research topic different view, which makes it an important aspect in any research. It is also important that literature is reviewed in order to establish if there are knowledge gaps so that, if gaps are identified, new research would address them. A thorough literature review also gives a researcher the opportunity to come up with an original work as opposed to repeating what has already been covered by previous researchers.
The review of literature will be of invaluable help in the completion of this research project. First, it will elucidate on what has already been said on the topic of change management. This will greatly help in ensuring that the research focuses on the existing knowledge gap in the field of change management. Apart from this, the literature review will prove helpful in the process of establishing the current trends in change management which will greatly help in the process of identifying the needed change in the contemporary organizations.
The review of literature will also help in answering the research question as it will bring the required knowledge on this topic into focus. In completing this review, the researcher will be interested in demystifying what has been said by different authors concerning the topic where aspects such as agreement of the literature, disagreement or counter arguments will be presented. This will help in expanding the scope of knowledge posed in the field of change management.
In his contribution to the topic of change management and the role of human resources in the process of change, Hiatt and Creasey (124) assert that an organization can only effect meaningful change through elaborate measures that are set to ensure that the workers who get into the organization are tested to ensure that they represent the best talent available in the market. By saying this Hiatt and Creasey point out that the role of recruitment procedures in the process of ensuring that an organization harnesses talent cannot be ignored. He also shows that change cannot originate from maintenance of status quos in organizations as the workers that are hired must show their willingness to adapt to any form of change that the organization may deem appropriate.
Sylvie and Witherspoon (54-63) examine this topic from the perspective of the role that is played by the human resources in change initiatives and management. They note that the human resource has the major driving force in change management as the strategic managers who form part of the human resource are the main drivers of change. This shows that recruitment approaches in the human resource departments has a significant role in regard to the change initiatives that will be made by an organization.
The ways in which workers are treated in an organization as well as the set human resource procedures affect the conceptualization of various aspects at the workplace. Similarly, workers who are natured in an organization culture that focuses on individual and group initiatives tend to embrace change in a more beneficial manner as opposed to workers who work in rigid organizations characterized by rigid rules, regulations and many red tapes. This literature would be of great value in demystifying whether companies in Dubai such as the Dubai Investment company have adopted human resource practices that are geared towards nurturing an environment that is conducive for change.
Another notable contribution in this topic was advanced by Wang (74) who notes that contemporary organizations are adopting the use of performance appraisal to effect change in the organization. He further notes that pre-hiring appraisal practices have been vital in ensuring that the workers hired in an organization are well versed in the needed area of expertise hence making the realization of new change on the organization an achievable objective.
He further notes that change is self-driven by an individual, but the role of organization culture as well as other prevailing organizational forces cannot be ignored as far as organizational change is concerned. In this light, Wang is of the idea that organizations must drive their change initiative by adopting sound recruitment procedures to ensure that they only engage workers who are ready to adapt to the needed change in the organization. On a similar note, Baum’s (78) work is beneficial as it shows that recruitment practices that are adopted by the human resource department have an overall effect in effecting change or maintaining a status quo in an organization. Wang’s work can offer invaluable insights into how change can be effected in organizations that operate in the Dubai.
Markaz (60) is of the idea that Dubai corporate sector is undergoing tremendous change especially due to the rise in the adoption of modern information and communication technology. Citing the example of Dubai Investment Company as well as the Abu Dhabi Company, Markaz, (60), argues that the modern Arab world corporates are shaped by the information technology that has been driven by the influx of many young workers in the workforce. Markaz is of the idea that was it not for sound and deliberate moves by the human resource department to selectively hire the best talents in the market, the identified companies could not have achieved the desired change. Therefore, it is evident that recruitment procedures have an invaluable role in the process of managing change in the contemporary organizations.
In their statistical work of the Dubai economy, Matly and Dillon (112), manage to show that the Dubai economy has undergone tremendous change, a fact that has placed the economy among the economies of the world noted for their fast growth and business hub. Matly and Dillon assert that, due to these growing changes in the economy, various stakeholders have been forced to undergo some changes, paramount being the change that has been adopted by the human resource departments.
They are of the idea that was it not for the human resource departments’ foresight in many companies in Dubai; most companies would be stuck in a vicious cycle of sameness such that there would be no definite changes that would have been realized. Cameron and Green, (135), agrees with Matly and Dillon and further assert that there are no organizations in the world that can effectively manage to survive change if the human resource department, which, according to Cameron and Green, (135), is the core pillar of organizations, does not have a major stake in contributing to this change. Therefore, it is evident that the role of recruitment as a core function of the human resource department is a major driver for change in organizations in Dubai as well as in other parts of the world.
Although most of the authors are of the idea that change can be effected through effective recruitment practices, Paton (168) is critical of this idea in the sense that recruitment practices only deal with new employees which in most cases forms a negligible percentage of the workers in an organization. He argues that recruitment practices cannot be used to effect meaningful change or their contribution to the change in organization is mostly negligible.
Therefore, according to Paton change is an initiative of internal and old strategic managers who determine the course of the company. Asserting that the new workers are the ones who bring in the needed change is therefore, a fallacy as such workers are hired with an already set objective in the mind of the organizations strategic and human resource managers, to effect a specific change. Therefore, according to Sylvie and Witherspoon (64) the change that is attributed to effective hiring processes is not the initiatives of the workers who ends up being hired, but an initiative of an already existing workforce.
In conclusion, one cannot fail to see that there are areas that future research needs to establish. One of the major areas that future research should seek to clarify is the critic raised by Paton (168), concerning the role of recruitment process in change initiatives. Critically speaking, when workers are hired by an employer to initiate a certain change, the credit should go to those who first initiated the need for change. Thus, it is true that although sound recruitment strategies have a lot of influence in change initiative as well as management of organizational change, sound change should be an all-encompassing phenomenon as opposed to focusing on recruitment initiatives only.
Works Cited
Baum, Tom. Human resource management for tourism, hospitality and leisure: an International perspective. Upper Saddle River: Cengage Learning EMEA. 2006. Print.
Cameron, Esther and Green, Mike. Making Sense of Change Management: A Complete Guide to the Models, Tools and Techniques of Organizational Change. New York: Kogan Page Publishers, 2009. Print.
Hiatt, Jeff and Creasey, Timothy. Change management: the people side of change. New York: Prosci, 2003. Print.
Markaz al-Imārāt lil-Dirāsāt wa-al-Buḥūth al-Istirātījīyah. The information revolution and the Arab world: its impact on state and society. Dubai: I.B.Tauris. 1998. Print.
Matly, Michael and Dillon, Laura. Dubai Strategy: Past, Present, Future. Boston: Harvard Business School. 2007. Print.
Paton, Robert. Change Management: A Guide to Effective Implementation. New York: SAGE Publications Ltd, 2008. Print.
Sylvie, George,and Witherspoon, Patricia. Time, change and the American newspaper. New York: Routledge. 2002. Print.
Wang, XiaoHu. Performance analysis for public and nonprofit organizations. New York: Jones & Bartlett Learning. 2010. Print.