Research Briefs – November 2014 | Queen's University IRC

Queen's University IRC - Research Briefs

Bringing Practitioner-Focused Research to People Management Practitioners

Nov. 2014

In This Issue…

The Case for Change at Humber College: The HRMS Innovation Project – Part 1
Leadership Sustainability: A Framework to Sustain Culture Shifts
Flashback Feature:
Negotiations: Why Do We Do It Like We Do?

The Case for Change at Humber College: The HRMS Innovation Project – Part 1
Kathy Cowan Sahadath and Althea L. Gordon, Humber College

Organizational change is a constant challenge today and plays a significant role for organizational leadership in institutions of higher education. On a daily basis organizations are challenged to improve their business performance, and take on new and exciting projects, often as a result of a change in strategy or to increase business effectiveness.

Over the past two years Humber College has undergone significant change towards being strategically positioned as the leader in Polytechnic education in Ontario. In September 2013 Humber launched a revitalized brand to support student success.

In supporting Humber's value of innovation, Human Resources Services over the next year and a half, will undertake a transformational change initiative to our HR systems most notably with the design and implementation of a new Human Resources Management System (HRMS) technology business platform for managing our HR processes.

This paper represents the first in a series of papers that will follow this case study throughout its project lifecycle and describe the College's journey in implementing a major change initiative.

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Leadership Sustainability: A Framework to Sustain Culture Shifts
Beverley Patwell, Queen's IRC Facilitator

Organizations that seek to create and sustain culture shifts must do more than train leaders to lead and manage in new ways. They must also be effective in developing people at all levels of the organization to sustain these culture shifts. Leading, developing and managing people in real time is critical for the long-term success of culture shifts.

This type of human development is complex. It must be aligned with the strategic priorities of the organization yet have meaning and relevance not just for leaders but for everyone if it is to be sustainable over time. Change must be adopted at all levels of the organization and incorporated into the core of thinking and behavior in the organization. As a result, we need to look at leadership development differently in terms of how we learn, transmit knowledge, develop skills and how we measure and evaluate it.

My company, Patwell Consulting, has been developing and implementing large scale, complex leadership development programs for over three decades. Based on years of research and practice in large organizations, I have created unique design elements in my programs aimed at sustainable leadership that focuses on helping leaders to play an active role in leading change, transmitting their knowledge, and dealing with business challenges. These elements that I will discuss, go far beyond the classroom to engage people at all levels and achieve results that embed and sustain culture shifts in organizations.

This article synthesizes my experiences in developing a Sustainable Leadership Development Framework. This framework moves through four stages that help build and ground the implementation of an organization's leadership development strategy through a vision and strategic steps that result in lasting organizational culture shifts. Examples of wise practices will be given to highlight the key concepts of this framework so that you too can use these strategies to increase the potential of leadership sustainability in your organization.

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Flashback Feature:
Negotiations: Why Do We Do It Like We Do?
George W. Adams, 1992

George Adams presented this paper in May 1992 at the Annual Spring Industrial Relations Seminar. As a labour lawyer and a professor of labour law, he mediated many disputes over the years. His views on the negotiation process were timely in view of the competitive challenges facing the workplace of the 1990s. In his paper he noted:

Negotiating sessions should be brainstorming efforts aimed at inventing as many solutions for joint gain as possible. Brainstorming requires an honest look at all possible solutions and a candid examination of interests.
Solutions arrived at through 'principled' negotiations are more elegant, more satisfying and more enduring.
Principled bargaining requires earlier preparation, constant communication, training and, possibly, earlier party involvement.
Collective bargaining conducted on this more sophisticated plane will achieve the kind of outcomes consistent with increasingly competitive and global marketplaces.

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