to normal in the short term. However, the most difficult issue had still remained unresolved. During the period of the financial crisis, it appeared that there was a complete buy-in to the new strategy. But this appeared to be a misconception as once the company had started to stabilise, the realisation that the cultural issues still very much remained, began to dawn. In order to achieve the long term strategic goals of the company, the MD knew that he had to address these issues by educating the organisation of the need for a significant cultural change. The initiation of the Core Management Programme turned out to be brilliant idea. It was a brave gamble (the costs of implementation amounted to 25% of the firm’s profits) that eventually paid off. The programme built on identifying the existing levers for change in the organisation and making use of these in communicating the new strategy at all levels. After initial resistance, people gradually started to understand the concepts of the new strategy and the importance of human resources in gaining competitive advantage. It is assumed that one of the biggest issues in the firm’s HRM strategy had been addressed eventuallyShift from Personnel and HR Planning:In response to the significant changes that had been made to the overall strategy of the firm came the need to expand the Human Resource side of the organisation in comparison to the personnel aspect. The was a significant shift away from traditional personnel values such as industrial relations and employee relations towards a much broader, strategic and critical viewpoint of the company’s human resources with an emphasis on competitive advantage. With reference to the writings of by John Storey (1989), it appears that the focus had shifted from the ‘soft’ to the ‘hard’ side of HRM.In order to achieve its new strategic goals and to ensure long term stability, the personnel function needed to ...
