The word “downsizing” is most often used as a euphemism for cutting the workforce, here, however, makes the distinction between downsizing and “laying people off”. Suggests that, while both bring about a reduction in the number of employees, downsizing offers strategic opportunities...

Experts in organizational change and reengineering estimate that only 30‐35 percent of projects are successful. One commentator has suggested that around $20 billion of the $32 billion a year spent on reengineering is for efforts which fail. A large number of the failures are caused by...

If the company’s investment in new technology is fully to succeed, it must serve real business needs. Much of the costly abuse which has characterized the introduction of a large percentage of new technology stems from human factors ‐ and particularly the poor communications which often...

What does it take to lead a company which is learning to change and changing to learn? Discusses the practices and principles of proven leaders from firms such as PepsiCo, Tata, Toyota and Wal‐Mart.

As the speed of change in the business world continues to increase, it is clear that few companies can afford to slow the momentum of continuous transformation merely to give themselves time to find and install a new chief executive. The experience of US telecommunications firm Ameritech...

When advances by competitors and rising price‐consciousness from consumers intensified the battle for market share, the Quaker Oats company reacted by striving to create a high performance organization. Explains the role which the Quaker University played in the process.

What does your human resources department do? More particularly, what should it be doing? A recent survey of more than 1,000 human resources and employee relations executives in North America sheds light on these and other questions.

The environmental role of personnel managers has, by and large, been confined to making sure that companies comply with environmental legislation. However, there are growing signs that human‐resource departments are beginning to play a more active part in the greening of the organization....

Spurred by recession, major Japanese corporations have reduced their workforces, introduced merit pay and performance appraisal, abolished promotion on seniority and moved production overseas. These have been unsettling to a culture which prides itself on stability, continuity, group support and...

Business faces a set of critical human problems, and is downgrading the very human resource departments which are supposed to help it to find solutions. Argues that salvation lies in the hands of human resource specialists themselves, who must switch from being administrators and huggers to...