Strategic Learning and Leading Change – How Global Organizations are Reinventing HR

Citation

John, S. (2010), "Strategic Learning and Leading Change – How Global Organizations are Reinventing HR", Human Resource Management International Digest, Vol. 18 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/hrmid.2010.04418aae.003

Strategic Learning and Leading Change – How Global Organizations are Reinventing HR

Article Type: Suggested readings From: Human Resource Management International Digest, Volume 18, Issue 1

Stephen JohnButterworth-Heinemann, 2009, ISBN: 9780750682886

The aim of Strategic Learning and Leading Change, although not made explicit in the text, seems to be to help business leaders to improve strategy execution and influence board members. It is therefore likely to be of greatest interest to managers and others involved in organizational development and human-resource development, management consultants advising on learning and change, and students and managers involved in graduate and executive-education programs in these disciplines, globally.

Stephen John is primarily a consultant involved in providing high-performance and human-capital solutions to organizations across a range of sectors and countries. He also has a doctorate in organizational leadership and learning.

The three chapters of Part 1 focus on the history of globalization and the challenges that leaders and managers face in building and managing global organizations. Note is made that companies that have already done so have encountered significant strain in their performance, talent-management and leadership-development strategies and practice.

Eight principles of strategic learning are identified and discussed in relation to the performance development and coaching skills needed by leaders in global companies. The role of teams in building global strategy and leading change is also discussed, as is the use of social-network analysis in assisting strategic learning and leading change.

The four chapters of Part 2 follow the fortunes of APC, a Europe-based pharmaceutical company that reinvented its business model through building a global team-based organization. Evidence is given of how this was accomplished by introducing and using strategic learning principles and tools, such as communities of practice, knowledge sharing and knowledge-location technologies. Examples are also given of how APC went about developing and building its current and future leadership talent. Integral to this strategy was the role of research and development and human resources as culture change agents in developing global team-based strategy. However there is perhaps too much detail on APC, which sometimes disguises the “nuggets” that can be drawn from the case study.

Part 3, in contrast, is rather too short. It discusses companies and individuals that have successfully identified and developed the critical business capabilities needed by today’s HR function. There is more to say about this.

The text is punctuated by figures, checklists, diagrams and side-headings and there are useful references at the end of each chapter.

Reviewed by Alan Cattell, formerly of the University of Bradford, UK.

A longer version of this review was originally published in Industrial and Commercial Training, Vol. 41 No. 3, 2009.