Journal of Organizational Change Management

Managing people and learning in organisational change projects

David Shaw,
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Organisational
Managing people and learning in change
organisational change projects projects
David Shaw
Department of Human Resources and Organisational Behaviour,
University of Greenwich, London, UK
923
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Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to assess the influence of people management practices on the
outcomes of organisational change projects through their contributions to organisational learning.
The contributions to their outcomes of particular corporate and project-specific people management
practices are considered.
Design/methodology/approach – Case studies of two organisational change projects undertaken by
Arts Council England during 2006-2007 are used to examine how far and in what ways people management
practices influence the outcomes of such projects. Organisational change is considered as an instance of
organisational learning, which in turn is examined in relation to the twin activities of developing new ideas
and internal sense-making.
Findings – Evidence is presented that certain people management practices, individually and in
combination, influence the outcomes of organisational change projects significantly through their
contributions to organisational learning.
Research limitations/implications – Research into the influence of particular people management
practices, and the contexts and processes through which it is exerted, is necessary to develop more
generalisable conclusions. This influence is liable to be invisible to less granular research into people
management as a general construct.
Originality/value – Research into the use of project management methods specifically to implement
organisational change is sparse. The findings of this paper contradict findings from research into the
influence of people management on project outcomes in general, which suggest that it does not have a
significant effect.
Keywords Organizational learning, Explorative learning, Internal sense-making, Organizational change project,
People management practices
Paper type Research paper

Introduction
Use of project management methods to implement discontinuous, large-scale
organisational change is a standard practice (Chartered Institute of Personnel and
Development, 2003; Molloy and Whittington, 2005). Organisational change is
discontinuous when it involves an episode of rapid change that is separated
significantly in time from other such episodes, and large-scale when the change is
enterprise-wide and involves a change in strategy (Al-Haddad and Kotnour, 2015;
Todnem By, 2005). Partington (1996) questions the widespread belief that established
project management methods are generally applicable to any kind of change and calls
for more research into their use specifically in organisational change projects.
Shaw (2016) has demonstrated that project management and change management
constitute a complex duality, in which project management sometimes complements but
sometimes also conflicts with organisational change management. This literature raises
questions as to whether there are distinct factors that make a difference specifically to the
outcomes of organisational change projects.
Journal of Organizational Change
The author thanks Dr Laszlo Czaban of Manchester Business School who supervised research on Management
Vol. 30 No. 6, 2017
which this paper is partly based, and Professor David Gray of the University of Greenwich who pp. 923-935
provided extensive comments on early drafts of it. The author also thanks the staff of Arts Council © Emerald Publishing Limited
0953-4814
England who provided the access that made it possible to undertake this research. DOI 10.1108/JOCM-11-2016-0253
 JOCM Organisational change has been conceptualised as an instance of organisational
30,6 learning (Achtenhagen et al., 2003; Cyert and March, 1992). This paper considers
organisational learning from the perspective of the twin activities of developing new ideas
and internal sense-making (Achtenhagen et al., 2003). March’s (1991) concept of
explorative learning is used to inform the discussion of development of new ideas.
March (1991) distinguishes explorative learning, which involves searching for innovation
924 through experimentation and risk-taking, from exploitative learning, which involves
refining existing ways of doing things but avoiding the risks of experimentation. The
concept of explorative learning is particularly relevant to examination of discontinuous,
large-scale organisational change because of its association with change that is radical
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(Achtenhagen et al., 2003). Internal sense-making is a social process whereby meaning is

established in an organisation (Achtenhagen et al., 2003). March’s (1991) concept of mutual
learning, whereby people progressively establish shared knowledge and beliefs, is used to
inform the discussion of internal sense-making. Organisational learning is dependent on
the interaction between development of new ideas and internal sense-making. Whether or
not new ideas come to be adopted depends on how effectively they are diffused among
organisation members (Achtenhagen et al., 2003; Kim, 2015). Internal sense-making
includes the unlearning of established ideas, a prerequisite for adopting new ones
(Achtenhagen et al., 2003; Pettigrew, 2012). The dependence of organisational change
projects on organisational learning raises questions as to whether there are particular
people management practices that can influence them through their contributions to
explorative learning and internal sense-making.
Research that has been carried out into critical success factors in project management in
general suggests, surprisingly, that people management has little effect (Belout and
Gauvreau, 2004; Pinto and Prescott, 1988). Questionnaire surveys limited to professional
project managers form the basis for these findings. Belout and Gauvreau (2004) argue for
more granular research, based on more precise definitions of people management as a
construct, and for research drawing on wider perspectives, including those of project
sponsors. This paper explores possible directions for such more broadly based research.
The limitations of existing research into the influence of people management practices on
the outcomes of projects raise questions as to whether, and if so how far, people
management practices may in fact have a distinct influence on the outcomes of
discontinuous, large-scale organisational change projects.
Huemann et al. (2007) propose a broad framework for examining people management
practices, which has particular value for this research because it is designed specifically to
consider them in the context of project-oriented organisations. This framework highlights
two interrelated sets of corporate and project-specific people management practices.
Corporate practices include selection, development and individual performance
management, and release. Project-specific practices include assignment of people to
particular projects, their development and performance management while engaged on
those projects, and their redeployment from those projects to other activities.
The conceptual model in Figure 1 combines this framework with the perspective
proposed above that the interaction between explorative learning and internal
sense-making shapes the outcomes of organisational change projects. The model
identifies two sets of independent variables (corporate and project-specific people
management practices – italics) and a set of dependent variables (explorative learning
and internal sense-making – bold). This paper uses this model to analyse evidence
from two case studies of organisational change projects undertaken during 2006-2007
by Arts Council England (ACE). The two sections that follow draw upon the literature to
discuss in turn how corporate and project-specific people management practices influence
explorative learning and internal sense-making.
 Organisational
Corporate people management practices change
Development and projects
Selection performance Release
management

925
Outcomes of organisational change projects
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Explorative learning Internal sense-making Figure 1.

Conceptual model
of how people
management practices
can influence
Development and organisational change
Assignment performance Redeployment projects through
management their effects on
organisational
Project-specific people management practices learning

How corporate people management practices can influence organisational

learning
Selection
Corporate selection practices can involve knowledge grafting, that is, importation of outsiders
with knowledge that is novel to an organisation (Huber, 1991; Nag et al., 2007). Huber (1991),
for example, highlights General Motors’ acquisition of EDS in order to import information
systems expertise. This may constitute a significant contribution towards explorative learning.
Appointment of outsiders to an executive team often engenders changes in mind-sets, leading to
discontinuous, large scale change (Fondas and Wiersema, 1997; Schuler and Jackson, 1987).
Nag et al. (2007), however, show that outsiders’ influence depends on internal sense-making.
They describe how a technology-oriented company failed in an attempt to import greater
marketing capability by appointing outsiders with business development expertise, because this
new knowledge proved too alien to the company’s sense of identity to be generally adopted.

Development and performance management

Human resource management literature identifies a number of development and
performance management practices that can contribute to explorative learning
and internal sense-making. Several corporate leadership development practices identified
by Day (2000) facilitate explorative learning. These include executive coaching by external
consultants, planned job assignments across different countries, and action learning
projects. Companies also use sabbaticals to expose people to new and unfamiliar
environments (Carr and Tang, 2005; Morison et al., 2006). Sabbaticals could be regarded as
an extension of the use of job assignments advocated by Day (2000), although the literature
focusses mainly on their use to retain access to employees who might otherwise have been
made redundant during business downturns, or to re-energise unmotivated employees.
Corporate seminars that help people build their personal networks across their
organisations, and action learning projects that encourage openness to the ideas and
involvement of others from across an organisation’s internal boundaries, also facilitate
enterprise-wide knowledge sharing – a key aspect of internal sense-making (Achtenhagen
et al., 2003; Pettigrew and Massini, 2003).
 JOCM Performance management practices may encourage organisation members to contribute
30,6 to internal sense-making by sharing their knowledge with their colleagues. Ernst & Young
uses its performance appraisal system to assess management consultants’ contributions to
internal knowledge sharing, while the performance appraisal and reward of partners in Bain
takes into account how far they share knowledge with their colleagues (Hansen et al., 1999).

926 Release
March (1991) argues that a certain level of staff turnover is beneficial for internal sense-
making because it disrupts the development of excessive homogeneity of beliefs among
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organisation members. Reinganum (1985) shows that replacing an incumbent on a small

firm’s executive team with a newcomer produces benefits only when the incumbent actually
leaves the organisation, which suggests that champions of old ideas have to depart before
new ideas can be accepted. Fondas and Wiersema (1997) find that an organisation’s
processes of socialisation of senior managers, for example, giving a new chief executive a
“preview” of the job before actually taking it over, can reduce the outsider’s impact in
bringing about change. Staff turnover may help counteract such socialisation effects.
Downsizing/restructuring contributes to internal sense-making by helping an organisation
unlearn outdated ideas (Achtenhagen et al., 2003; Freeman and Cameron, 1993;
Pettigrew, 2012). Downsizing/restructuring does not simply reduce the membership of an
organisation; it can also be both a symbolic act that signals a break with the past, and a
purposeful initiative typically involving substantial changes in an organisation’s processes,
structures and external relationships (Freeman and Cameron, 1993; Tsai, 2008).
Moreover, Achtenhagen et al. (2003) point out that adoption of certain new organisational
structures can facilitate increased sharing of knowledge and ideas. It should be recognised,
however, that downsizing/restructuring can also be shown to have detrimental effects, arising
from losses of tacit knowledge and increased behavioural rigidity among employees, in
particular in knowledge-intensive and high-growth industries (Guthrie and Datta, 2008).

How project-specific people management practices can influence organisational

learning
Assignment
Project-based organising contributes to internal sense-making by facilitating horizontal
interaction across structural boundaries (Achtenhagen et al., 2003; Pettigrew and Massini,
2003). Members of organisational change project teams often combine their project-based
roles with their everyday jobs, which makes these projects a conduit for sharing knowledge
beyond as well as within the project team (Eskerod and Jepsen, 2005). Projects are
temporary organisations, however, so they cannot offer clear career paths to their members.
In order to attract people to join organisational change project teams, therefore, trade-offs
have to be struck between the competency requirements of the project and the learning and
development benefits that members of the project team expect (Huemann et al., 2007;
Turner and Müller, 2003). Eskerod and Jepsen (2005) discuss the option of voluntary
enrolment, whereby managers call for volunteers to perform organisational change project
roles, as a means of attracting team members.

Development and performance management

Training in project management methods is the main focus for the development of people
engaged in project-based work (Fabi and Pettersen, 1992). Basic competence in project
management is needed if team members are to contribute effectively to the horizontal,
social interaction upon which internal sense-making depends (Achtenhagen et al., 2003;
Pettigrew and Massini, 2003).
 Overlaying project structures across traditional, hierarchical structures engenders a range Organisational
of conflicts between project and functional roles (Turner and Keegan, 1999). Specifically, change
the roles of project and functional managers in the performance management of project team projects
members have to be balanced (Fabi and Pettersen, 1992). The flexible ways of working
involved in projects create problems in setting appropriate pay levels for project team
members (Fabi and Pettersen, 1992). Moreover, the appropriateness of individual as opposed
to team-based reward for project-based work is sometimes questioned (McHugh et al., 2001). 927
Redeployment
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People who have completed their work on a project often face uncertainties about their
future deployment. Early consultation with people in this position is important in retaining
the benefits of their learning from their project experience, and encouraging people to
participate in organisational change projects (Huemann et al., 2007).
The following sections of this paper set out evidence from case studies of ACE’s projects.
The paper then discusses how far, and in what ways, the influences of people management
practices that are suggested by the literature are apparent in this empirical evidence, and the
implications for future research.

ACE’s arts debate and taking part projects

ACE was formed in 2002 through the merger of the former Arts Council of England with
11 English Regional Arts Boards. It used project management methods to implement its
post-merger restructuring. During 2006-2007 ACE was undertaking two projects, within a
wider, overall project portfolio, which were designed to contribute to discontinuous,
large-scale change. Historically ACE had supported art that experts regarded as excellent.
It now sought to meet the expectations of public funding of the arts among a wider range of
stakeholders. The Arts Debate project was set up to assess these stakeholders’ expectations
of public investment in the arts, so as to help identify ways in which ACE could create
greater public value. The Taking Part project sought to identify ways of increasing
attendance at, and participation in, the arts among black and minority ethnic people,
disabled people, and people in lower socio-economic groups.

Research method
A case study approach was used, involving semi-structured interviews, document analysis,
and observation. This approach is well-suited to research where a sharp distinction cannot
be drawn between the phenomena that are of interest and their organisational context
(Gibbert and Ruigrok, 2010).
ACE’s Arts Debate and Taking Part projects were selected as suitable cases for this
research because they constituted two contrasting projects that were directed towards the
same strategic organisational change. The Arts Debate project drew on external influences
to support the development of new ideas, and a project team formed mainly from only two
groups within ACE’s national office carried out the work. The Taking Part project team was
created through the assignment of people from a wider range of constituencies across the
organisation, with consequent benefits for internal sense-making. Downsizing/restructuring
of the national office – ACE’s largest office where most of its most senior employees
worked – shaped the context for both projects. These circumstances meant that ACE
presented what Gray (2014) identifies as a critical case, offering a distinct opportunity to
undertake a longitudinal study of the phenomena that were of interest.
Data were collected about these two projects from September 2006 to December 2007.
Thematic analysis was used to identify patterns within the data (Braun and Clarke, 2006).
The author conducted 22 semi-structured interviews, with 15 different individuals.
 JOCM Seven people were interviewed twice, once in the autumn of 2006 and once in the summer of
30,6 2007. The sample of interviewees reflected four main perspectives. Those were, first, four
national office staff who were participants in the two projects; second, three regional office
participants in them; third, five national office staff who were involved in the governance of
these projects; and fourth, three representatives of interested external organisations.
The author observed one project meeting in relation to each of the two projects in the
928 autumn of 2006. Overt non-participant methods were used (Gray, 2014). A range of
documents about ACE’s projects and strategies were reviewed.
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Findings from the case studies

Findings from the two case studies are set out in the following paragraphs, first in
relation to the influence of corporate, and then of project-specific people management
practices. These reveal how ACE’s people management practices exerted significant
influence on the two projects through the organisational learning that they supported, but in
different ways.

The influence of corporate people management practices

Data from the research that highlight the ways in which corporate people management
practices influenced the projects are summarised in Table I.

People management
practices Data from the case studies Observations

Selection
Selection of outsiders “[The Arts Debate] is probably […] Appointment of an outsider with relevant
with novel progressing […] speedily not least experience to the executive team, and of a
competencies because it’s being championed by [XXX], contractor with professional project
who’s come in from outside” management expertise, had a major
“[Assignment of an external contractor as influence on the Arts Debate project
Arts Debate project manager] was very
instrumental in all of this […]”
Development and performance management
Development of “[…] freed from my day-to-day The chief executive’s exploration during a
executives through responsibilities as chief executive of Arts sabbatical of the relevance to ACE of the
novel experiences Council England […] it is a chance to take concept of public value was a major
stock of what’s been achieved and think influence on the Arts Debate project
about the future of the arts and Arts
Council England” (Hewitt, 2005)
Release
Release of adherents “What we did effectively is give people the The national office review was a symbol
to the status quo choice. You can choose to join this new of a significant break with ACE’s past,
structure, whereas I think what happened and caused a change in its membership
with the merger [through which ACE had that encouraged new mind-sets
been created in 2002] is that some people
Table I. didn’t really have the choice to be made
Case study data redundant in effect”
illustrating the Restructuring of “It’s the first time we’ve got development New structures were implemented that
influence of corporate diverse groups in and the arts in one team. Historically it induced collaborative working between
people management integrated units would have been about us getting a balance different functions
practices on between those two things and now we’re
organisational having to come up with recommendations
learning […] where we’ve agreed on things”
 The executive sponsor of the Arts Debate project was a recent appointee to ACE’s executive Organisational
board who had recently participated in a public value consultation for another public sector change
body. Table I illustrates how the sponsor’s status as an outsider contributed to the pace at projects
which the project was implemented. Moreover, the sponsor brought knowledge to ACE that
supported what was seen as a radically innovative project – the title of ACE’s project
definition document was, “The arts debate – Arts Council England’s first-ever public value
inquiry […]” (Bunting, 2006). A specialist project manager was appointed on a fixed-term 929
contract to support on-time delivery of the project.
Table I illustrates the influence on the project of a sabbatical that the chief executive took
from January 2005, and described in a publication in the following May (Hewitt, 2005). The chief
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executive initiated the project and was active in supporting it, following discussions with people
in the UK and overseas during the sabbatical that encompassed the concept of public value.
The national office review set out to make significant cost savings, based on downsizing
the national office from a staff of some 200 to around 160. It led to the departure of two
executive directors and all of ACE’s art form directors. As Table I illustrates, under the
national office review people were required to make a commitment to ACE’s new strategy,
and the option of redundancy was available to those who could not. Moreover, the new
organisation structure of the national office brought together units that had formerly been
separate. As Table I illustrates, this facilitated integration of decision-making among these
units where previously there had been competitiveness.

The influence of project-specific people management practices

Data from the research that highlight the ways in which project-specific people management
practices influenced the projects are summarised in Table II.
The Arts Debate project team consisted mainly of members of the national office’s
research and communications teams and an external contractor as project manager.
The project leader was the head of the research team, while the executive sponsor was the
executive director responsible for the communications team. As Table II illustrates,
the executive sponsor instructed members of the communications team to treat their
assignment to the project as part of their “day job”. A primary concern was to complete the
project tasks within the agreed timescale. As one informant put it, “[…] the Arts Debate
was very clear, we were launching in November [2006], we were closing in May, we were
doing the analysis in the summer, we were reporting in October [2007] […]”. Appointment
of an outsider as project manager on a fixed-term contract, and formation of a compact
project team with limited diversity in its membership, reflected an initial concern for
efficient and timely completion of project tasks rather than a concern for wider
engagement across the organisation.
By contrast with the Arts Debate Project, the Taking Part project gave priority to
including people from ACE’s regional offices as well as its national office in its project team,
because those offices managed the relationships with the arts organisations that ACE
funded. As such they were responsible for action to increase participation in the arts. As one
project participant put it, “we have to go through this because we have 600 staff, and […] it
won’t make a difference unless we get all of our staff aligned and doing the work […]”.
As Table II illustrates, experience and expertise in participation in the arts was widely
dispersed across ACE’s regional offices. Thus, there was no conflict here between wide
stakeholder involvement and project capability. Project team members reported that their
own learning and development benefited from strengthening of their personal networks
across the organisation and insights gained from the project. Table II illustrates how
members of the Taking Part team were motivated by the mutual reinforcement between
their project-based and everyday work, as well as the facilitative leadership style adopted
by the Taking Part project leader.
 JOCM People management
30,6 practices Data from the case studies Observations

Assignment
Assignment “[XXX] basically gave them sort of Membership of the Arts Debate project
facilitating instructions then that […] this is part of team was largely confined to two teams
management control your workload, in effect. So I think from in ACE’s national office. The line
930 that moment on, I think, that was probably managers of these two teams became the
the key moment actually. From that project sponsor and project leader.
moment on everybody had a sense This led to strong, hierarchical control
that over the next six months actually over the project
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[the Arts Debate] is part of my day job”

Assignment “It felt like a really good mix of […] Membership of the Taking Part project
facilitating regional people and national people [on the team involved greater diversity of
stakeholder Taking Part project], and people who’d membership from across the whole of
engagement worked on the arts side and people who ACE. This reflected the priority given in
were more on the policy side, and people this project team to engaging with its
who got community art and things […] stakeholders across ACE from the outset.
[We] couldn’t have done it without that” The project leader relied on facilitation
“It’s certainly made my relationships with skills to guide the work of team members
colleagues, both around the organisation who were drawn from a range of different
and at national office, much stronger” hierarchical structures within ACE
“One of [the Taking Part project leader’s]
real strengths is in facilitation and
bringing people, bringing you on board
[…]. [the project leader] does facilitate in a
really good way, so that everybody has
their view, and that actually everybody
does take responsibility for different
pieces of work”
Competency-based “It’s not probably as democratic as it Despite an attempt at voluntary
assignment could be. [We’ve] set up a register of enrolment, assignment was based on
people to join if they want to do project individuals’ perceived competencies in
working, but that’s not really brought up relation to the project requirements
many names at all […] pragmatism
demands you take people who can really
help with the project”
Development and performance management
Development “When we started off with corporate Project team members had some prior
through experiential projects [during the post-merger change familiarity with project management
learning programme in 2002] […] we […] had […] a methods through their use and support
project office […] We had that dedicated during the post-merger restructuring of
resource […]” ACE in 2002
Adaptation of the Informants said that ACE adapted its The performance management system
performance performance management system so as to was adapted to take account of people’s
management take account of the performance of project contributions, but the limited use
process project team members on their project- of variable, performance-related pay in
based work as well as line managers’ ACE limited the practical significance of
Table II. assessments of their performance in their this adaptation
Case study data everyday work
illustrating the
influence of project- Redeployment
specific people Redeployment “We decided we wouldn’t [bring project The uncertainties arising from the
management practices constrained by other leaders together] because we wouldn’t national office review constrained
on organisational priorities have necessarily had the right people in planning for the period after project
learning place. It’s the uncertainty” completion
 Assignment of members to neither team could be regarded as democratic. As Table II Organisational
illustrates, although opportunities were provided for volunteers to put themselves forward change
for project roles, decisions on assignments to the projects were based on managerial projects
judgements as to who would make the most effective contributions to the projects.
Development support was provided to project team members but as Table I indicates,
importation of specialised project management expertise was seen as necessary in order to
complete the Arts Debate project within the required timescale. ACE adapted its 931
performance management system so as to take people’s project contributions into account in
their performance appraisals. While this seemed necessary in order to be fair, the limited
scope for variable, performance-related pay in ACE’s reward system limited the significance
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of this move. Informants indicated that the intrinsic reward of participating in the projects,
including the opportunity to influence strategic decisions, was a stronger motivator.
The close association between the project-based and everyday work of the members of
these two project teams meant that they would be able to apply their learning from the
projects in their everyday jobs on completion of their project roles. Table II illustrates,
however, the uncertainties created by the national office review, and there were losses of
staff who had gained valuable learning from the projects as a result of it as well as the
fixed-term nature of the Arts Debate project manager’s appointment.

Discussion
The evidence from these case studies shows that people management practices can
influence the outcomes of organisational change projects through their contributions to
explorative learning and internal sense-making. As argued by Pettigrew and Whipp (1991),
however, the nature of this influence is complex and diverse, and encompasses the context
in which, and the processes through which, explorative learning and internal sense-making
occur. Ways in which the data from these case studies confirm and extend insights from the
existing literature are discussed below.

Corporate people management practices

ACE’s selection of an outsider as a member of the executive team and as executive sponsor
of the Arts Debate project, illustrates the role of knowledge grafting in the importation of
new expertise (Huber, 1991; Nag et al., 2007). It confirms that an outsider who has not been
socialised into an organisation’s established ways of doing things can be a force for change
(Fondas and Wiersema, 1997; Schuler and Jackson, 1987). This evidence is, however,
consistent also with the indications in the literature that an outsider’s ability to be an
effective change agent depends on the presence of certain conditions. Reinganum (1985),
for example, finds that the appointment of an outsider is beneficial only in small firms, while
Nag et al. (2007) point out that conflicts with an organisation’s established sense of identity
may vitiate attempts to introduce new ways of doing things. As an organisation with some
600 employees at the time, ACE might be regarded as small enough to be susceptible to the
influence of an outsider. Moreover, the chief executive’s leadership of a range of other
organisational changes towards which the Arts Debate also was directed was helping to
reorient ACE’s sense of identity in ways that were favourable for change.
The chief executive’s sabbatical, involving discussion and subsequent documentation of
ideas that underlay the Arts Debate, illustrates the contribution that certain forms of
leadership development may make to explorative learning (Day, 2000). While Day (2000)
emphasises the value for leadership development of planned job assignments over extended
periods, including overseas assignments, he is silent on the role of sabbaticals, which might
be regarded as a natural extension of this approach.
ACE saw it as a priority to encourage integration through collaborative working and
knowledge sharing among people from the different institutions from which it had been
 JOCM formed in 2002. There is no evidence in these case studies, however, of ACE using its
30,6 performance management system in the ways that Hansen et al. (1999) describe in
management consultancy firms. This reflects cultural differences between ACE and those
firms, associated with ACE’s limited use of performance-related pay within its reward
management approach.
Downsizing/restructuring influenced the two organisational change projects examined
932 in four main ways. First, the national office review illustrates how, as suggested by
Freeman and Cameron (1993), downsizing/restructuring can constitute a symbol of change
that facilitates unlearning of previous beliefs. Second, it illustrates how, as March (1991)
argues, staff turnover can be important in overturning excessive homogeneity of
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beliefs about established ways of doing things. In fact the national office review altered
the membership of the organisation substantially in favour of new beliefs. Third, it
illustrates how, as Achtenhagen et al. (2003) suggest, removing internal structural
boundaries can encourage horizontal interaction and knowledge sharing across an
organisation. Fourth, however, it illustrates ways in which downsizing/restructuring can
also have adverse effects, as Guthrie and Datta (2008) found, for example, as a result
losses of tacit knowledge.

Project-specific people management practices

The evidence of these case studies reinforces the views of Huemann et al. (2007) about the
importance of decision-making about assignment for project success, but in different ways.
The decisions made about assignments to the Arts Debate project were important in
enabling the project to be completed on time. Those made about assignments to the Taking
Part project enabled that project team to engage with a range of stakeholder groups across
ACE and to provide a diverse range of inputs into the work. These decisions were important
also in realising benefits of project-based working that ACE was seeking in terms of
encouraging horizontal interaction across its recently merged organisation (Pettigrew and
Massini, 2003). These case studies do not, however, support the arguments for voluntary
enrolment discussed by Eskerod and Jepsen (2005). Rather, ACE’s encouragement of people
to volunteer for project roles appears to have had little effect.
Fabi and Pettersen (1992) emphasise the importance of staff development in project
management knowledge and skills. This did not play a central role in these projects.
This may in part reflect familiarity with project management methods that ACE staff had
gained during its post-merger restructuring following the organisation’s formation in 2002.
Advanced project management skills to support the Arts Debate project, however, were
acquired through the appointment of an external contractor. As Fabi and Pettersen (1992)
suggest, the adoption of project management structures requires decisions to be made about
how the roles of project managers and line managers should be balanced in the performance
management process. ACE addressed this issue by involving project leaders as well as line
managers in the performance appraisal of project team members.
Huemann et al. (2007) highlight the importance of planned redeployment of project
team members on project completion in order to retain them in the organisation and
make use of their learning from their project experience. These case studies shed no direct
light on this issue, because the project team members were, for the most part, drawn
from everyday roles in the organisation that they continued to perform while
undertaking their project-based work and to which they would return. As well as
contributing to the successful outcomes of the two projects, however, as noted above, the
downsizing/restructuring associated with the national office review led to a number of
uncertainties that had some disruptive effects on the projects while they were in progress
and to staff losses, thereby denying ACE the learning of those staff members from
their project experience.
 Conclusion Organisational
The evidence from these two case studies suggests that people management practices can change
influence the outcomes of organisational change projects through their contributions to projects
organisational learning, although the limited scope of this research discourages
over-extravagant claims as to the generalisability of these findings. The complex and
indirect nature of much of this influence, however, for example, the role of the national office
review in reshaping the context for change, and of decisions about assignment of people to 933
projects in shaping the process of change, means that it is liable to be invisible to research
that does not include detailed examination of context and process. Thus, Belout and
Gauvreau (2004), who were surprised by the failure of their own research to establish a
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significant, positive relationship between people management and project success, call for
research based on a more detailed definition of people management and drawing on a wider
range of perspectives. Similarly, Molloy and Whittington (2005) argue that detailed
examination of the ways in which apparently standard change management methods are
adapted and customised in practice to suit particular organisational circumstances is
necessary in order fully to understand their impact.
These two case studies, drawing on the framework of corporate and project-specific
people management practices proposed by Huemann et al. (2007), and organisational
learning theory, suggest ways in which people management practices can influence the
outcomes of organisational change projects through their contributions to organisational
learning. There is evidence here for the influence of:
• the selection of outsiders in driving forward explorative learning;
• development processes that stimulate explorative learning by exposing insider
executives to outside experiences;
• downsizing/restructuring practices that shape internal sense-making through
disruption of homogeneity of beliefs that inhibits change, unlearning of old ideas,
and breaking down of structural barriers to horizontal interaction; and
• practices for assigning people to organisational change project teams that make them
effective as vehicles for both explorative learning and internal sense-making.
Further research to validate and elaborate the themes identified in this paper based on
larger samples could contribute significantly to our understanding of the roles that people
management plays in projects that are directed specifically towards implementing
discontinuous, large-scale organisational change. The increasing emergence of
organisational change initiatives as formal projects suggests that wide-ranging research
into the detail of how people management practices can influence the outcomes of
organisational change projects could produce valuable returns for both management
practice and scholarship.

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About the author

David Shaw is a Visiting Lecturer in the Human Resources and Organisational Behaviour Department,
University of Greenwich Business School. He was awarded a Doctorate in Business Administration by
Manchester Business School for research into the influence of organisation design on project outcomes
on which this paper is partly based. Before joining the University of Greenwich Business School,
David was a Management Consultant for over 20 years, specialising in the management of
organisational change. David Shaw can be contacted at: [email protected]

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