Managing people and learning in organisational change projects

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.

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.

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 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.

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.