Human Resources Organisational Change and Development Essay

Human Resources Organisational Change and Development - Essay Example This is a real case study of a merger between these two companies. Both the companies were multinationals having offices in various parts of the world. However, this case study refers to the change management problems encountered in Pakistan. The change process was first adopted in other countries and implemented as is in Pakistan after their success. During the year 2004, the Group Sanofi-Synthelabo and Aventis merged to create Sanofi-Aventis. Sanofi-Aventis operates within the Pharmaceutical preparations sector. The Group's principal activities are the research, production and distribution of pharmaceuticals. It has operations in more than one hundred countries worldwide on 5 continents. Consolidated sales of 25 billon euros and 4 billion euros Research & Development expenditure based on 2003 reported figures Sanofi and Aventis are both well known pharmaceutical companies. However, with time, their certain geographical operations centers have become non-productive and year after year are unable to deliver the same performance as it used to. There are various factors that made this merger necessary including: The management of both the companies i.e. ... Increase in price of labour, minimum wage laws THE REASON TO CHANGE Change Objective: - The basic objective was to successfully create the worlds third largest pharmaceutical group. INDUSTRY LEADERSHIP According to the last IMS report Sanofi-Aventis is the 3rd largest company worldwide and number one in Europe. The market share of 5.6% is also amongst the highest in the industry. Research and Development Expenses at Sanofi-Aventis are among the top 3 in the industry. Their growth rate of over 11.4% as reflected by IMS and market share of 4.6% is among the top in the industry. Their sale is approximately 3+ billion The management of both the companies i.e. Aventis and Sanofi realized that this would include a complete change management program to be devised keeping in mind the individual nature of the organizations internal cultures. This change management program had to be devised in such a way as to minimize dissatisfaction and job insecurity in the current human resource employed at both the companies. For this purpose, both the companies decided to opt for planned change. According to Stephen P. Robbins, "planned change, refers to change activities that are intentional and goal oriented" The planned change programs to be implemented at both the organizations were to encompass the following spheres: Changing structure, or in essence redesigning of organizational structure. The critical issue faced was duplication of human resources at similar parallel positions. For these cases the candidate with the better profile including education, technical expertise, years of experience and skills up gradation , would retain the old job designation, responsibilities, whereas the other candidate would be offered a