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This study aims to reinforce the importance of taking HR beyond administrative activity leading to stronger market orientated performance and the greater use of its people. Many organizations underestimate the effects of deliberately combining market orientation with internal communication demands. As a strategic partner, HR can offer support for designing effective workplace concepts that address such a challenge.

Using in-depth interviews, the authors explore aspects of effective workplace designs in high-performing German firms. This work is taken from a wider study of commercial office solutions completed in 2017.

Workplace designs need to be carefully developed to meet firm-specific needs dedicated to a market orientation strategy.

Practical lessons are drawn for helping HR professionals to better facilitate market orientation and communication needs from inside the organization.

The purpose of this paper is to test a journey mapping approach as a first step to systematically prepare organizations for the many critical moments in B2B relationships.

By applying a case study of a shopping mall operator, experts on both sides of the B2B relationship (operator (n = 12) and retailer (n = 14)) were interviewed to develop and test the effectiveness of customer journey mapping. The information from these interviews was used to formulate several practical recommendations.

Using the journey mapping to differentiate, change from a touchpoint to a journey orientation, and shift towards cross-functional methods, all help develop a customer journey perspective and frame a culture that supports organizational development.

The discussion of the various benefits of journey mapping can improve organizational learning and provides practitioners with insights into effectively differentiating through a customer-centric orientation.

Organization renewal through innovation represents a difficult managerial challenge in family firms. This paper aims to reveal a framework for sustaining innovation capabilities through a perspective of value and process principles.

The author examined the findings from consulting projects in high performing family firms and literature from the areas of family firm strategy and leadership.

The author describes how combining patterns of innovative organizations with patterns of high-performing family firms can help leaders to sustain innovation. This study indicates that a value- and process-driven perspective is important for effective innovation. In particular, the four value principles are continuity-, community-, connection- and command-related factors (4C’s). The four process principles, in turn, are profession-, project-, product- and purchase-related factors (4P’s).

This paper is a part of a wider study of innovative German family firms initiated in 2012. The 4C’s and 4P’s framework suggests a practical means to better implement innovation by reconciling the firm’s innovation strategy, leadership behavior and organizational learning.

When studying innovation in family firms, several contradictions appear, as the family and the firm represent different social systems that follow different rules and expectations. This paper aims to argue that a deeper understanding and effective management of those paradoxes is crucial for the family firm’s innovation performance.

Using theory-building principles, this paper has an abductive character; new research propositions are offered to provide insights into the apparently paradoxical aspects of successfully managing a family firm’s innovation strategy.

Three contradictions are presented and discussed: first, the family can be a hazard and source for the firm; second, family members acting as shareholder and investor; and third, established practice and innovation issues may compete against each other in the quest to sustainably rejuvenate the organization. Inferences are drawn from these apparent contradictions concerning family firm management, providing a basis to form propositions that effectively support innovation.

This paper provides a paradoxical perspective on the innovation phenomenon in family firms and offers practical implications to help leaders better shape their organization’s innovation strategy.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the successful implementation of a digital work method named Building Information Modelling (BIM) and make recommendations to help organizations better test and implement innovative work approaches. Learning experiences not only provide insights into the building sector, but also into any organization interested in culture and effective response mechanisms during technological change.

By applying a critical incident technique, BIM experts at one mid-sized case organization were interviewed to examine the learning experiences from converting implementation intentions into actions. The information from these interviews was used to formulate a number of practical recommendations.

The interviews outlined the various development opportunities that implementing new digital methods may offer for senior management and staff. Investing in small projects that work and the corresponding behavioral change required, together with regular project reviews, all help to build unique capabilities and to frame a culture that supports organizational development.

The discussion of the various benefits and conditions under which new technology implementation can improve organizational learning provides practitioners with insights into how effectively to convert change intentions into action.

Effective leadership can be success-critical in mergers and acquisitions. The purpose of this study is to present what human resource (HR) practice can offer if such leadership is absent and puts the success of the merger or acquisition at risk.

Drawing on a recent merger, this paper clarifies the interplay between trust, leadership and conflict.

HR can take an active role in supporting top management during major organizational change by avoiding a leadership vacuum; effectively communicating promises by the new owner; and offering support in interfamilial conflicts during the integration phase.

Supporting a smooth exit for the target owner, assisting the owning family in their communication activities and taking conflicts within the family seriously, all help to effectively merge two family firms.

Mergers & acquisitions (M&As) can be an effective way to expand into new markets or business opportunities. Yet, a considerable number of failed M&As can be attributed to disregarded human resource (HR) concerns. In particular, an organization’s leadership tends to hail the advantages of a merger or acquisition during the early stages, raising employees’ expectations (honeymoon effect). Many documented failures in such corporate transactions indicate organizational members’ declining satisfaction following a deal (hangover effect).

Drawing on in-depth interviews with senior M&A experts (n = 12) at a global big-four accountancy firm and focus group sessions with their respective clients, this study investigates in two cases the interplay between HR issues and M&A transactions and infers effective risk management actions.

A honeymoon hangover after a transaction may appear in organizations if HR issues are neglected. Study results provide notable implications for HR departments and HR professionals facing a merger or acquisition. These implications include (1) focusing on HR risks, (2) involving HR executives to manage the HR due diligence efforts, (3) setting up transition teams that communicate well, (4) creating policies for learning and knowledge sharing, (5) developing new competencies for the NewCo, (6) being sensitive to cultural differences and (7) considering legal aspects.

The two transactions studied revealed patterns that are important for successful change. However, we should not underestimate the individual perspective in M&As. Further studies with interview data directly from stakeholders are important to analyze further the relationships between HR due diligence, organizational learning, effective knowledge transfer, and culture. Due to our research approach, we cannot claim that the results can be generalizable to all major M&As. Further research is needed to measure the impact of the HR Due Diligence aspects outlined on M&A success.

Although M&As have been much researched, relatively little has been written on practical managerial adaptation from a human resource perspective and its implications for organizational learning. This article helps address this imbalance by providing a people-oriented approach for effectively managing M&As from beginning to integration.

Top-management teams often have no shared understanding of the organizational vision, or they find it unhelpful for decision-making due to its vague and uninspiring style. The purpose of this paper is to test a theory-based workshop to effectively develop a shared vision for organizational development and learning.

Based on the Collins and Porras (2008) vision framework, the authors tested a workshop design with top management teams.

The outlined vision workshop is a useful tool to develop a shared organizational vision in a systematic way.

This paper provides a practical approach to vision building that is relevant and shared by top management teams. Lessons drawn from the case analysis provide insights into the means by which organizations can shape their development through a compelling, guiding force.

Experience suggests that a loss of trust may occur on both sides of the merger and acquisition (M&A) equation – acquirer and acquiree – though the latter is more generally considered the most affected. The purpose of this paper is to explore how a loss of trust during the M&A process in family firms can be avoided. An acquisition potentially triggers a loss of trust in the workplace and, as a result, a loss of productivity thereby causing the merged business to totter. Moreover, trust in a firm’s owner tends to be a key driver in merging family firms.

The authors investigated an expanding German family firm that recently acquired other family firms. They conducted in-depth interviews on all hierarchical levels in both the acquiring and the acquired firm. These cases are taken from a wider study of acquiring family firms completed in 2019.

Value congruence, integrity and openness are found to enhance trust during M&As, in particular, if the new owner of a merged enterprise is also a family entrepreneur. Under certain circumstances, the trust of employees in the acquired firm’s previous owner can be transferred to the new owner.

This study explores how specific circumstances of family firms impacts organizational trust in M&A processes. The developed framework helps family firms to use characteristics of their specific nature as an asset to maintain their employees’ organizational trust before, during and even after M&As.

Considering the distressingly low rate of success in introducing radical new products, the purpose of this paper is to reinforce the importance of taking human resources beyond administrative activity leading to stronger innovation performance and the greater use of its people. In particular, this paper highlights three persistent fallacies in human resource practices: need for creativity; efficiency of bottom-up efforts; and monetary incentives for product innovations and to learn from innovative organizations about how to deal with these fallacies.

This paper details the correlation between culture, confidence, support mechanisms through HR, and innovation by reviewing innovation cases in high-performing organizations.

Problem definition, pragmatism and leadership represent critical innovation determinants. As a strategic partner HR can offer support to tackle the three described fallacies of product innovations.

This paper suggests a practical means for helping HR professionals to better understand how some simple organizational rules can effectively build innovation capabilities.