According to O’Donnell (2004), elements of a best-practice model of human resource
management—regarded as significant for organisational success (for example, Pfeffer 1998)—were
in place. These included the work of the Centrelink Virtual College, the promotion of teamwork
and the handling of performance and recruitment. There was ‘evidence of the emergence of a
more strategic approach to [human resource management] whereby human resource policies are
increasingly integrated with the organisation’s approach to business planning via the
development of Centrelink’s National People Plan’ (O’Donnell 2004:19). O’Donnell also observed
that these initiatives did not yet represent a coherent and complementary set of human
resource practices. The experience
suggested a
contingent and organisational specific response to the challenges and pressures involved in creating a large integrated service delivery organisation employing almost 25,000 employees operating under strong market pressures and under intense scrutiny from the federal government and other government departments. (O’Donnell 2004:19)
Changing culture is essential for major organisational change, but it is regarded as difficult to accomplish. The requirements include ‘the mutual interaction of new symbols and definitions and of changed structures, expectations, and rewards. New attitudes need to be demonstrated in new behaviours and expectations’ (Spicer et al. 1996:180). In Centrelink’s case, the challenges of pre-existing cultures were dealt with as the organisation was infused with a distinctive new culture that was aligned increasingly with strategic directions. The leader played a pivotal role in communicating the new order and investing ‘spirit’ to produce change in staff attitudes and behaviour. As a consequence, the organisation was able to claim that, in time, it became more customer centred, service delivery conscious, client oriented and performance focused.