Research Summary
Research Summary
Managing Workplace Reforms and Organization-Wide Transformations
Description
Richard E. Walton is studying (with doctoral candidate Scott
Hamlin and research associate Kathleen Scharf) the development and
diffusion of new forms of union-management partnership together with
other new practices in the steel industry. To test and elaborate his
theory of social systems capabilities for innovative change, set forth
in his book Innovating to Compete, Walton and his colleagues are
comparing records of change since 1980 in twelve mills belonging to four
large integrated producers. Their study will examine how corporate
executives and union leaders in this major U.S. industry are attempting
to transform work systems in response to strong competitive pressures.
Their findings will be reported in the forthcoming book Forging
Partnerships in American Steel. Walton is also studying (with Richard
Ault and Mark Childers) a particularly instructive decade-long change
process in a major pulp and paper company - Champion International Paper
Corporation. The effort is transforming the corporation from one end of
the value chain to the other, dramatically affecting every employee
group, from machine operators to technology professionals. It has
involved significant change in structures and mindsets, from the mill
floor to the executive suite, and has paid off handsomely in both
economic and human terms, making Champion one of the foremost
contemporary exemplars of corporatewide transformation. Walton plans a
book that documents, analyzes, and draws lessons from Champion's
experience.