HRM: A driver and enabler of change

This chapter acknowledges the wide range of human resource challenges prompting change within health systems, before considering the potential role that human resource management can play in supporting and enabling change within health care organizations. People are a pivotal resource in health care. Health care organizations strive to provide high-quality, safe and efficient services through the effective recruitment, retention and management of employees. The chapter provides an example of how the HR function creates awareness of the need for change, and space to support it, by working with line managers. the chapter considers the literature regarding HR's role in planned changed processes, before providing an empirical example of HR's enacted practice in supporting planned change. HR holds an unenviable position as 'piggy-in-the-middle' in health service change-both subject to national change initiatives and responsible for supporting their delivery within organizations.