English (pdf)
Article in xml format
Article references
Automatic translation
Send this article by e-mail
Cited by SciELO 
Cited by Google 
Similars in
SciELO 
Similars in Google 
Permalink
Introduction
This paper reports qualitative and quantitative benefits in using the change management approach in the process of centralizing and outsourcing thousands of financial transactions for accounts receivable, accounts payable and general ledger in a multinational company running a business in sixteen Latin-American countries. The project’s magnitude and complexity covered around 300 positions in finance teams throughout the region, and required the critical management of such transactions, to avoid negative impacts on the regular business.
Beyond moving financial transactions to the third party, the project focused on avoiding risks to the regular business and consequently, to business units’ financial and operational results. Disruptions to the business would happen due to potential billing failures or due to possible inaccurate recording of financial transactions or even due to the sales accounts inappropriate allocation. More than managing operational risks, it was necessary to manage project’s risks, for example, not delivering at the right time, the savings estimated in the definition phase and paying penalties to the third party due to possible delays in the project implementation.
Another issue was the history of failures regarding regional project implementation in Latin America. In the last five years, the multinational company tried to implement at least three projects in the region with no success. Therefore, any misunderstanding or even weakness in the project implementation would negatively affect employees’ morale both the project team as well as remaining employees working for finance areas.
It is relevant to point out that finance transactions centralization, implemented through a Shared Services Centre (SSC) project, aims to reduce operational costs and improve the service level. In this context, the most crucial challenge is to standardize and keep managing the company's normal processes (Chen & Bi, 2018). Although this decision may be taken at a high level, the migration has to take a process view on the scope (Bangemann, 2017). On the other hand, it brings together a high level of employees’ resistance against the change, caused by the elimination of redundant positions in different business units under the project scope. This resistance may be even higher when financial transactions are centralized and outsourced; it means, performed by a third party, outside the company. With this approach, all employees are impacted, both operators and leaders, once they are aware they have to assimilate a new way of working. Regarding employees’ resistance, despite it could be a valued resource in the completion of a change, it may increase if the company does not use a coherent communication plan.
Other complicating factors for the success of this project were the geographical distances between business units and the SSC and also, the variety of cultures among the sixteen Latin American countries, for example, Mexico, Argentina, Chile and Colombia. Besides, at that point, the company’s sales and profits in the region were very tight, with no room for mistakes or failures that would affect business units’ results. Those were basically, the elements to be managed by the project leadership team.
That said, considering the many risks involved in the SSC project implementation in Latin America, this paper presents the change management as a tool to minimize employees’ resistance, serving also to reduce operational issues that could delay the project implementation or even impact the business unit sales. It was developed as a joint effort involving the multinational company project team, the third party project team, the Human Resources (HR) and Finance teams in each country under the project scope to minimize potential risks and solve issues regarding employees’ resistance. After previously gathering and analyzing data, it was prepared a change management plan, strongly supported by communication actions. This plan allowed to treat employees’ resistance, convert finance leaders into change agents, reduce project risks, and proportioned the successful SSC project implementation in Latin America.
The literature review covers basic concepts of the SSC model, the employees’ resistance against organizational changes, and finally, the importance of change management in leading any project. We briefly describe how we implemented the Action Research method, describe how information was gathered and how problems raised during the project implementation were solved. In the results sections, we share and comment on the indicators before and after the project implementation. Finally, we propose actions to overcome similar issues in project implementation to companies in Latin America and consider the limitations of this work, suggesting future researches.
2. Literature review
This section presents basic theory related to the three main topics covered by this paper: Shared Services Centre, Resistance to organizational change, and Change management in projects.
2.1 Shared Services Centre (SSC)
Multinational companies around the business world are increasingly using the SSC model due to the positive results in cost reduction and service level improvement (Bergeron, 2003). Regarding its goals and features, SSC may be a strategy in which companies decide on sharing resources to provide services to different business units starting from a single unit, instead of using duplicated support positions within the organization (Quinn, Cooke, & Kris, 2000). Centralizing tasks in one single and the autonomous unit allows processes improvements, brings efficiency and adds value to the company’s internal clients. In other words, using appropriate techniques and tools, experts working in one SSC, perform standardized tasks that formerly were executed isolated using different processes in each business unit (Schulman, Harmer, & Lusk, 2001).
Typical business areas using the SSC model are Finance, which main processes are: Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable and General Ledger (Ulbrich, 2006), Human Resources (HR), mainly covering Payroll, Benefits Management and Services to Associates, Information Technology (IT), with Help Desk, Infrastructure and Network Services (Nasir et al. 2011), and customer services, procurement, facilities and asset management (Janssen & Joha, 2008). Beyond the success in the private sector, many journals mention successful Shared Services implementations in the public sector, bringing cost savings, improved services and efficiencies (Dollery & Akimov, 2007).
To maximize costs reduction and leverage scope and scale, global companies may decide to set up an SSC under the responsibility of a third party -outsourcing- or in other countries -offshoring- (Bryson, 2007). This is the case of the SSC described in this paper, which is outsourced and offshore, not using a multinational company’s resources. In whatever approach, the SSC implementation brings significant organizational changes, impacting all players involved (Ulbrich, 2006).
2.2 Resistance to organizational changes
«Nothing is permanent, but change» This quote from the Greek philosopher Heraclitus, has been used for a long time, and continues to be the starting point for one of the most discussed topics in the organizational studies: the resistance to the change, recognized as one of the main barriers to the successful organizational transformation (Hernandez & Caldas, 2001). Before talking about resistance to the organizational changes, it is important to remember that resistance may be felt like one of the forces contributing to maintaining the individual’s balance or the steady social system to which this individual belongs. Thus, from a broader perspective, resistance to change can also be seen positively, since it allows the survival of character, institutions, culture and civilization (Watson, 1971).
Particularly at the corporate level, it is vital to understand how people within the organization will react to organizational change, because the way they embrace change determines their explicit reactions and respective consequences for the organization (Oreg et al., 2011). In the case of an SSC, the elimination of redundant positions in the business units under the project scope is one of the reasons for employees’ resistance (Janssen & Joha, 2006). An outsourced SSC may generate even more resistance due to three reasons: employees that will be fired, employees that will remain in the organization, but working differently from the current processes. Finally, resistance will come from the leaders, who see their power and authority reduced with the new operation model (Joha & Janssen, 2014).
However, it is important to remember that the resistance can be used to accomplish the change, depending on managers shifting their predisposition to blame resistance for the failure of change. Ford & Ford (2010) claim that to start using resistance as a valuable resource for achieving change, managers have to change their perception that resistance is a threat. Besides, managers have to see two sides of change, which means that the change is not only ‘over there’, but ‘I am also impacted by it’. Finally, managers have to stop considering resistance as negative «a more complete and balanced view of resistance can provide more flexibility in the field of managing change». In other words, it is possible to use the negative feedback as an opportunity to engage end-users in reform design and implementation (Elston & MacCarthaigh, 2016).
The misalignment regarding messages issued by the top management to the whole organization also may increase the resistance among employees (Pieterse et al., 2012). The project management has to pay special attention to change management to minimize those different types of resistance and increase the probability of a successful SSC implementation.
2.3 Change management in projects
Project is a temporary endeavor, undertaken to create a unique product, service, or result (PMI, 2001). To support their business growth plans and the organizational changes, companies use projects and mainly project management, a set of knowledge, practices, and tools to bring discipline and keep the project under control, minimizing their risks (Webster Jr. & Knutson, 2004).
In his research, Cooke-Davies (2002), supported by data and evidence, identified twelve critical success factors for a project, and all of them somehow, are related to human factors since it is people, not systems or processes, who deliver projects. In this direction, individuals are naturally resistant since this, to a certain extent, guarantees its subsistence (Watson, 1971). Due to this reason, change management becomes an integral part of the project management, since managing resistance of individuals that compose the organization, effectively contributes to the project`s success (Dievernich et al., 2015). By achieving the individual commitment to the change, organizational commitment is more easily achieved, counting on high levels of support (Herscovitch & Meyer, 2002). Finally, it is pointed out that the fundamental role played by the internal communication is to share the project vision and objectives and to gain employees commitment (Kotter, 1996), as well as to support them to manage the change proposed by the company and thus, consciously and actively contribute to the project success (Harkness, 2000).
Method
Action Research is a kind of research, conceptualized by Lewin (1946) and later, enlarged and expanded on by other behavioral scientists. People working with others, in teams, lead it to improve the way they address issues and solve problems (Stringer, 2013). This paper is about a participatory Action Research since it was developed to solve a particular problem, counting on the researcher direct intervention, in cooperation with other professionals working for the multinational company and the third-party service provider (Thiollent, 2011). Roughly, the method is broken on the first cycle of planning actions, including diagnosis. The second cycle is the action, or transformation, a phase when it is possible to change earlier plans to take advantage of the learning activities. Finally, the third phase of action research is the output, also called the results phase. An active communication and feedback process intensively supports all of those three phases or cycles (Lewin, 1958).
Another purpose of this project was also to produce guidelines for best practices to be applied in future projects in Latin America (Denscombe, 2010). In the sequence, we present the phases completed during the project. All information gathered in the assessment and used for diagnosis, as well as used to develop and implement the solution, are primary because they were available to the researcher.
3.1 Diagnosis-exploratory phase-
The field for this research was the set of financial areas from sixteen business units in Latin America of a multinational company in the cosmetics industry. From the approximately 450 employees working in Finance for sixteen countries, around 300 positions would be eliminated due to the implementation of an outsourced Shared Service Centre (SSC). The scope was all transactions performed in Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable and General Ledger. The implementation of a new operating model and the elimination of such a number of positions were the fundamental reasons for a high resistance from all employees throughout the region, including the top management. The complexity of this project and a history of failures in previous different regional projects in the company guided the decision for contracting the third party not only for executing finance transactions but also, to define, prepare and execute actions for the SSC project implementation, jointly with the project leadership team. Around 1,000 processes were defined for the centralization in the SSC, many of them considered critical since it would directly impact the multinational's billing. That was an additional risk because any mistake in the project implementation or even any failure in the regular operations would negatively affect sales or profits.
3.2 Research topic
Employees’ resistance to the change in a project of an SSC implementation, covering sixteen countries in Latin America. The action research was developed to overcome resistance to the SSC implementation and to minimize risks during the transition of operations from the business units to the SSC. The project leadership team defined, planned and implemented actions to overcome employees’ resistance, to assure the normal operation of financial areas during the transition period, minimize risks to the company’s billing and deliver the SSC implementation project on time and on the budget.
3.3 Issues
How to minimize employees’ resistance to the profound organizational changes brought by this project? How to reduce risks of occurring any operational incident that would delay the SSC implementation or negatively influence the business units’ billing? How to gain commitment from business units’ leadership? Additionally, to those issues, there were challenges represented by cultural differences among Latin America countries and by the geographical distance between the SSC and the fifteen business units. In a first moment, aiming to solve those issues and to minimize risks, was set up a cross-functional team composed by the multinational's project team, including the researcher, and a multifunctional project team working for the third party. In a second phase, before transitioning operations of each country, small teams were created, composed by the project’s team members and representatives from HR and Finance of each business unit to discuss any potential additional issue.
3.4 Data gathering
The first step given by the project’s team was to understand the proposed timeline with the sequence defined for operations transition from business units to the SSC. Therefore, it was possible to validate the transition sequence, deadlines, and the steps planned for operations migration to the SSC. After that, the leading causes of resistance to the project implementation were assessed. The third-party project’s team had experience with transitions while the multinational project’s team was aware of the history of each business unit as well as of features of each finance team and their respective leaders. Working together, the project team prepared a stakeholder map and their possible reactions, identifying the leaders supporting or resisting the project. After that, the project team prepared a change management plan considering visits to each business unit, which main objectives were to work with the local HR teams to identify resistant individuals and treat them before the transition. Also, we assessed the communication needs in order to adequate the key project messages to the local target audience.
3.5 Analysis
Right after the official project kick-off, many workshops inside the project team were held to discuss and agree on the best approach to apply the change management plan. The consensus was to have a regional approach, which means, a common communication plan to all Latin America countries to clarify key messages and another local approach, to treat specific requirements of each business unit.
Considering that the way employees embrace the change determines their explicit reactions and respective consequences for the organization (Oreg et al., 2011), and that the individual commitment to the change increases the level of organizational commitment (Herscovitch & Meyer, 2002), the project team identified that was fundamental to gain the trust from employees. In addition, it was a critical success factor to gain trust not only from financial areas but also from the other functional areas. Another risk was identified regarding the possibility of losing key-persons that work in the processes that were in scope to be transitioned to the SSC. This possibility would put in risk the regular business during and after the transition to the SSC.
3.6 Knowledge
With this scenario and aiming to achieve the best possible result, the project team looked for specific information about each country and its culture. Also, the team reviewed the organizational chart and main business processes of each business unit. With this information, cultural differences between project team members and some countries under the project scope were identified. Because of this assessment, one of the team members born in Argentina was reallocated to another project, avoiding the risk of conflict with the business unit in Chile. Another action was to deepen the knowledge about the history, values, and visions of both, the multinational and from the third party.
3.7 Proposal -actions planning-
An action plan was deployed explicitly focusing change management on minimizing the resistance to this radical change in the finance areas of each business unit in Latin America. The first step was to develop a better communication from the regional perspective, which means, with clear, single, and adequate messages to each audience. In addition, a local communication plan was developed, covering the specific needs of each business unit. The project team took by reference, the implementation timeline prepared by the finance experts, considering the migration of processes and activities by country, instead of the migration by the process.
The transition period for each country was estimated in eight weeks, on average. Based on this timeline, the project team defined a schedule to visit in advance, all sixteen countries. Before starting the transition, the main goals of these visits were to share project objectives with local leadership and inform local finance employees about the project. Beyond gaining the local leadership commitment to the project, these visits had the purpose of listening and clarifying local employees’ questions regarding the SSC model. Another important objective was to calm down finance employees regarding their participation in the project, in the migration process and mainly, their labor rights and benefits offered by the multinational company for employees that would be terminated. Typically, the agenda for these visits was composed of a meeting with the local business unit top management, a separate meeting with the finance leaders to provide more details about the project and finally, a roundtable with all employees working for finance. When applicable, the project team also had a separate meeting with the local HR leader to discuss specific issues regarding the local business unit.
3.8 Feedback and communication
Beyond the regional communication plan sustained during the whole project, communications also were cascaded down to each business unit, adjusted to the local audience, according to the feedback provided by meetings with local employees. Another action managed by communication was to share project results with the business unit employees, suppliers, and customers. Therefore, all players involved in the project had the chance to be aware of the benefits brought by the SSC project to the local business unit.
Results and Analysis
By adopting the change management plan, it was expected to minimize risks from a human perspective that could have negative impacts on the project implementation. Among positive qualitative results, shown in table 1, appears the early identification of the risk of a strike from company employees in country «V», which was avoided by the early negotiation of dismissal packages supported by the workers' local union. This action was possible by the fact that the project's team visited the country before the beginning of the transition phase and thus, identified and solved the risk in advance. Another positive result was obtained in country «C», where change management actions have transformed a strong union movement leader into a project advocate, by raising awareness of the benefits to the company and consequently to employees. In this case, this risk was identified well in advance, in a roundtable discussion with company employees.
Table 1 Qualitative benefits achieved with the change management plan
| Risks | Key action taken |
|---|---|
| Not being able to implement the project within the expected time, mainly due to the history of projects not completed by the multinational in Latin America | Definition and application of the change management plan to complete the project on time and planned conditions |
| Concerns about the project implementation in Chile due to the historical rivalry between Argentina and Chile | Move the Argentinean professional who was part of the project team to work with other countries instead of Chile |
| Strike in country «V» | Negotiation of the benefits package in advance with employees and union |
| Strong resistance of a union leader who was working in the business unit in country «C» | Convert the leader into a project supporter through project objectives awareness |
Source. Own elaboration.
Another relevant positive result was achieved in country «B», where an employee, upon the termination of his employment contract, sent a letter to the project team recognizing the respectful and transparent manner by which he had been treated. Among other qualitative results, the most significant acknowledgment came from the company's global headquarters, which distinguished the Latin America SSC implementation project as the best of all the projects developed in that year in all its units. Supported by these facts, it was found that the key success factor was the visits the project team planned for each country in advance and the meetings with the different audiences, allowing everyone to express themselves. Those risks would not have been identified without the visits, and in doing so, the project team gained the employees’ individual commitment. Therefore, it was possible to address and eliminate the risks that would have delayed the project completion.
Under the quantitative perspective, results are in Table 2. One of them was the retention of 97 % of the key people by the end of the project, which gave the project great accuracy and stability of the processes transferred to the SSC. This result was achieved because virtually, all the key people knowing how to perform the tasks transferred to the SSC, remained in the company remotely, supporting the new operators until they had learned to execute the transactions. Another significant number that contributed to the stabilization of the operation in the SSC was the voluntary stay of fired employees. Until the end of the transition process in each country, 95 % of the employees who had their contracts terminated after the implementation of the project, remained in local operations up to the end of the project. Finally, from the approximately 1,000 processes transferred to the SSC, only 2.3 % started late, comparing to the planned period or presented processing errors in the first week of operation, none of which was considered a critical process.
Table 2 Quantitative benefits achieved with the change management plan
| Risks | Minimum expected | Achieved |
|---|---|---|
| Loss of control on the processes executed due to key people leaving the company | Retention of 75 % | 97 % |
| Disruption of operations due to immediate dismissal of employees performing transactions | Retention of 65 % | 95 % |
| Delays in the regular processes due to issues in the transition of activities from the countries to the SSC | 10 % of process transferred | 2.3 % of process transferred |
| Disruption of critical processes | None | None |
Source. Own elaboration.
Results showed that the problem of risks caused by the resistance of employees of the multinational company's business units to the implementation of an SSC was solved through developing and applying a change management plan. The project team aimed to establish the individual commitment of each employee and thus to enhance organizational commitment. To achieve that, the team defined an action plan that achieved a high level of support from local leaders actively contributing to the success of the project. In order to support the technical definitions of the financial processes, communication, and management techniques contributed to the achievement of the proposed results, culminating in the completion of the project within the established time and conditions.
The relevance of this experience extends to other multinational companies that develop regional projects in Latin America. It was shown that an effective change management plan that achieves individual employee commitment and empowers local leaders has proven to be an effective tool to identify, address and minimize the risks brought by the resistance employees might present against the deployment of an SSC.
Conclusions
The development and application of the change management plan described in this paper was the critical success factor to minimize the multinational company employees' resistance to the implementation of a Shared Financial Services Center in Latin America. Treating in a transparent, open and direct manner all employees directly affected by the project, the individual commitment of the significant majority was achieved, contributing to the project’s success. Thus, the project team could identify and adequately treat many risks that, if not properly resolved, could have delayed the project implementation or even jeopardized activities in the different multinational's business units in Latin America.
By developing and adopting the change management plan, it was possible to achieve qualitative benefits as reducing risks of not implementing the project within the expected time, minimize concerns about the project implementation in some countries and overcome the strong resistance offered by union leaders. The change management plan also brought quantitative benefits as key people got higher retention levels, avoiding loss of control on the processes, and with no disruption of operations and critical processes. No significant delays were noted in the regular processes regarding issues in the transition of activities from the countries to the SSC.
One limitation of this paper is that it was carried out only in a single organization. Another limitation refers to verifying if this approach of change management was applied in other regional projects in the same company, aiming to verify if similar results were obtained overtime. In this sense, the opportunity for future research is opened not only in the studied organization itself but also in other institutions that would fit the described model.
