« Do It Like Drexler | Main | Compensation Plan Gone Wrong »
Change The Culture By Firing The VPHR
By Ron | August 2, 2009
The new CEO of General Motors, Fritz Henderson has made changing the company’s culture a top priority. One of the first things he has done is to fire the head of Human Resources, Katy Barclay. Ms. Barclay has been with GM since 1978 – she started in HR then and worked her way up. Rob Keinbaum, Managing Director of a prominent consulting firm to the auto industry announced that Katy Barclay…”is one of the senior leaders who is responsible for the destruction of the company. She is responsible for it and should be accountable for it.”
Fritz and his gang have now appointed Mary Barta to the post. Mary has no HRexperience (she has an engineering background). Keinbaum approved of this move stating that, “It is a positive sign that they want to make deep changes in HR and don’t want to draw from the HR community.”
A further slap in the face to the Human Resources function came when the CEO stated that the HR seat at the proverbial table would be eliminated. To us Human Resource people, we know the devastating blow that this means.
Now, I’ve criticized the automobile industry Labor Relations groups in the past for giving away the store to the Union, but I doubt whether the current GM “fix” is going to solve anything. By appointing a non-HR person to the head of the Human Resources function doesn’t sound like the right decision to me. Using their logic, may be they should have transferred Katy to manage the engineering team at GM.
What would I recommend? Hire some tough Labor Relations Negotiator from a company which has been successful.
Topics: HR | 1 Comment »
February 9th, 2010 at 2:44 pm
>>>Rob Keinbaum, Managing Director of a prominent consulting firm to the auto industry announced that Katy Barclay…”is one of the senior leaders who is responsible for the destruction of the company. She is responsible for it and should be accountable for it.”
I met and observed Katy Barclay incidentally some years ago when I did some consulting work for the auto industry. No way did she deserve a slam like that. In addition to being a consummate professional, she was dedicated and clearly a person who went the extra mile. I haven’t seen anyone – consultant or insider – slam any of the *men* involved in GM’s difficulties. Why is that? Could it be that the automotive boys only culture is alive and well? Could it be that when finger pointing, it’s an easy out to point at a woman as women are generally not as connected in the automotive all boys network? (Go to any OESA annual meeting and see if you can find more than 10 women in the sea of suits.) That consideration aside, again – there is no way Katy Barclay deserved that slam. Shame on Mr. Keinbaum and on GM, if it didn’t sharply call him to task on his own inappropriate harshness and judgmentalism.