Training in greenfield sites

Abstract

Greenfield sites have been heralded by many academics and practitioners alike as a panacea for the problems besetting manufacturing industry because they offer exceptional opportunities for change. It is argued that in a greenfield site the implementation of innovative working practices, such as human resource management, will be much easier than in an existing site, since there are no pre-existing expectations or assumptions about the way in which work should be organised. This potential for change has important implications for corporate training policies. For example, Keep (1992) has argued that the adoption by companies of a strategic approach towards the training and development of their workforce represents a vital component of any meaningful form of HRM, but that in order to develop this kind of strategic approach the integration of training and development into wider business planning is crucial, although rarely achieved. Even though managers may wish to develop a strategic approach to HRM they are often constrained by existing policy and practice, by history and by the difficulty of managing the kinds of change required without costly upheavals. As a result, many of the basic processes and procedures that ought to underpin HRM are simply not widespread amongst British employers. Much more common, even within organisations that are attempting to formalise their employment management systems, is that such processes and procedures operate, at best, in a very piecemeal way.