Experience of a personnel manager during ongoing changes in an organization

ENThe purpose is to reveal the experience of the personnel manager during the ongoing changes within an organization. Design/methodology/approach – a semi structured interview was used, and the data received have been processed on the basis of a thematic analysis method adjusted for psychologists by Braun and Clarke. „TA is a method for systematically identifying, organizing, and offering insight into patterns of meaning (themes) across a data set“ (Braun, Clarke, 2012, p. 57). The approach to TA that involves a six-phase process: familiarisation with the data, this phase involves immersing yourself in the data by reading and rereading textual data; phase 2 begins the systematic analysis of the data through coding; searching for themes. This phase involves examining the codes and collated data to identify significant broader patterns of meaning (potential themes); reviewing potential themes. This phase involves a recursive process whereby the developing themes are reviewed in relation to the coded data and entire data set; defining and naming themes. This phase involves developing a detailed analysis of each theme, working out the scope and focus of each theme, determining the ‘story’ of each. It also involves deciding on an informative name for each theme; final phase – producing the report. The purpose of the report is to provide a compelling story about the data based on the analysis. The story should be convincing and clear yet complex and embedded in a scholarly field. It needs to go beyond description to make an argument that answers research question and provide sufficient evidence of each theme using vivid examples from the data. Research findings are common themes characteristic of all research participants: “Permanent changes”, “Resistance to changes”, “Implementation of changes” and “Personal resources of a personnel manager”.Research limitations/implications – even though the research was conducted properly from the methodological point of view, it has some flaws. The researcher did not use the opportunity to fill out the diary/ reflexivity journal, in which the notes are written about the ideas that arise during the data analysis by coding data, selecting the themes and subthemes and their selection criteria. The diary helps to better reveal the subjectivity of the researcher. The second limitation is a small sample. Further research should be based on the need to find out which competences and characteristics personnel managers are short of, to effectively implement the changes. Practical implications. Application benefits is an opportunity to use the knowledge received for the preparation of the personnel and company managers and for the acquisition of the necessary competences for implementing changes: for change management, learning about the resistance to changes, for their reduction and prevention, for increasing the psychological welfare of employees and increasing collaboration within an organization. Originality/value. The research conducted may encourage other researchers to more proactively use qualitative methods, to improve them, to involve more users of these methods into the community of users, to research the internal life of the organizations and the phenomena expressed in them (the experience of the employees, their emotions, relations, attitudes, decisions, behaviour, etc.) during the ongoing changes.