Foreword

This paper is an important part of the diploma on “Leadership and Human Resource Management” which I started in September 2011.

I have been asked repeatedly why I chose the topic of reorganisations in the European Commission although I am not working in human resources. The choice was influenced by the fact that the Directorate General (DG) I work for had undergone a major reorganisation in June 2011. However, the main reason is that - in the current context- the topic is of utmost relevance for the Commission. This explains the positive interest and the reactivity of the different services I was in contact with.

I was surprised to see how many reflections are ongoing to improve the way reorganisations are managed in the European Commission. They range from the work of the planning unit in the Directorate General for Human Resources (DG Human Resources), the efforts of the Internal Communication Network, critical contributions by the trade unions, up to reflection papers prepared by individual colleagues. These reflections focused on specific aspects, such as internal communication or the role of human resource management in reorganisations. My contribution was to integrate these different parts into one comprehensive view.

I want to thank all those who took time to be available for interviews and contributed with ideas and information. In the Commission, this concerns colleagues from the Human resource department and from the departments which I used as case studies. My particular thanks go to Matthias Will and to Carlo Dorlo whose valuable research work I have integrated into this diploma paper. Georg Kodydek from the Institute of Change Management at the Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien pointed me to State-of-the-Art literature focusing on human reactions to change. I also want to thank the team from the St.Galler Business School who encouraged me to use their management model and thus combine ideas from two very different worlds: the business community and an EU institution. Suffice to say that I found this lateral thinking very useful to gain new insights.

Finally my thanks go to my private support team: Kathrin, Traude and Klaus.