This study brings out the changes in the Human Resources area behavior within privatized companies. The research was developed before four steel metallurgy companies based in Southeastern Brazil. Because the contextual research method was used, it was viable to appraise the internal and external settings together with the content and the processes related to such a transition. The use of the case study method thru both the interview and document analysis techniques led to a more comprehensive report of every case. It was then noticed that, although company privatizations have happened along the last nine years, the transition process itself is not over yet. The Human Resources professionals have lately and fortunately merged into the roles of strategists, change promoters, employees'advocates and management experts. In the past, such roles would mostly be operational, there used to be no freedom at all to develop tasks; behaviors were rather patronizing, and little concern with costs and available services were noticed.
privatization; human resources; organizational change
