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The purpose of this research is to analyze differences between the roles of HR managers at the corporate and unit level in the specific context of the hospitality industry.

Semi‐structured interviews with 12 HR managers in three countries, complemented by a short questionnaire, yielded quantitative data on Ulrich's HR roles, work time spent in various roles and various degrees of involvement in decision making. Respondents also provided qualitative accounts of their roles.

Distinct differences exist between HR work at the corporate and unit level. Whereas unit level managers tend to focus on their role as “administrative experts” and “employee champions”, corporate level managers stressed their role as “strategic partners” and “change agents”. Corporate level managers benefit from earlier involvement in organizational decisions than those at unit level.

A comparatively small convenience sample of 12 HR managers was used. This limitation is mitigated, however, by the inclusion of managers from three different countries and a good balance of corporate and unit level managers in the sample.

The research provides clear evidence of a lack of strategic HR orientation at both the unit and the corporate levels. These results should help corporate decision‐makers rethink and reorient the activities of HRM in their organizations and strengthen its role in organizational decision making.

Despite the popularity of the Ulrich model, there is hardly any empirical research on differences in HR management across organizational levels. The present study explores this topic with a particular focus on the hospitality industry.

Business environments have become more complex, dynamic, and uncertain in the past few decades. To navigate this complexity, organizations need to enhance their competitiveness, improve performance, and build leadership. Though leadership contributes to strategic advantage, the challenge for human resources (HR) to build the next generation of leaders remains. This has sparked the need for practitioners to understand the role of HR in enhancing leadership capability.

Using qualitative analysis and practitioner insights, this paper contributes to the understanding of the role of HR in leadership development.

The study proposes the HR PACE model for the role of HR in leadership development.

This study has potentially significant implications for HR, leadership development scholars, and practitioners while designing and implementing leadership development in organizations.

While empirical studies on how HR practices of recruitment, performance management, training, and development impact organizations exist, there are rare studies assessing the role of HR in leadership development. This study examines the role of HR in leadership development.

The review is based on "Employee advocacy in Africa: the role of HR practitioners in Malawi" by Aminu Mamman, Christopher J. Rees, Rhoda Bakuwa, Mohamed Branine, Ken Kamoche, (2019) published in Employee Relations. This paper aims to concentrate on the degree that HR practitioners are considered as employee advocates within an African context.

Data were gathered from a questionnaire survey given to 305 respondents (95 HR practitioners, 121 line managers and 89 employees) working in private sector companies Malawi.

The results suggest that HR practitioners in Malawi are viewed as carrying out an employee advocate role by line managers, HR managers, and employees. HR managers perceived themselves to be carrying out the role of employee advocate more than line managers and employees. In addition, the strongest perceived element was their contribution to motivating employees.

Therefore, analysis of the importance of the elements that make up the employee advocate role could inform decisions on which elements to include in in an HR model. This paper has contributed to the literature on HR roles in developing countries and supports the use of Ulrich’s model beyond the developed countries where it originated

This paper has contributed to the literature on HR roles in developing countries and supports the use of Ulrich’s model beyond the developed countries where it originated.

Despite the vast talk about digitalization and its ability to transform how organizations manage their workforce and their talent, our understanding of how the implementation and use of Talent Management Information Technology (TM IT) changes various organizational processes is limited. In this chapter, we use a qualitative case study of a multi-business unit professional services firm to highlight the complexity of the human – technology interface. Contributing to our understanding of the role of human resource management in talent management, we show how perceptions and attitudes toward information technology, in combination with existing social systems influence the role HR managers play in high potential talent identification. The chapter provides a more nuanced and context-based account of how eHRM, HRM and talent management materialize in organizations as HR professionals struggle to remain relevant in an increasingly digital world.

The aim of this study is to explore employees’ perceptions of the role of human resources (HR) departments in Jordanian organisations and the reasons behind these perceptions.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 23 employees who work at different organisations in various industrial sectors in Jordan.

Employees perceive HR roles as: providing transactional services (traditional); working as business partners to facilitate other departments’ roles (limited). Perceptions of HR professionals and the role of HR departments were generally negative, due to: societal-cultural norms and stereotypes of HR departments and HR professionals; the role of Wasta (a localised form of favouritism) in affecting HR practices; employees’ personal experiences with HR departments and HR professionals at their workplace; and the non-availability of human resources management (HRM) degrees in Jordan.

Limited research has explored varying perceptions about HR departments and their impacts on business contexts in emerging markets, including Jordan. This research is unique as it identifies the reasons behind common misconceptions of HR roles in Jordanian organisations. It extends beyond existing literature by integrating employees’ perceptions of the role of the HR departments to understand the consequences for HR practices’ operational effectiveness. It also pioneers consideration of societal culture in shaping these perceptions, which helps us build theories for future testing and generalisation purposes in other contexts with cultural commonalities. This study also highlights the current state of HRM development in Jordan, which helps in setting the agenda for future research in the country and the Middle East and North Africa region.

This study aims to explore the emergence of the human resource (HR) analyst role. The job posts on LinkedIn display the industry demand and skills required by the organizations. This study identifies the different knowledge, skills and abilities (KSA) required for an HR analyst role in different stages of professional growth (i.e. entry-level, middle-senior level and top-level) across different industries/sectors as applicable to the crisis.

A total of 80 job posts were extracted from LinkedIn. Details such as industry, job levels, qualifications, job experience, job functions, job descriptions (JDs) and job skills (JS) were collected. Further, 30 videos were extracted from YouTube and converted into text. Text analysis was conducted using NVivo software to analyze JDs, JS and job functions. Using NVivo, word frequency, word cloud, word tree and treemap were created to visualize the data. Finally, ten in-depth interviews were conducted with senior HRA managers based in India to understand the essential competencies required for the HR analyst role and the strategies to develop them.

The findings indicate that not only technical skills are needed, but business and communication skills are particularly important for all job levels during a crisis. The JD word cloud showed words, such as data, business, support and management, and the word tree depicted HR data and change agents as important words with many related sentences as branches. General JS included analytical, communication, problem-solving and management. Technical JS were the most widely used and included structure query language, system applications & products in data processing, human capital management, TABLEAU, management information system and PYTHON. Strategies to develop these competencies included case studies, live projects, internships on HR analytics (HRAs) assignments and mentoring by senior HRA professionals.

The sample used was small, as the study included 80 job posts available on LinkedIn restricted to India. The study was restricted to qualitative approach and text analytics was used. Survey methods and a quantitative approach can be used to collect data from HR recruiters, job holders and senior leaders to understand the role of HRAs in the job market and then these variables can be tested empirically.

Based on the McCartney et al.’s (2020) competency model for the HR Analyst role, this study has explored the KSA framework using data visualization techniques and used text analytics to analyze LinkedIn job posts for different levels, videos from YouTube and in-depth interviews. It also mapped the KSA for the HR analyst role to the various stages of crisis system management given by Mitroff (2005). The use of social media analytics, such as analyzing LinkedIn data and YouTube videos, are highlighted.

The role and significance of people management professionals in managing change has become increasingly important with the growing ascendancy of “HRM” in its various manifestations. Yet there is persistent concern that “traditional personnel managers” may be less willing or able to act in this arena when compared with apparently new style HR specialists. Is it possible that individuals with an HR job title will perceive their role as more proactive or effective in managing change? The survey findings presented here of 98 people management professionals in a sample of 350 major UK companies, explore four key areas of HRM often closely associated with change management interventions. While the findings indicate important areas of agreement between “personnel” and “HR” sub‐groups, defined by job title, they also demonstrate significant differences in role perceptions and evaluations of practice in the change management arena. It is concluded that people management professionals with an HR job title appear to identify more strongly with the change‐oriented agenda of HRM. However, there were no significant differences between personnel and HR sub‐groups in their perceived effectiveness at managing change. The implications of these findings for the future of the personnel job title are then discussed.

The HRM literature provides various typologies of the HR managers’ roles in organizations. The purpose of this paper is to examine how the roles and required competencies of HR managers in Slovenian multinational companies change when these companies enter the international arena.

The authors explored the total population of 25 Slovenian multinational companies (MNCs) operating in Serbia. In these companies the authors conducted interviews with 16 expatriates working in branches in Serbia, sent questionnaires to the CEOs, and conducted a survey of 50 HR managers and interviews with 15 of them. The authors used a triangulation approach and analyzed the results by multivariate methods and content analysis.

The authors found that the complexity of HR managers’ roles, and expectations of their competencies, increases with an increasing level of internationalization of companies. Orientation to people and conflict resolution are seen as elementary competencies needed in all stages of internationalization. The key competence is seen to be strategic thinking that, according to CEOs and expatriates, goes hand in hand with cultural sensitivity, openness to change and a comprehensive understanding of the international environment and business processes.

These results can potentially be used for assessing the HRM roles and competencies in different stages of company internationalization, especially MNCs operating in the ex-communist states of Europe, and will help HR managers to support expatriates, CEOs and other employees working in branches abroad more efficiently.

This study contributes to the review and evaluation of the quite limited research on HR managers’ roles and competencies in MNCs. It focuses on MNCs and outward internationalization in the Central and Eastern European region. It contributes to studies of the HR managers’ roles and competencies and is the first study to establish a set of roles and competencies for HR managers in Slovenian MNCs.

The purpose of this paper is to critically examine whether organizational development (OD), as described in academic writing on the topic, is reflected in practice in the Human Resources (HR) profession in the UK. This research aims to compare the results of an exploratory investigation to establish the main elements of OD practice in this professional group with academic definitions.

The approach applied in this paper comprises a review of the academic literature on OD combined with an exploratory study by way of content analysis of job advertisements for OD professionals within the UK HR profession. Comparison between what the literature suggests companies should seek in the way of OD practice within the HR profession and the operationalisation of what they are actually requiring (deduced through the content of job advertisements) forms the basis of the methodology.

While there are features of the academic definitions which do appear prominently in practice (in particular “change management”), there are also significant differences. In particular OD roles in practice in the HR profession appear to be much less likely to be of a consultancy orientation. Also striking is the apparent lack of emphasis on culture and behavioural issues. Within the UK HR profession, the lack of clarity in contemporary definition of OD may underpin the disparate use of terminology.

The data collected in the preliminary research are from a small‐scale investigatory study; therefore this limits the opportunity to draw robust generalised conclusions.

Despite the increasing use of “OD” in the UK HR profession, there is no widely recognised description of what it encompasses within that community, while much of the “theorising” on OD to date has been descriptive/prescriptive. In this paper, a contrast between the academic rhetoric on OD and the reality of the practice within the HR profession has been presented, through comparing the literature with the findings from the preliminary research.

The purpose of this paper is to present a research project on attitude towards electronic human resource management (E‐HRM). A research model was formulated, based on two theories from complementary research areas: Davis' technology acceptance model and Ulrich's model on HR roles.

The study used an online questionnaire, in which 99 managers and 257 employees within Philips (Electronics) Netherlands participated. Managers and employees answered questions as to their previous experiences with regard to IT systems in general, their preferred HR roles, and their attitude towards E‐HRM systems.

Differences in perceived usability of current IT systems, as well as the preferred HR roles strategic partner (high preference) and employee champion (low preference), were related to a positive attitude towards E‐HRM systems. For managers, user support was also found to be a predictor of a positive attitude towards E‐HRM.

This research suggests a multi‐factorial framework that can help organizations in understanding and solving difficulties of implementation with E‐HRM systems, as far as attitude towards these systems is concerned.