Ch. 13: Human resource roles

Chapter 13 is about the roles of HR professionals. It covers personnel managers in the 1960s and 1970s, HRM from the 1980s until today ('on the table' versus 'at the table'), the three HR ambiguities, Legge's ways of getting power (conformist and deviant innovator), the HR problem solver, the starting point of personal credibility and HR delivery, HR role typologies (Ulrich), the Human Resource Competency Study (HRCS), evidence-based HRM (intended, actual and perceived practices; HR enactment by line managers), HR knowledge, skills and abilities, and HR roles in different institutional contexts.

1. Personnel managers in the 1960s and 1970s

Ritzer and Trice (1969) described personnel managers of that time as: reactive, passive, risk averse, not business oriented, not capable of affecting management decisions, not involved in strategic decision making, lacking influence, and operating in a vacuum.

Why this behaviour? A key reason is the tension between economic values and moral values: personnel managers had to serve management's economic goals and at the same time look after the workers, which made it hard to take a strong position.

2. HRM from the 1980s: 'on' or 'at' the table?

Since the 1980s, HRM has become an important topic in organizations. Ulrich and Brockbank (2005) put it as: 'Now HRM is on the table, but not (always) at the table'. HR topics (talent, engagement, well-being, diversity, AI) are discussed by top management, but HR professionals are not always part of the strategic decision making themselves.

3. HR ambiguity: three recognized ambiguities

The nature of HRM creates three ambiguities and vicious circles for personnel managers in practice; these are the source of their lack of power (Guest and King, 2004, based on Legge, 1978):

1. Overlap between HRM as a set of activities for all managers versus personnel management as a specialist function (line managers also do HRM, so who owns it?);
2. It is difficult to define success in personnel management, to determine who or what was responsible for success or failure and to identify the unique contribution of HR;
3. Personnel managers are part of management but have a 'special' relationship with and responsibility for the workers.

4. Power and authority: Legge's two strategies

To overcome these ambiguities, personnel managers need power and authority (Legge, 1978). Legge's ways of getting power in an organization:

'Many personnel managers will find it difficult to operate as deviant innovators while conformist innovation is unlikely to result in significant change.' The core of Legge's argument is therefore that personnel managers need to become problem solvers (Guest and King, 2004, p. 404).

The readjustment and recalibration of the HR function and of the roles of HR professionals has been going on for some time.

5. Starting point: personal credibility and HR delivery

To add value to an organization, the personnel manager should first gain personal credibility and HR delivery. The chain is:

Focus on personal credibility and HR delivery: administrative tasks should take about 70 to 80% of working time, including management control, recruitment and selection, training, appraising and rewarding. Only when these basics run smoothly will line managers and top management accept HR's strategic contribution.

6. HR roles: Ulrich's HR role model (1997), 'Ulrich 1.0'

Through time there has been a constant readjustment and recalibration of the HR function. Many frameworks exist, but the most famous typology is Ulrich's. The model has two axes: strategic versus operational focus and people versus process focus. This gives four roles:

7. The Human Resource Competency Study (HRCS)

The HRCS (Ulrich and colleagues) is a long-running study into the competences of successful HR professionals, repeated in several rounds.

HRCS 2002: five competence categories (Ulrich 2.0)

In the adapted HRCS model (Ulrich and Brockbank, 2005; analysis of European 2002 HRCS data by Boselie and Paauwe, 2005), business knowledge feeds into both personal credibility and strategic contribution; personal credibility and HR delivery lead to strategic contribution; and HR technology supports both HR delivery and strategic contribution. The finding: personal credibility and HR delivery are the basis for making a strategic contribution.

Ulrich: 'What a great time to be in HR, we are no longer crying for attention. We have opportunities to make a difference.'

8. Evidence-based HRM: intended, actual and perceived HR practices

As seen in Chapter 3, Wright and Nishii (2013) distinguish intended HR practices (policies designed by HR professionals), actual HR practices (implementation by line managers) and perceived HR practices (by employees). HR practices as designed often differ from those implemented by managers and from how they are perceived by employees.

Examples from the lecture: a grocery delivery company that does not follow the supermarket collective agreement but a logistics agreement with lower pay and fewer benefits; employee reviews on independent platforms (hard work for low pay, bad communication, long waits for training, pay lower than expected, breaks deducted even when not taken) show a negative perception of HR practices, which may differ strongly from what the company intends to communicate. A second example concerns a consultancy firm whose intended image (launching innovative centres of excellence) contrasts with news about errors in a government report, illustrating a gap between intended and perceived.

9. What HR professionals need: knowledge, skills and abilities

The Society for HRM lists knowledge, skills and abilities for HR professionals: interpersonal communication skills, knowledge of labour law, knowledge of business ethics, writing and communication skills, leadership skills and abilities, management skills and abilities, presentation skills, writing a business plan, change management skills and abilities, strategic management knowledge, knowledge of business law, advisory skills and negotiation skills.

10. HR roles in different contexts

There appears to be no universalistic set of best practices in HR knowledge, skills and abilities; it is heavily dependent on the organizational and national context (Farndale and Paauwe, 2007). Most HR role models were developed in the USA or the UK, which are less institutionalized contexts than most continental European countries.

11. Wrap-up: balanced approaches and HR roles

HRM can be characterized by ambiguities, dualities, tensions, paradoxes and different interests (Boselie, 2009). HR professionals are expected to cope with these issues. To restore the balance in practice, HR professionals need qualities that satisfy the interests of both parties (employer and employees). The relevance of the deviant innovator role should be made better known to top management and line managers. 'Today's HR professional must be able to create both personal credibility and HR delivery at different organizational levels and for different relevant stakeholders both inside and outside the organization' (p. 304).

A thought for the future: according to Colin Mayer (Oxford, 2021), 'the purpose of business is providing profitable solutions for people and planet, without profiting from the creation of harm'. This offers a new way to look at the role of business and value creation: a balanced approach in which profit motives align with social and environmental responsibilities to promote sustainable, ethical growth. This links back to the question 'why this behaviour?' (economic versus moral values).