Abstract
The value-adding contribution of human resources departments in organisations has often been questioned. It is not clear whether human resource practitioners are adding value according to organisational managers’ expectations. The objective of this study was to compare the perceptions of human resource practitioners in a global petrochemical company concerning expected and real contributions to business performance with those of their internal clients. Stratified samples of human resource personnel (N = 128) and their internal line customers (N = 67) were taken. The Human Resource Role-Assessment Survey was administered. The results showed that human resource practitioners and their line customers agree on the importance of the human resources roles that enable business performance, indicating that human resource practitioners have a good understanding of their job requirements. However, both human resource practitioners and their line customers perceive the performance of human resource practitioners to be average, which is lower than the expected level of performance as indicated by importance scales.
Highlights
The human resource function fulfils an important role by contributing to business performance
The results showed that, the human resource fraternity aspires to become a strategic business partner, business functions and senior executives occasionally continue to hold a traditional view emphasising the people-management role of human resource practitioners as custodian of recruitment, learning and development and remuneration activities (Christensen Hughes, 2002)
The aim of this study was firstly to confirm the validity of the Human Resource RoleAssessment Survey (Ulrich, 1997) and secondly to determine the relationship between the perceptions of functional managers and those of human resource practitioners regarding the importance of human resources roles, as well as the perceived business enabling contribution of human resource activities
Summary
The human resource function fulfils an important role by contributing to business performance. Business managers have to be able to manage the performance of employees from different national backgrounds and within fast-changing corporate cultures (Addison, 2003) This has changed the competencies and roles organisations expect human resource practitioners to fulfil (Othman, AbdulGhani & Arshad, 2001). Panayotopoulou and Papalexandris (2004) argue that changes in modern corporate environments have shifted the human resource emphasis from a “management practices” orientation to a “management deliverables” orientation According to this view, the focus has shifted to organisational growth, organisational outcomes and business performance, firstly by identifying the relevant and important human resource activities, and secondly by finding evidence of practitioners’ contribution to individual and company performance to provide a competitive advantage. Human resource practitioners have to contribute to the resolution of real business issues by focussing on the business value chain, profitability through increased revenue and decreased costs, organisational capability, change readiness and intellectual capital attraction and retention
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