The Role of the HR Practitioner

This chapter is concerned with what HR professionals do and how they do it, bearing in mind the comment of Boxall and Purcell (2003) that ‘HRM does not belong to HR specialists’. HRM belongs to line managers and the people they manage – the stakeholders in people management.

This chapter starts with an analysis of the basic roles and activities of HR professionals and of the various models of these roles. Anumber of issues that affect the role of HR people are then explored; these comprise gaining support and commitment, role ambiguity, role conflict, ethics, and professionalism. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the competencies required by HR practitioners.

THE BASIC ROLES

The roles of HR practitioners vary widely according to the extent to which they are generalist (eg, HR director or HR manager), or specialist (eg, head of learning and development, head of talent management, or head of reward), the level at which they work (strategic, executive or administrative) the needs of the organization, the context within which they work and their own capabilities. 

The role can be proactive, reactive or a mixture of both. At a strategic level, HR people take on a proactive role. Research conducted by Hoque and Moon (2001) established that: ‘The growing number of specialists using the HR title are well qualified, are more likely to be involved in strategic decision-making processes and are most likely to be found in workplaces within which sophisticated methods and techniques have been adopted.’ As such, they act as business partners, develop integrated HR strategies, intervene, innovate, operate as internal consultants and volunteer guidance on matters concerning upholding core values, ethical principles and the achievement of consistency. They focus on business issues and working with line managers to deliver performance targets. 

In some situations they play a mainly reactive role. They spend much of their time doing what they are told or asked to do. They provide the administrative systems required by management. This is what Storey (1992a) refers to as the non-interventionary role, in which HR people merely provide a service to meet the demands of management and front-line managers. The various roles are described in more detail below.