A strategic role for HR: is it a competence issue?

Abstract

<i><p>The main stream of research on HR competencies has focused on identifying generic and universal skills.</p><p>This trend has attracted many followers, and numerous HR competence models have been created during</p><p> the past twenty years. New ideals and roles for HR, such as being a ‘business partner’ and ‘strategic partner’,</p><p> have been developed. However, instead of focusing on these, we concentrated on contextual factors and</p><p> their significance in realising new HR roles. In our case study of one large corporation operating in the</p><p> service and retail sector, we found that cultural and contextual factors greatly affected the realization</p><p> of the strategic potential of HR practitioners. These practitioners performed well in their traditional</p><p> ‘administrative role’, but this could be seen as a barrier to forming or taking up a new strategic position.</p><p></p><p></p></i><p><br /></p>