Relationship between human resource professionals' competencies, human resource professionals' roles and organizational performance

Abstract

This research examines the roles and competencies of human resource professionals in the manufacturing sector of Malaysia. The sample selected for this research consists of human resource professionals from Malaysian manufacturing companies in the southernmost state of Malaysia, Johor. The total number of firms involved comprises of 89 respondents. The research model used in this research is based on the `Ulrich’s Four-Role Model’. The various roles examined are strategic partner, change agent, administrative expert and employee champion. The findings show that the role of an administrative expert and employee champion obtained the highest scores. Furthermore, it is found that role of change agent and strategic partner contribute most to the organizational performance. This research also examines the human resource competencies such as business knowledge, strategic contribution, human resource delivery, personal credibility, human resource technology and internal consultation. The analysis reveals that the top nine ranking human resource competency factors are from the domain of personal credibility and human resource delivery. Furthermore, it is observed that all competencies measured are significantly related to certain roles of human resource professionals in Malaysia. Competencies such as strategic contribution, business knowledge, human resource technology and internal consultation have significant correlation with the organizational performance. In addition, it is found that out of all human resource competencies, the highest contributions to organizational performance are strategic contribution and internal consultation. Through Spearman’s correlation analysis, this study also finds that all demographic factors are significantly related to at least one of the human resource competencies of this study. This study also finds that human resource roles such as strategic partner and change agent mediate the relationship between certain human resource competencies and organizational performance.