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Calling Line Managers in

Human Resource Business
Partnership
Nur Naha Abu Mansor (PhD in HR and IS)
Fellow ITOL /CIPD,
Head of Masters Programme in HRD
Department of HRD, Faculty of Management and HRD,
UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI MALAYSIA

Line Managers
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LM IS SEEN AS THE SOURCE OF PROFESSIONAL
KNOWLEDGE FOR DEVELOPMENTAL PURPOSES
MOST OF THE DISCUSSION REGARDING CONTINUOUS
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT (CPD) HAS INCLINED TO
FOCUS ON EITHER THE NEEDS OF THE INDIVIDUAL
PROFESSIONAL OR THE INTERESTS OF THE
PROFESSIONAL BODIES
THE LMS, WHO HAVE IN-DEPTH KNOWLEDGE ABOUT
THE LEARNER AS WELL AS THE ORGANIZATION,
WOULD BE THE BEST PERSON TO SEEK REFERENCE

Continued.Line Managers
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Coaching and
mentoring
Management
development

Talent
development

1. CPD
Activities

Culture
development

2. Life long
learning
environment

3. Developer:
Championing
Leaders

Changing Role of HR

HR ROLE/CONTRIBUTION

BUSINESS
PARTNER

CONSULTANT

TRANSACTIONAL

LOW VALUE

HIGH VALUE

Changing Role of HR
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TRANSACTIONAL

CONSULTANT

Inform

Advise

Police

Solutions

Control

Inward

Reactive

Reactive

Recruit an Engineer
Investigate a discipline Case
Book Training for the participants
Provide Consulting
Record keeping Functions

solve a specific problem.

define competence
requirements
Giving advice in dealing with
specific issues

BUSINESS
PARTNER

Integrate
Strategy
Outward
Proactive

Participating in
defining
business
strategy.
Actively live up
to vision and
mission
statement

HR Community A series of partnership

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bring HR or subject-matter
expertise, organization wide

offer advice or perform

routine standardized work.

leveraging HR practices to devise and

integrate organizational capabilities that
create value and deliver results.

authority, power and sponsorship.

overall responsibility for the HR
community.

bring technical expertise

respective to their
functional areas.

(Ulrich, 1997, Brockbank, 2007)

LMs HR Roles
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Aligning HR
strategies and
practices
with business
strategies

Deliverance of org
transformation &
change

HR roles are
performed
effectively &
efficiently

Concerns of
employee needs
-day to day
operations
(Ulrich, 1997, Brocbank ,
2003)

Conclusion
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LM is seen as the source of professional knowledge

for developmental purposes
The LMs, who have in-depth knowledge about the
learner as well as the organization, would be the best
person to seek reference

Line Managers Role in

Employee Continuous
Professional Development
ANUBAMA A/P RAMACHANDRA
DR. NUR NAHA ABU MANSOR

Problem Statement
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LM is seen as the source of professional knowledge for developmental purposes
Most of the discussion regarding Continuous Professional Development (CPD) has

inclined to focus on either the needs of the individual professional or the interests of
the professional bodies
The LMs, who have in-depth knowledge about the learner as well as the
organization, would be the best person to seek reference

Research Questions
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a) Which HR roles are LMs involved in?

b) Does a relationship exist between HR roles

and employees CPD?

Concept of CPD
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CPD is an initiative to update

professional knowledge
throughout employment
(Bowell, 2000)
CPD is related to business-driven
objectives
(Jones and Fear, 1994)

L Ms HR Roles
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(Ulrich,
1997)

Research Instrument
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5 likert scale questionnaire

Unit of Analysis - Line Managers
Part 1: Demographic Characteristics
Part 2: Line Managers HR roles
Adapted mainly from Ulrich (1997) and Brockbank and

Ulrichs (2003)
Part 3: Employee Continuous Professional
Development (CPD)
Modified from CISI CPD tracker survey: Trends in CPD,
by Chartered Institute for Security and Investment
(2010)

Data Analysis
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Research Objective
To identify the roles of LM in the HR
initiatives.

Statistic
Tool

Analysis

Descriptive Statistics

To identify if there is a relationship Pearson Correlation

between
Co-efficient
these roles and employees CPD.

RQ 1: Which HR roles are LMs involved

in?
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Descriptive Statistics

Mean

4.00

3.46

3.80
3.30

3.71

3.00
2.00
1.00

Strategic Administrative Employee

Champion
Partner Expert
HR Roles

Change
Agent

RQ 1: Discussion
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Strategic Partner (3.30)

Administrative Expert (3.46)
Employee Champion (3.71)
Change Agent (3.80)
Employee Champion and Change Agent both

have significantly higher mean, due to the

people-oriented nature of LMs.

RQ 2: Does a relationship exist between

HR roles and employees CPD?
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Correlation Co-efficient

r-value

Sig

Strategic Partner

0.372

0.000**

Administrative Expert

0.131

0.113

Employee Champion

0.311

0.002**

Change Agent

0.191

0.038*

RQ 2: Discussion
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Administrative Expert is more task and

process oriented.
Therefore, this role, as supported by

previous literature do not have much

importance to employees CPD.

Thank you for your attention

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Thank you for your attention

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