Competencies, Responsibilities,

and Roles of International HR

Managers

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Competencies of HR Managers
 HR managers will need to acquire a
complementary set of competencies such as:
 1. Business mastery
 2. HR mastery
 3. Change mastery
 4. Personal credibility
 5. Leadership proficiency
 6. HR technology
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Business Mastery
 HR professionals need to know the business of their
organization thoroughly to help develop the firm’s
strategic direction.
 They will help to develop people with needed skills to
achieve competitive advantage.
 It also requires that HR professionals develop skills at
external relations focused on their customers.
 This will help to train and develop customer-oriented
employees.
 They need to understand the economic of HR
functions. For example, return on investment in
people.

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Business Mastery
 HR professionals must have business
knowledge of the organization and its
strategies if they are to contribute
strategically.
 They must understand the financial,
technological, and other facets of the
industry and the organization.

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Business Mastery
 The key competency that HR needs to
fulfill its strategic role is the ability to be
a strategic contributor to organizational
success.
 That means that HR must focus on the
long-term implications of HR issues.

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HR Mastery

 HR proficiency—knowledge and skills in HR

functions.
 HR professionals should develop expert
knowledge in the areas of staffing, training
and development, performance appraisals,
rewards, and other HR issues.
 HR activities must be delivered effectively and
efficiently in ways that meet the needs of
both the organization and its employees.

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Change Mastery
 HR professionals have to be able to
manage change processes so that their
firms’ HR activities are effectively
merged with the business needs of their
organizations.
 This involves interpersonal and
problem-solving skills, as well as
innovativeness and creativity.
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Personal Credibility
 HR professionals must have credibility
personally and professionally.
 HR professionals must establish personal
credibility in the eyes of their employees.
 That means they must develop effective
internal relationships with individual
executives, employees, managers, and
supervisors.

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Personal Credibility
 They must also establish personal and
professional credibility in various external
relationships.
 Credibility and trust are earned by developing
personal relationships with employees,
demonstrating the values of the firm,
standing up for one’s own beliefs, and being
fair-minded when dealing with others.

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Leadership Proficiency
 Proficiency in leading other functional
managers and own subordinates.
 Skills in team building, employee
motivation, and effective communication.
 Able to set directions and provide guidance
in achieving HR goals.
HR Technology
 Technology, particularly information systems
and web-based resources, have become a
significant part of HRM today.
 IHR managers must be able to learn and
apply new technologies affecting the
profession.
 HR professionals must develop the abilities
needed to work effectively with a Human
Resource Information System (HRIS).
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General Competencies of IHR
Managers
 Generally, all managers in global
organizations need the following
competencies:
 Broader international and a global mindset—
an awareness of global issues.
 The ability to learn about multiple cultures
 Inter-cultural awareness and sensitivity.
 Cross-cultural communication and
interpersonal skills

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General Competencies of IHR
Managers
 International team and community-building
skills
 Cross-national adaptation
 Local responsiveness
 The ability to manage decentralized
organizations.
 Diversity management skills to handle people
with various cultural backgrounds.
 Change management skills

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Specific Competencies of IHR
Managers
 IHR managers should be able to:
 --Implement effective recruiting and staffing
to attract and retain the best talent for a
global workforce.
 --Implement formal systems to improve
worldwide communications.
 --Implement an international human resource
information system (IHRIS).
 --Foster a global mind-set in all employees
through training and development.

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Specific Competencies of IHR
Managers
 --Develop global leadership through the
design of developmental cross-cultural
assignments.
 --Seize strategic opportunities and to position
the HR as a strategic partner in the firm’s
global business.
 --Design and implement global HR systems,
such as training, compensation, performance
management employee relations, and health
and safety.
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Responsibilities of HR
Managers
 Typically, a HR manager has the
following responsibilities:
 1. Advice and counsel
 2. Service
 3. Policy formulation and
implementation
 4. Employee advocacy
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Advice and Counsel
 The HR managers often serves as an in-
house consultant to other line or functional
managers because of their knowledge:
 1. knowledge of internal employment issues—
policies, labor agreement, past practices,
ethics, corporate governance, and the needs
of employees.
 2. awareness and knowledge of external
trends—economic and employment data, new
legal and regulatory issues, employment
practices, etc.
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Advice and Counsel
 HR managers are also being relied on
more heavily to advise compensation
committee, especially for CEO’s pay and
perks.
 In sum, HR managers can be an
valuable source for making decisions.

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Service
 HR managers perform a host of service
activities to other functional departments
such as recruiting, selecting, testing, planning
and conducting training programs, and
hearing employee concerns and complaints.
 Technical expertise in these areas is essential
for HR managers to design and implement HR
programs and systems.

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Policy Formulation and
Implementation
 HR managers generally propose and draft
new polices or policy revision to cover
recurring HR-related problems or to prevent
anticipated problems.
 HR managers may monitor performance of
line departments and other staff departments
to ensure conformity with established HR
policies, procedures, and practices.

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Employee Advocacy
 One of the enduring roles of HR managers is
to serve as an employee advocate—listening
to employees’ concerns and representing
their needs to managers.
 This is to make certain that the interests of
employees and the interests of the
organization are aligned with one another.

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Key Roles of HR Managers
 Key roles include:
 1. Business partner
 2. Consultant
 3. Innovator
 4. Monitor
 5. Change agent

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Business Partner
 Shows concern for objectives and
expectations of all stakeholders.
 Understands the external and organizational
environment
 Assists with strategy formulation and
implementation.
 Assists with mergers, acquisitions, and
international joint ventures.
 Shows how HRM activities can affect the
bottom line.

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Consultant
 Views line managers and other
employees as customers and works as
partner to meet their needs.
 Advise line managers in HR-related
issues.
 Develops HR practices and policies with
input from other line managers and
employees.

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Innovator
 Initiates—does not wait for others to all
attention to the need for action.
 Uses e-learning, the Internet, and other
newly evolving technologies to improve
HR services.
 Continually revises and updates HR
policies and practices.

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Monitor
 Ensures employment laws are known
and observed.
 Evaluates the effectiveness of the
organization’s HR policies and practices.
 Coaches and encourages line managers
to practice the HR policies as intended.
 Works with line managers and
employees to revise policies as needed.

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Change Agent
 Is guided by a long-term vision of where the
business is headed.
 Understands what talent is needed for
executing future strategies.
 Anticipates the concerns of employees and
creates solutions to address them.
 Suggest changes to be made to produce
employee performance that the organization
needs to achieve its strategic goals.

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The Strategic Importance of
HRM
 Today, companies and society are
saying that the success of an
organization is determined by the
evaluations of its multiple stakeholders.
 Stakeholders are individuals or groups
that have interest, rights, or ownership
in an organization and its activities.

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Stakeholders
 Stakeholders who have similar interests and
rights are said to belong to the same
stakeholder group.
 Customers, suppliers, employees, society,
government, and other organizations
(suppliers, unions, alliance partners) are
examples of stakeholders.
 Each group of stakeholders have their own
needs and concerns.
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Stakeholders
 For example, the concerns of each group are:
 1. Owners and investors—financial returns,
corporate reputation, long-term survival.
 2. Customers—quality, speed and
responsiveness, low prices, innovation, and
convenience.
 3. Society—legal compliance, social
responsibility, ethical practices.

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Stakeholders
 4. Other organizations—reliability,
trustworthy, and collaborative problem-
solving.
 5. Organization members—good pay
and benefits, good quality of work life,
and long-term employability.

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Stakeholders
 Stakeholders benefit from the organization’s
success and can be harmed by its failures and
mistakes.
 Similarly, the organization has an interest in
maintaining the general well-being and
fulfilling the needs of key stakeholders.
 The organization will suffer if one or more
groups of stakeholders breaks off their
relationships with the organization.
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The Strategic Importance of
HRM
 When success is defined as effectively serving
the interests of the stakeholders, their needs
define a firms’ fundamental objectives.
 These objectives, in turn, drive the firm’s
approach to managing employees.
 An organization’s approach to managing HR is
central to its ability to understand the
concerns and to satisfy its multiple
stakeholders.
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The Strategic Importance of
HRM
 The approach of developing HRM
policies and practices that are
responsive to the concerns of an
organization’s multiple stakeholders is
what we mean by managing human
resources through strategic
partnerships.

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The Strategic Importance of
HRM
 Intangible human assets have been linked to
firm’s financial performance.
 Several studies have shown that the
approaches companies take to managing
their human resources can translate into
greater profitability, higher annual sales per
employee (productivity), higher market value,
and higher earnings-per-share growth.
 These results show that firms with effective
approaches to managing human capital were
rewarded the most by investors.
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Definition of Strategic IHRM
 IHRM is about understanding, researching
applying, and revising all human resource
activities in their internal and external
contexts as they impact the process of
managing human resources in enterprises
throughout the global environment to
enhance the experience of multiple
stakeholders—investors, customers,
employees, partners, suppliers, government,
and society.

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The Changing Roles of HRM
 The role of HRM is transforming from a
predominantly administrative one to a
predominantly strategic one.
 Driving forces for the change include:
 Cost-reduction pressures
 Business restructuring
 Broad-scale downsizing or layoffs
 The globalization of businesses
The Changing Roles of HRM
 Examples where HR can play a strategic role:
 Mergers and acquisitions
 Workforce expansion in line with strategic
plans
 Succession planning for new leadership
 Staffing new facilities
 Improving HR efficiency and reducing HR
staff headcounts.
 Developing a compensation plan for a new
product or service
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The Changing Roles of HRM
 Traditionally, HR perform an operational
role which is employee focus.
 The operational role requires HR
professionals to cooperate with line
managers, to identify and implement
needed programs and policies in the
organization.
The Changing Roles of HRM
 Examples of operational roles:
 Compliance with employment laws is ensured.
 Employment applications are processed.
 Current openings are filled through interviews.
 Supervisors or employees are trained.
 Safety problems are resolved.
 Wage and benefit questions are answered.
 Employee grievances and disciplines are dealt with.
The Changing Roles of HRM
 But now HR plays a more active role
strategically. Strategic role is organizational
focus.
 The strategic HR role requires that HR
professionals be proactive in addressing
business realities and focusing on future
business needs, such as workforce planning,
compensation strategies, and the
performance of HR.
The Changing Roles of HRM
OPERATIONAL STRATEGIC
(EMPLOYEE FOCUS) (ORGANIZATIONAL
FOCUS)
 Proactive
 Reactive
 Measuring HR with
 Collecting HR data
metrics
 Helping set strategic HR
 Responding to goals goals
and objectives set by
executives
 Complying with laws,
 Developing and revising
policies, and procedures policies and procedures
The Changing Roles of HRM
OPERATIONAL
 Administering employee
benefit programs
 Designing training programs
 Staffing jobs by recruiting
and selecting employees
 Administering base
compensation plans
STRATEGIC
 Evaluating benefits based on
the strategy
 Identifying organizational
training needs
 HR planning and linking with
external staffing resources
 Developing compensation
plans focusing on employee
performance and retention
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HR’s Role in Organizational
Ethics
 Organizations that are seen as ethical in the
way they operate have longer-term success.
 Because people in organizations are making
ethical decisions on a daily basis, HR manager
plays a key role as the “keeper and voice” of
organizational ethics.
 HR managers and other line managers must
deal with ethical issues and be sensitive to
how they interplay with HR activities.
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Examples of Ethical
Misconduct in HR Activities
 Compensation:
 Misrepresenting hours and time worked
 Falsifying expense reports
 Personal bias in performance appraisals
and pay increases
 Inappropriate overtime classifications
Examples of Ethical
Misconduct in HR Activities
 Employee Relations:
 Employees lying to supervisors
 Executives/managers providing false
information to public, customers, and
vendors.
 Personal gains/gifts from vendors
 Misusing/stealing organizational assets and
supplies
 Intentionally violating safety/health
regulations
Examples of Ethical
Misconduct in HR Activities
 Staffing and Equal Employment:
 Favoritism in hiring and promotion
 Sexual harassment
 Sex, race, and age discrimination in
hiring, discipline, and termination
HR’s Role in Organizational
Ethics
 These are some of the most frequent
areas of ethical misconduct involving
HR activities.
 They may serve as a good starting
point for HR professionals in other
countries to manage their organization’s
ethical environment.

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HR’s Role in Organizational
Ethics
 When the following 4 elements of ethics programs
exist, ethical behavior is likely to occur:
 1. a written code of ethics and standards of conduct.
 2. training on ethical behavior for all executives,
managers, and employees.
 3. means of employees to obtain advice on ethical
situations they face, often provided by HR.
 4. Systems for confidential reporting of ethical
misconduct or questionable behavior.
HR’s Role in Organizational
Ethics
 To help HR professionals deal with ethical issues, the
Society for Human Resource Management (U.S.) has
developed a code of ethics for its members.
 In Singapore, the Singapore Human Resource
Institute has issued a Code of Professional Ethics that
requires HR professionals to:
 -- maintain a high level of personal integrity in the
performance of professional duties.
 -- respect the rights of organization members and
other stakeholders.
 -- hold confidential information in trust.
 End

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