Strategic HR Roles in India: HR – Dares to be the Think Tank?

Abstract

Conner and Ulrich's (1996) Multiple Model Survey Questionnaire was validated in this two stage research study. In the first stage, 4 organizations were purposively chosen and a random sampling was conducted on 44 managers to pilot test the questionnaire. In the second stage, the study was conducted on a sample of 600 managers, falling in nine industrial sectors. The study seeks to probe, HR -Line managers' perception of the strategic HR roles, the status of the strategic HR roles, and the impact of the background variables on the strategic HR roles. Descriptive statistics, Correlation, Coefficient and Bi-variate analysis was tabulated. Findings indicated that there was no difference in the perception of the strategic partner role in the managers of the Public Sector and Multinational firms. There was a significant difference in the perception of HR mangers and line managers, while Hierarchical level impacted the Business partner role of HR. The results provide support for the strategic HR roles, which are of a moderate quality, found in the managers of the IT sector. Implications for a think tank role of HR are discussed along with future research areas.

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