IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/sek/iacpro/0802015.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

HR Roles and activities. Empirical results from the DACH-Region and implications for a future development of the HR profession

Author

Listed:
  • Katharina Thill

    (FHWien University of Applied Sciences, Institute for Human Resources & Organisation)

  • Barbara Covarrubias Venegas

    (FHWien University of Applied Sciences, Institute for Human Resources & Organisation)

  • Sabine Groblschegg

    (FHWien University of Applied Sciences, Institute for Human Resources & Organisation)

Abstract

The roles and activities of human resource management (HRM) have changed a lot in the past years. Driven by a changing environment the scope of human resource (HR) activities has widened. Besides cost efficiency, optimisation and service-orientation of the HR processes, the development of the employees became more and more important. Today, the demographic change and skill shortages cause new challenges for companies and their human resource management. The strategic alignment of the HR activities and the development of sustainable HR strategies are crucial to ensure the long-term success of a company. This strategic focus of HR has been discussed in science for many years. But what about the implementation of this strategic focused HR as a business practice? This quantitative survey examined the extent of the current strategic focus of HR activities in the three DACH-region countries. A comparison of their current HR business practices is of particular interest, as they are strongly economically and culturally connected and there is a lively exchange of employees. The following questions led the survey: ?What is the current focus of the HR activities in the DACH-region? ?How does this affect the resources dedicated to the different HR roles? ?Are there any differences in the focus of the HR activities within the DACH-region? The results indicate that there was a major shift regarding the focus of HR activities. In all three countries HR is now mostly seen as an employee champion, coming from an administrative, process oriented HR understanding. The strategic aspect of HR roles also evolved remarkably. And as the results show that shift is not yet completed. The most important driver for the change is the increasing competences of the HR professionals. Regarding the intercultural aspect it is remarkable, that despite these development most of the HR functions are not seen as management positions in Germany and Austria. As strategic management is mostly a management and top-management issue, the importance of HR roles has to evolve. Therefore it is important to strengthen the HR roles as management positions and to increase the strategic and management competences of HR employees. This first study will be followed by an international study on HR roles and HR competencies in the 21st century. An HR competency model will be developed which will be tested in Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia. First insights will be presented.

Suggested Citation

  • Katharina Thill & Barbara Covarrubias Venegas & Sabine Groblschegg, 2014. "HR Roles and activities. Empirical results from the DACH-Region and implications for a future development of the HR profession," Proceedings of International Academic Conferences 0802015, International Institute of Social and Economic Sciences.
    • Handle: RePEc:sek:iacpro:0802015
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://iises.net/proceedings/13th-international-academic-conference-antibes/table-of-content/detail?cid=8&iid=078&rid=2015
    File Function: First version, 2014
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. David E. Guest, 1990. "Human Resource Management And The American Dream," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(4), pages 377-397, July.
    2. Szabo, Erna & Brodbeck, Felix C. & Den Hartog, Deanne N. & Reber, Gerhard & Weibler, Jürgen & Wunderer, Rolf, 2002. "The Germanic Europe cluster: where employees have a voice," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 37(1), pages 55-68, April.
    3. Subhash C. Kundu & Divya Malhan, 2009. "HRM Practices in Insurance Companies: A Study of Indian and Multinational Companies," Managing Global Transitions, University of Primorska, Faculty of Management Koper, vol. 7(2), pages 191-215.
    4. Hidiroglou, M A & Srinath, K P, 1993. "Problems Associated with Designing Subannual Business Surveys," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 11(4), pages 397-405, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Katharina Thill & Barbara Covarrubias Venegas & József Poór, 2016. "HR Positioning—A Matter of National Culture? Facts from Hungary," Business Perspectives and Research, , vol. 4(2), pages 136-144, July.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Schuler, Randall S., 2000. "The internationalization of human resource management," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 6(3), pages 239-260.
    2. Bill Harley & Cynthia Hardy, 2004. "Firing Blanks? An Analysis of Discursive Struggle in HRM," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(3), pages 377-400, May.
    3. Keith Sisson, 1993. "In Search of HRM," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 31(2), pages 201-210, June.
    4. Apoorva Ghosh & Pranabesh Ray, 2012. "A Contemporary Model for Industrial Relations," Management and Labour Studies, XLRI Jamshedpur, School of Business Management & Human Resources, vol. 37(1), pages 17-30, February.
    5. Ridder, H.-G. & Hoon, C., 2000. "Strategisches Personalmanagement in öffentlichen Verwaltungen: eine inhalts- und prozessanalytische Untersuchung," Hannover Economic Papers (HEP) dp-231, Leibniz Universität Hannover, Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Fakultät.
    6. David Guest & Zella King, 2004. "Power, Innovation and Problem‐Solving: The Personnel Managers’ Three Steps to Heaven?," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(3), pages 401-423, May.
    7. Astrid Reichel & Wolfgang Mayrhofer, 2009. "The End of Personnel? Managing Human Resources in Turbulent Environments (Introduction to Special Issue)," management revue - Socio-Economic Studies, Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG, vol. 20(1), pages 5-14.
    8. Stavrou, Eleni T. & Charalambous, Christakis & Spiliotis, Stelios, 2007. "Human resource management and performance: A neural network analysis," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 181(1), pages 453-467, August.
    9. Prince, Nicholas R. & Krebs, Benjamin & Prince, J. Bruce & Kabst, Rüediger, 2022. "Revisiting Gooderham et al. (1999) “Institutional and Rational Determinants of Organizational Practices: Human Resource Management in European Firms”," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 57(6).
    10. R. Benedetti & M. S. Andreano & F. Piersimoni, 2019. "Sample selection when a multivariate set of size measures is available," Statistical Methods & Applications, Springer;Società Italiana di Statistica, vol. 28(1), pages 1-25, March.
    11. Muethel, Miriam & Hoegl, Martin, 2010. "Cultural and societal influences on shared leadership in globally dispersed teams," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 16(3), pages 234-246, September.
    12. Wolfgang Mayrhofer & Chris Brewster, 2005. "European Human Resource Management: Researching Developments over Time," management revue - Socio-Economic Studies, Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG, vol. 16(1), pages 36-62.
    13. Katharina Thill & Barbara Covarrubias Venegas & József Poór, 2016. "HR Positioning—A Matter of National Culture? Facts from Hungary," Business Perspectives and Research, , vol. 4(2), pages 136-144, July.
    14. Filser, Matthias & Eggers, Fabian & Kraus, Sascha & Málovic, Éva, 2014. "The effect of financial resource availability on entrepreneurial orientation, customer orientation and firm performance in an international context: an empirical analysis from Austria and Hungaria," Journal of East European Management Studies, Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG, vol. 19(1), pages 7-30.
    15. Loubna Tahssain-Gay & Laïla Benraiss-Nailles & Sophie Hennekam-Treguier, 2020. "Enjeux des dimensions culturelles dans le management de la diversité au sein des multinationales aux Pays-Bas et au Maroc," Post-Print hal-02872824, HAL.
    16. David E. Guest, 1991. "Personnel Management: The End of Orthodoxy?," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 29(2), pages 149-175, June.
    17. Joe O’Mahoney, 2011. "Advisory Anxieties: Ethical Individualisation in the UK Consulting Industry," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 104(1), pages 101-113, November.
    18. Judith Volmer, 2012. "Catching Leaders’ Mood: Contagion Effects in Teams," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 2(3), pages 1-18, August.
    19. Chen, Yangyang & Dou, Paul Y. & Rhee, S. Ghon & Truong, Cameron & Veeraraghavan, Madhu, 2015. "National culture and corporate cash holdings around the world," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 1-18.
    20. Kevin Dalton & Liz Kennedy, 2007. "Management culture in Romania: Patterns of change and resistance," Journal of East European Management Studies, Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG, vol. 12(3), pages 232-259.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sek:iacpro:0802015. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Klara Cermakova (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://iises.net/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.