Abstract
The role of HR professionals needs to undergo a radical shift with the changing Indian corporate scenario. A new set of roles where the focus shifts from doables to deliverables based on Ulrich (1997) has been con ceptualized and operationalized in this study. The first role of HR Professionals as a Strategy Integrator deals with aligning business and HR strategies of an organization. The second role focuses on being an Efficient Administrator, which would mean designing and developing efficient transaction mechanisms. The third role focuses on the HR Professionals acting as a Nurturant Patron to help employees accomplish their goals by providing them with resources and ensuring that employees are not overwhelmed by expectations. Finally, the fourth role of the HR Professional is that of a proactive Transition Facilitator to help organizations to anticipate change and deal with it.
To begin with, examples of these roles from Indian organizations are identified to explicate these roles. Further, a questionnaire survey of 103 respondents from 14 organizations (five from Consumer Durables and nine from IT) was conducted. The key results of the study indicated that HR is not perceived to play a differentiated role in Indian organizations. The survey also found an inherent bias in the perceptions of the HR professionals vis-à-vis the non-HR professionals (from other areas) regarding the role played by HR professionals in these organizations.
Results and their implications are discussed.
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