Paying the piper: choice and constraint in changing HR functional roles
journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-08, 16:58authored byCatherine Truss, Lynda Gratton, Veronica Hope-Hailey, Philip Stiles, Joanna Zaleska
HR directors are often exhorted to play a more 'strategic' role in their organisations. However, it is not necessarily clear what is meant by this, or whether it is possible for departments to change their role at a whim. In this article we examine the changing role of the HR function within two contrasting organisations - an NHS trust and a bank - over a period of seven years. Drawing on role-set theory and concepts of negotiated order, we illustrate how HR functional roles are located within a complex and dynamic social setting, and present a model that seeks to map these interrelationships.