The roles and competencies of HR managers in Slovenian multinational companies

Abstract

Purpose – The HRM literature provides various typologies of the HR managers’ roles in organizations. The purpose of this paper is to examine how the roles and required competencies of HR managers in Slovenian multinational companies change when these companies enter the international arena. Design/methodology/approach – The authors explored the total population of 25 Slovenian multinational companies (MNCs) operating in Serbia. In these companies the authors conducted interviews with 16 expatriates working in branches in Serbia, sent questionnaires to the CEOs, and conducted a survey of 50 HR managers and interviews with 15 of them. The authors used a triangulation approach and analyzed the results by multivariate methods and content analysis. Findings – The authors found that the complexity of HR managers’ roles, and expectations of their competencies, increases with an increasing level of internationalization of companies. Orientation to people and conflict resolution are seen as elementary competencies needed in all stages of internationalization. The key competence is seen to be strategic thinking that, according to CEOs and expatriates, goes hand in hand with cultural sensitivity, openness to change and a comprehensive understanding of the international environment and business processes. Practical implications – These results can potentially be used for assessing the HRM roles and competencies in different stages of company internationalization, especially MNCs operating in the ex-communist states of Europe, and will help HR managers to support expatriates, CEOs and other employees working in branches abroad more efficiently. Originality/value – This study contributes to the review and evaluation of the quite limited research on HR managers’ roles and competencies in MNCs. It focuses on MNCs and outward internationalization in the Central and Eastern European region. It contributes to studies of the HR managers’ roles and competencies and is the first study to establish a set of roles and competencies for HR managers in Slovenian MNCs.

Juxtaposition of Organizational Competitive Factors and Performance Evaluation in Conjunction with Their Implications for HRM in MNCs: Part One, Contextual Review and Comparison of Central European and Polish Findings

“…In this sense, it is not only technology or financial resources that can make competitive advantage of the company but the competencies of employees and managerial staff, including HR executives (cf. Pablos and Miltiadis, 2008;Kohont and Brewster, 2014;Kupczyk and Stor, 2017), together with the quality of management practices as well (Vivares-Vergara et al, 2016). This goes in line with a broader discussion of the centralization and decentralization practices within management at different organizational levels and in different management areas and how these patterns may support or hamper the success of a company.…”

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“…The other main topic is the cooperation between the hr sections of the parent company and the subsidiary (Kelly 2001) furthermore if the complexity of hr managers' roles and the required competencies increased with an increasing level of internationalisation (Kohont and Brewster 2014). The present research aims to answer if the foreign-owned firms deal with the human resources in a different way, if they establish a more advanced practice.…”

The Importance of Strategic Competence in HRM: Evidence from Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia.

“…The complexity of HR managers' roles, and expectations of their competencies, increases with an increasing level of internationalization of companies with the key competence to be strategic thinking (Kohont & Brewster 2014b). Furthermore, HRM and in particular SHRM not only differs depending on the perspective but also considering company size.…”

“…This led to the fact that in CEE HR as a specified field of knowledge and a distinctive organizational function in organizations has been rudimentary, as most HR managers received little or no HR training during their formal or continuing education and lacked support of relevant professional societies (Zupan & Kaše 2005). That has gradually been changing (Brewster et al 2010;Poór 2009b) with considerable variance across the region (Svetlik et al 2010) as are the HRM practices within it (Kohont & Brewster 2014a). But still today, SMEs in the CEE region can be described as having rather informal than formal HRM activities (Stangl Susnjar et al 2016).…”