102nd PROFESSORIAL INAUGURAL LECTURE SERIES BY PROFESSOR DR. NUR NAHA ABU MANSOR

The change of human resource (HR) roles have led many organisations to relook into how HR has transformed. The commercialization of public and private businesses has led to enhanced customer service and arguably improved employee performance. Central to these efforts has been a radical reconsideration of the role of line managers. By devolving responsibility for HR practices to line managers, organizations expect a closer relationship between line managers and employees with speedier decision-making and more effective resolution of workplace problems. Increased understanding of partnership models involving HR specialists and line managers are becoming increasingly common. Line managers are central to be equipped with the common HR roles in areas of change agent, strategic partner, administrative expert and employee champion. Massive development of these roles has shown a huge move on the importance of line managers to be involved in their employee growth and needs. A common development lies in two core roles of line managers in HR productivity which are concentrated towards strategic partner roles and change agent roles. This is the most recent evolution of the HR roles where the line managers find themselves in the strategy formulation stage with the executive management. Therefore, rather than implementing and supporting strategic activities for the organization, they are engaged in the HR strategy formulation decision making. In relation to change agent roles, where organizations of all kinds face unrelenting changes in their environment, the need for line managers who are capable of turning strategy into reality has created a new legitimacy for the change agent role. It concludes that adequate support needs to be provided to line managers to enable them to effectively take on new HR responsibilities.