Strategic intent, high-performance HRM, and the role of the HR director: an investigation into attitudes and practices in the country of Jordan

Abstract

There is an implicit undercurrent in the HRM literature that the role of present-day HR director has become ‘strategic’ as opposed to ‘routine’, as in the past. In this article, we empirically test these assertions in the context of the country of Jordan – a context within which little past research into HRM has been undertaken. The design includes a detailed survey instrument sent to all financial firms within the country. We find that the reliance on routine functions has indeed fallen for HR directors surveyed; however, there is only weak evidence to support the theory that the perceived importance of strategic functions has increased substantially. Results show that male HR directors and those longer serving, with higher qualifications, and those working for companies with lower employee turnover are more likely to rate the importance of the most strategic HR functions as ‘high’. Neither company size nor years of establishment moderated this relationship. The empirical evidence from this study – as one of a few conducted in non-Western environment – adds to the literature with some interesting implications and avenues for future work. Importantly, implications from our findings for strategic HRM and the role of the HR director are considered in conclusion.

Keywords:

• ordinal and logistic regressions
• proportions test
• strategic and routine functions
• strategic HRM

Acknowledgements

Authors are grateful to the editor and the reviewers for very helpful comments on an earlier draft of the article. The comments helped us improve the article substantially. All shortcomings are ours.