HR Competencies and Professional Standards: June 2000

HR Competencies and Professional
Standards
June 2000
Professor Chris Brewster

Elaine Farndale
Dr Jos van Ommeren
The authors of this Report are at the Centre for European Human Resource Management, Cranfield
School of Management, Cranfield University, UK (Tel: +44 (0)1234 751122, Fax: +44 (0)1234
752081). The views expressed in the report are those of the authors only.
HR COMPETENCIES AND PROFESSIONAL STANDARDS PROJECT
Executive summary
The aim of this World Federation of Personnel Management Associations’ project was to
develop a worldwide definition of what an HR professional is and does in terms of a ‘global
set of core competencies’. The approach taken was to consider the range of practices in
different countries’ professional standards and certification programmes by means of a
literature review and worldwide surveys.
The literature review examines the issue of ‘professionalism’ and defines the term
competencies for the purposes of this project. It identifies how competencies can vary in
weighting in the context of different job roles and models of personnel management. The
issue of outsourcing certain HR activities is also raised as one that will affect the skill
requirements within an organisation. The development of an HR competency model is
advocated, and a summary is provided of the common core competencies. Variations in these
core competencies are discussed against national, organisational and time contexts.
Competency is also identified as one of the key enabling factors for an organisation to create
its own sustainable competitive advantage in the marketplace.
The personnel management association survey gathers information about the associations
themselves, and about their provision of education and training programmes, examining the
skill and knowledge requirements of personnel practitioners in each of the 22 participant
countries. The data from the questionnaires corroborates many of the issues identified in the
literature review, and provides practical evidence for analysing the activities of personnel
management associations around the world.
The HR body of knowledge, and the way this is being taught and assessed around the world,
is the focus for the detailed analysis of the documentation provided by associations in
addition to completing the survey. The body of knowledge is presented as a Global
Framework of Skills and Knowledge. This is broken down into a detailed description of what
practitioners are expected to know and to be able to do in order to operate at a support,
professional or strategic level in the management and development of people. A number of
examples are presented of different mechanisms for delivering, assessing and certifying the
attainment of professional standards. These are collated to provide a summary of the options
available to associations wishing to develop such activities.
There are a number of implications for the personnel function arising from the findings of
study, not least of all to determine a strategy to meet the challenges of the emerging
environment. This strategy can be determined at a number of levels, including individual,
functional, organisational and national, and this study has demonstrated that it can also
benefit from input at an international level. The commonalities between the activities and
standards of personnel practitioners in each of the countries involved far outweigh the
differences, showing that countries have the opportunity to learn from each other.
The report summarises practical ideas for the content of professional standards, and how
these might be translated into sets of skills and knowledge for the development of personnel
professionals. It also emphasises the importance of considering the national,
industrial/sectoral and organisational context to ensure the skills and knowledge being
developed are appropriate to the practitioner’s job role and level.
ii
Preface
This project was funded by the World Federation of Personnel Management Associations
(WFPMA), supported by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), UK
and the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), USA. The WFPMA was
founded in 1976, and currently represents over 300,000 people management professionals in
around 50 national personnel associations. The Secretariat, which is responsible for the
administration of the WFPMA, is currently held by the CIPD.
For further information about the WFPMA, contact:
Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development

CIPD House
Camp Road
Wimbledon
London SW19 4UX
Tel: +44 (0) 20 8971 9000
Fax: +44 (0) 20 8263 3333
E-mail: [email protected]
iii
Acknowledgements
Grateful thanks are given to:

• Judy Whittaker, Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development
• Alberto Fuster de Carulla for translation of documents from and into Spanish
• the sponsors, SHRM and CIPD, for their support, funding and input
• members of the project steering group
• all individuals and organisations who participated in the research.
Project Steering Group

Judy Whittaker (Project Director) (CIPD, UK)
Chris Brewster (Cranfield School of Management, UK)
Alejandro Fernandez Colmenares (ANRI, Venezuela)
Alberto Fuster de Carulla (FUNDIPE on behalf of AEDIPE, Spain)
Brian Glade (SHRM, USA)
Carolyn Gould (PWC, USA)
Armand Mella (ANDCP, France)
Richard Rudman (IPMNZ, New Zealand)
Carolyn Wiley (Carwil Management Consulting, USA)
First survey respondents

J J Lauro (ADPA, Argentina), C Mattos (ABRH, Brazil), S W Hillesheim (Brasil), H Böhm
(DGFP, Germany), P Boday (OHE, Hungary), C Chu (HKIHRM, Hong Kong), S K
Dasgupta (NIPM, India), C Taguchi (JSHRM, Japan), A Masod (MIPM, Malaysia), E Lopez
Perez (AMERI, Mexico), M Sauer (NVP, The Netherlands), P Toulson (IPMNZ, New
Zealand), S Kristiansen (NIPA, Norway), M J Safara (APG, Portugal), A Fuster de Carulla
(FUNDIPE on behalf of AEDIPE, Spain), J Whittaker (IPD, UK), S Sukhsvasti na Ayudhya
(PMAT, Thailand), G G Storey (CCHRA, Canada), M R Losey (SHRM, USA), A Fernandez
(PDVSA, Venezuela).
Second survey respondents (USA only)

Amanda Reyna & Michelle Hafford (Bell South International); Kathy Palmer (Shell
Technology Ventures); Denise Dion (Booz, Allen & Hamilton); Jacquelyn D Eley (Eli Lilly
and Company); Argery Cooke (International Monetary Fund); Christian Doeringer
(Netsysco); Lorrie Ferraro (Axis Communications); Glenn Autry (Flint Ink Corporation).
Academic survey respondents

Patrick Gunnigle (Ireland); Pieter Alexander Grobler (South Africa); Tochitaka Yamanouchi
(Japan); Gene Johnson (New Zealand); Barrie Humphries (New Zealand); Elena Granell de
Aldaz (Venezuela); Alexandro Fernandez (Venezuela); Ceferi Soler (Spain); K K Chaudhuri
(India); Debra J Cohen (USA); Vicki Tan (Malaysia); J von Grumbkow (The Netherlands);
Robin Kramar (Australia); Watcharapong Intratvong (Thailand); Ricardo Jimenez
(Venezuela); Rui Moura (Portugal); Christiane Erten (Austria); Francoise Dany (France);
Nancy Papalexandris (Greece); Elizabeth Vatchkova (Bulgaria); Josef Koubek (Czech
Republic).
iv
Contents
Page
I. INTRODUCTION.........................................................................................................................................1
I.1 The project ................................................................................................................................................1
I.2 Definition of terminology ...........................................................................................................................2
I.3 The relevance of HR competencies today...............................................................................................2
II. LITERATURE REVIEW.............................................................................................................................4
II.1. Introduction .............................................................................................................................................4
II.2. HR as a profession .................................................................................................................................4
II.3. Definitions of HR competencies .............................................................................................................6
II.4. Developing an HR competency model ..................................................................................................8
II.5. Variations in HR competency requirements ..........................................................................................9

II.5.1. National context.............................................................................................................................10
II.5.2. Organisational context ..................................................................................................................11
II.5.3. Time context ..................................................................................................................................12
II.6. Competency acquisition .......................................................................................................................13
II.7. Summary ...............................................................................................................................................15
III. METHODOLOGY ...................................................................................................................................16
III.1 The survey of personnel management associations...........................................................................16
III.2 Second survey in USA..........................................................................................................................18
III.3 The academic literature survey ............................................................................................................18
IV. SURVEY FINDINGS ..............................................................................................................................19
IV.1 Background information on personnel management associations ....................................................19
IV.2 Education and training .........................................................................................................................22
IV.3 Skills and knowledge............................................................................................................................26
IV.4 Academic questionnaires.....................................................................................................................31

IV.4.1 English language responses ........................................................................................................31
IV.4.2 Non-English language responses ................................................................................................31
V. THE HR BODY OF KNOWLEDGE ........................................................................................................32
V.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................32
V.2 Global framework of the HR body of knowledge .................................................................................33

v
V.3 Contextual analysis ...............................................................................................................................34

V.3.1 HRM principles...............................................................................................................................34
V.3.2 The work environment ...................................................................................................................35
V.3.3 Job levels and roles .......................................................................................................................38
V.4 Elements of skills and knowledge.........................................................................................................40
VI. TRAINING AND EDUCATION ..............................................................................................................45
VI.1 Introduction ...........................................................................................................................................45
VI.2 Delivery options ....................................................................................................................................45
VI.3 Case examples.....................................................................................................................................45

VI.3.1 Training courses in Portugal (APG) .............................................................................................46
VI.3.2 Hong Kong Institute of Human Resource Management (IHRM) ................................................46
VI.3.3 Human Resources Institute of New Zealand (HRINZ)................................................................47
VI.3.4 Training programmes in Singapore (SHRI) .................................................................................48
VI.3.5 Hungarian Association for Human Resources Management (OHE)..........................................48
VII. ASSESSMENT AND CERTIFICATION ...............................................................................................49
VII.1 Introduction ..........................................................................................................................................49
VII.2 Mechanisms.........................................................................................................................................49
VII.3 Case examples....................................................................................................................................49

VII.3.1 Human Resource Certification Institute (HRCI) - USA ..............................................................49
VII.3.2 Human Resources Professionals Association of Ontario (HRPAO) - Canada .........................50
VII.3.3 Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) - UK ..............................................51
VIII. CONCLUSIONS ...................................................................................................................................52
VIII.1 Project boundaries .............................................................................................................................52
VIII.2 The status of HR and competencies .................................................................................................52
VIII.3 The associations and their activities..................................................................................................52
VIII.4 The core HR body of knowledge .......................................................................................................53
VIII.5 Teaching and development of HR specialists...................................................................................54
VIII.6 Implications.........................................................................................................................................55
IX. REFERENCES .......................................................................................................................................57
APPENDICES ..............................................................................................................................................60
Appendix 1. Personnel management associations questionnaire.....................................................60
Appendix 2. Survey participants .............................................................................................................72
Appendix 3. Academic questionnaires...................................................................................................74

3a. English language responses.............................................................................................................74
3b. English language references ............................................................................................................75
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3c. Non-English language responses.....................................................................................................77

3d. Non-English language references ....................................................................................................77
Appendix 4. The CRANET survey............................................................................................................79
Appendix 5. HR competencies identified in the literature ...................................................................80
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List of figures
Page
Figure 1. World map showing the total spread of responses received from countries which were
members of the WFPMA at the time of the project...............................................................16
Figure 2. World map showing the spread of personnel management questionnaires received ..............17
Figure 3. World map showing the spread of academic literature questionnaires received ......................18
Figure 4. Criteria for categories of membership .........................................................................................19
Figure 5a. Number of members - associations with less than 2000 members in total .............................20
Figure 5b. Number of members - associations with between 2000 and 10000 members in total ...........20
Figure 5c. Number of members - associations with more than 10000 members in total .........................20
Figure 6a. Number of paid employees - associations with less than 20 employees in total ....................21
Figure 6b. Number of paid employees - associations with more than 20 employees in total ..................21
Figure 7. Members with a university degree...............................................................................................22
Figure 8. Most common degree disciplines among personnel management association members .......22
Figure 9. The importance of education levels.............................................................................................23
Figure 10. Associations who run personnel management certified courses of study...............................23
Figure 11. Modes of study ...........................................................................................................................24
Figure 12. Do you award certificates for demonstrating competence? .....................................................24
Figure 13. Do you offer training courses?...................................................................................................25
Figure 14. Training courses offered ............................................................................................................25
Figure 15. Most popular training courses ...................................................................................................26
Figure 16. Range of association guidelines produced ...............................................................................27
Figure 17. Do you produce a code of conduct?..........................................................................................27
Figure 18. Recruitment, retention, promotion and termination ..................................................................28
Figure 19. Performance measurement, reward and development ............................................................29
Figure 20. Employee communication and the working environment.........................................................30
Figure 21. Primary responsibilities of support/administrative roles ...........................................................39
Figure 22. Primary responsibilities of professional/specialist roles ...........................................................39
Figure 23. Primary responsibilities of senior/strategic roles ......................................................................39
viii
I. Introduction
I.1 The project
The aim of the project was to develop a worldwide definition of what an HR professional is
and does in terms of a ‘global set of core competencies’. The first step was to establish how
plausible this is, and if it were appropriate the project would continue further to define these
competencies in detail. This having been achieved, the second phase of the project looked at
defining a set of professional standards. The approach taken was to consider the range of
practices in different countries’ professional standards and certification programmes by
means of a literature review and worldwide surveys.
The specific research questions that the project was designed to address are:
1.1 How do different countries define the standards for what constitutes an
HR professional? What are the competencies they will need to be able to
apply at the various levels of their professional activities, from the
operational to the most strategic?
1.2 How do national associations certify the attainment of professional

standards? What are the learning and development routes they might pursue
in order to keep up-to-date those competencies?
1.3 Are there generic standards of professionalism in HR common to all or

many countries? What are the professional standards that might be
appropriate to certify their attainment of those competencies?
1.4 Could standards be expressed in such a way that they would be helpful to
emerging professional associations wishing to develop HR professionalism in
their country?
As we can see, one of the key outcomes that this project addresses is whether the experiences
and knowledge of different countries, practitioners and academics can be combined to
produce a set of ‘guidelines’ for credible learning systems and certification particularly for
developing associations. Other anticipated results included the potential mutual recognition
of qualifications, raised standards of professionalism and the stimulation of topics for further
discussion. It was therefore necessary to apply methodological rigour to ensure the status of
the findings of the project.
In this examination of how different countries define the standards for personnel work, our
findings have been based on the experiences of personnel management associations; in
general, the work of national vocational qualification bodies has not been included. The
information presented in this report is averaged over a variety of types of association
membership and is a collection of what is currently done or perceived to be done.
This report examines the HR practices currently being implemented around the world,
providing a description of the picture gleaned from the survey of personnel management
associations. The report will focus on the commonalities observed, and where there were
1
interesting and significant divergences from these commonalties. It will also examine the HR
body of knowledge, and the way this is being taught and assessed around the world.
I.2 Definition of terminology
Although we will not enter here into the academic and practitioner debate on the definition of
the relatively new terminology of ‘competencies’ in the HRM field, it is important to explain
what we mean by ‘competencies’ in the framework of this report1. Three interchangeable
terms have been used in this study:
♣ competencies
♣ capabilities
♣ skills, knowledge, attributes and other characteristics.
One definition by Kochanski (1996 pp.4) provides a useful description of competencies for
this project. He defines competencies as the success factors that enable the assessment,
feedback, development and reward processes for individuals to take place. Holmes (1992)
also gives us a useful definition of competence-based qualifications, which are fundamental
to the aims of this project. Competence-based qualifications provide a statement about what a
person is capable of doing rather that what they have done in the past. Measuring competence
is not about performance to a standard, i.e. what a person actually does, but it is about what a
person is capable of doing. It is a measure of anticipated performance based on inference
from past performance, often based on observation. Competency definition is also based
primarily on defining superior performance, rather than average levels of performance.
Equally, we are not entering the debate on the distinction between ‘personnel management’
(PM) and ‘human resource management’ (HRM) as this takes on new complexities with the
inclusion of linguistic issues between countries. Here, we use the terms ‘personnel
management’ and ‘human resource management’ interchangeably, to cover all activities
undertaken in the management and development of people in the workplace. It includes such
terms as ‘personnel and development’ and ‘training and development’ roles.
I.3 The relevance of HR competencies today
In the HR literature, competencies are receiving increasing attention stimulated by a number

of changes in the global business environment. From a US perspective, the effects of
increased international competition and the growth of alliances, joint ventures, mergers and
acquisitions are highlighted. There have been and still are rapid technological advances
occurring and increasingly employee expectations about work are changing. There is also a
debate around the size of the pool of skilled talent in different countries. And as organisations
become more global it can be argued that the need for standardisation within the profession is
growing.
1
A useful point of reference for those interested in the history and definition of the use of competencies and
competency models in HR can be found in Appendix 1 (Competencies: A Review of the Literature and
Bibliography) to the first report published by the Canadian Council of Human Resource Associations (CCHRA)
in connection with their ongoing Human Resources Profession Competencies Project (currently available via the
CCHRA website: http://www.chrpcanada.com).
2
Within this environment HR goals are also changing. The new demands being placed on HR
staff are to develop leaders and more generally to recruit and retain a quality workforce.
Alongside this, there needs to be an increase in workforce productivity in the face of
heightened competition, and so compensation then needs to be aligned with business strategy.
It then also becomes essential to develop employees in order to achieve the organisation’s
goals. Individual capabilities within the organisation as a whole are becoming more important
than purely within a defined job, and hence, individuals are being recognised as capable of
influencing an organisation’s success (Porter 1998).
In the face of this new environment, there is recognition that current HR has both strengths
and weaknesses. New skills and knowledge need to be developed in integrating global and
local perspectives. Another area seen as a weakness in much HR literature is the use of
technology to support HR strategy. The resulting barriers to the future role of HR are
therefore clear. They centre on the competencies of the HR staff and the standards of the HR
function.
3
II. Literature review
II.1. Introduction
In this section of the report on global HR competencies and professional standards, we

examine the contribution that the existing literature can make to our understanding and
knowledge of this subject.
First, we consider the debate that is apparent in much HR literature around the issue of to
what extent HR can be classed as a profession. Against this setting we then identify the body
of knowledge associated with HR, paying particular attention to the definition of HR
competencies and job roles. We then consider how the HR function contributes to the
organisation as a whole. The issue of developing a competency model is discussed, raising
the question whether HR practices, and hence the required skills and knowledge, vary
according to different countries and organisations. Finally, we look at how HR practitioners
can go about achieving the levels of education and training required within the organisation.
II.2. HR as a profession
There is a body of literature that centres on the debate about whether HR can be classed as a
‘profession’. Our review starts with a very bold statement from Losey in the USA that
“human resource management is a profession” (1997, pp.147). He justifies this by stating that
there is an established body of knowledge that can be taught, learned and tested, and that
there is an ethical code of conduct. However, Ulrich & Eichinger claim that: “HR must
become more professional” (1998, pp.1). They argue that HR should be a ‘profession’, but
that it has not reached that status yet. There is a need for an accepted and commonly known
body of knowledge, common standards for entry and performance, standards of conduct, sets
of best practices and communities with strong identities and distinctiveness. And in order to
achieve this, further study needs to be conducted into the body of knowledge that defines the
discipline. In turn, this will then require additional training, testing and certification. In
addition, Ulrich & Eichinger (1998) claim that the route to professionalism is through the
definition and gaining of competencies. They claim that this has been achieved to a large
extent throughout the 1990s in the US already, but that this work should now be taken
forward to create a common professional knowledge. These are obviously some of the key
issues that this project has been designed to address: what is the body of knowledge, and how
can it be disseminated?
However, the definition of ‘professional’ provided by Gibb (1994) in the UK includes one of
the key differentiating elements of professionalism: the need to be qualified in order to
practise, in addition to having a specific body of knowledge and an ethical code of conduct. If
we consider this definition, the conclusion must be that HR is not a ‘profession’. Although
there is a perceived need to be qualified in certain countries or more specifically, certain
organisations, this is not a statutory requirement in any country as it is for example for people
in the medical or accounting professions. For example, we believe that in the USA,
organisations are not allowed to state that a personnel qualification is required in job
advertisements, as it has not yet been proven to be a requirement related to performance. In
fact, only one quarter of senior HR managers in Europe has specific HR qualifications and/or
4
is a member of their country’s professional association2, disputing the existence of a

community with a strong identity and a need to be certified.
Walker (1988) argues from another perspective that “HR people have got to stop
conceptualising their role as a ‘professional’ individual contributor and realise that their job is
to help provide corporations with leadership on HR issues”. And likewise, Boyatzis (Yeung
1996) believes that HR practitioners have been trying to create a sense of being a profession
since the 1960s. He sees this as a damaging process. He claims that the ‘profession’ ends up
with current, politically popular definitions of quality justifying its existence, and by
definition is creating an element of exclusion of anything which diverges from the accepted
professional body of knowledge. He argues that in the process of defining this appropriate
body of knowledge and the required skills set, the level of performance achieved becomes
‘average’ or ‘mediocre’ rather than setting ‘superior’ performance targets. Likewise in the
report on a survey carried out by the Institute of Personnel Management in New Zealand in
1997, it is stated that “it is irrelevant whether HR is a profession: what matters is whether HR
practitioners behave in a professional manner” (Pajo & Cleland 1997, pp. 5).
On the one hand there are those commentators who argue that HR as a profession should
have its own standards, qualifications and ethics. This would presumably allow HR
professionals to refuse to do things that the senior management team of the organisation
asked them to, if they went beyond accepted HR standards (in the same way that legal or
financial experts might). On the other hand there are those who argue that the effective HR
specialist should have the skills to be able to act in the HR arena as necessary to enable the
senior management team to fulfil whatever strategic direction they have chosen. At any point
the two concepts may be compatible; but there is always confusion in the debate as
commentators drift from one usage to the other.
The debate seems to be, in part, between different visions of professionalism. If we are to
take the strictest elements of each of the definitions of professionalism presented here, the
professionalism of HR can be summarised as requiring:
• a community with a sense of identity;
• an ethical code of conduct;
• common standards of entry and performance;
• a distinct body of knowledge;
• a requirement for training/certification.
Although the extent to which the debate over "professionalism" is a valuable one may be
questioned, in the context of this project it is important in order to establish worldwide HR
competencies and standards. One means of assessing the extent of HR professionalism is to
take a look at evidence of HR practitioners’ career paths. The longer individuals choose to
remain within a work domain and the more often the senior specialists are drawn from
current practitioners, the more that domain can be classed as a profession. Longer service and
the restriction of senior positions to those with training and experience imply that the body of
knowledge grows, and the sense of identity and distinctiveness increases.
The careers of HR specialists indicate a number of different patterns. In 1999, the average
number of years’ experience of senior HR practitioners is high (thirteen) across Europe,
2
The data are taken from the CRANET survey 1992, the last time this question was asked. The questions in
each round of the survey are amended to take into account current activities in the field of HRM (see Appendix
4).
5
ranging from six years in Denmark to seventeen years in Italy and Sweden. In Europe, over
three-quarters of all senior HR managers have been an HR specialist for a minimum of five
years. Also, on average six out of ten senior HR managers are recruited from amongst HR
specialists (either from internal or external sources) though this figure is lower in for example
Finland and Austria (four out of ten) .3 In New Zealand, a similar picture can be found, but it
highlights that the phenomenon of HR people having started their career in HR is greatest
amongst younger practitioners, indicating a changing trend over time (Pajo & Cleland 1997).
Despite the general trend of prolonged periods of time as HR specialists, and recruitment of
HR practitioners being made mainly from those with HR experience, it remains that in
Europe more than three in ten senior HR specialists are appointed from outside the
profession. The career paths of senior HR specialists are not uniform among countries
though. For example, HR specialists in the Philippines tend to come from and move on into
different management functions. German, Slovakian, Spanish and UK HR specialists,
wanting to stay within HR feel they need general management skills in order to do this
(Ackerman et al 1995).
From the various definitions of professionalism in the HR literature, for the purpose of this
project we will explore further two of the key factors: a) the body of knowledge; and, b) the
requirement for education or training. In the next section we examine the existence of an HR
body of knowledge, and particularly the definition of HR competencies in the literature.
II.3. Definitions of HR competencies
Any analysis of HR competencies requires careful definition because of the considerable

variance in the use of the term ‘competencies’ in the literature. For the purpose of this study,
the numerous definitions of competency can be summarised effectively as a collection of
technical and cultural capabilities (Brockbank 1997). However, it is obvious throughout the
literature that different authors advocate different approaches to competency definition. For
example, one particular approach to modelling competencies advocated by Ulrich et al (1995)
and Boyatzis (Yeung 1996) includes the integration of areas of competence into groupings.
Ulrich et al’s (1995) model combines various aspects of competence into three primary
elements: knowledge of the business, HR functional expertise and management of change.
They argue that management of change is critical, as the organisation’s external rate of
change (e.g. globalisation, information flow, customer expectations, technology, etc.) must be
matched by the internal rate of change for the organisation to remain competitive.
Irrespective of job role or job title, the elements of competence remain in the same order of
importance, with any variation manifesting itself in weighting alone. In the US, ‘Change
management’ has been reported to be most important (41%), followed by ‘HR functional
expertise’ (22%) and ‘Knowledge of business’ (17%). A similar pattern was also seen in non-
US organisations, however the different elements were seen as being much more balanced:
34%, 26% and 26% respectively (Ulrich et al 1995, pp.487). The idea that competency
weightings change according to job role or level is also supported by Boyatzis (Yeung 1996).
3
CRANET survey 1999.
6
In defining HR competencies, Ulrich and Boyatzis, like many others, argue that it is
necessary to consider the specific job roles of HR practitioners in order to differentiate
between possible variations in requirements. The roles of human resource staff have been
extensively discussed in the literature and in textbooks of human resource management (see,
for example, Schuler and Huber, 1993; Purcell, 1995). One work in particular by Tyson and
Fell (1986) defined three dominant personnel management models based on an analogy from
the building and civil engineering profession: clerk of works, contracts manager and
architect. In essence, the clerk of works role focuses on the day-to-day operations carried out
by the personnel department, and is often the support or administrative HR practitioner role.
The contracts manager is the expert ensuring that every aspect of policy and procedure and
hence the personnel department’s ‘contract’ with the organisation is fulfilled. This role
equates to that of the professional or specialist HR practitioner. The architect is the long-term
designer and planner, co-ordinating the activities of other members of the department,
otherwise known as the senior or strategic management HR practitioner. In the definition of
these models it is already clear how individuals carrying out different models of personnel
management will require different degrees of competence in different areas. This is also
relative to the environment in which the organisation is operating.
Traditionally, HR staff have had a relatively limited involvement in the organisation’s affairs
and goals, with activities being targeted mainly at the operational level. Consequently, the
justification of the presence of human resource staff is mainly to enjoy economies of scale
and specialisation. However, the HR function is currently having to respond to major changes
in its environment: lowering costs, enhancing quality, ensuring that the organisation is
tapping into the full potential of its employees and creating stronger business links, hence
becoming a business partner. With the growing importance of human resource management
to the success of the organisation, human resource departments have become involved at the
medium-term level (for example, in the development of recruitment marketing plans) and at
the strategic level (for example, a relocation of the organisation). The designated senior
‘architects’ predominantly perform HR activities at the medium-term and strategic level
within the organisation. Clearly, the skills to perform these roles are quite different from
those skills needed to perform at the administrative clerk of works level. The challenge for
the future for HR appears to lie in sustaining a balance between strategist and technical roles,
and shifting from being a provider to being an enabler in personnel management. This
includes facilitating change and being an innovator in the face of change and may involve the
use of core HR staff whilst outsourcing appropriate activities and devolving responsibilities
to the line and to employees themselves (Bell et al 1999).
The HR functions’ contribution to organisational performance can be seen from the

perspective of the HR practitioner him or herself, and that of the line manager. Many HR
activities can be implemented by either human resource management specialists or by line
managers provided the individuals have the appropriate levels of competence. On average
across Europe, three out of ten organisations have increased responsibilities of the line for
HRM.4 The most common responsibility devolved is for training and development (43% of
organisations across Europe), followed by recruitment and selection (35%), pay and benefits
(29%), workforce expansion/reduction (28%), with the lowest being industrial relations
issues (23%). This information should influence our analysis of future competency needs of
HR practitioners.
4
CRANET survey 1999.
7
Concentrating on HR’s direct influence on the organisation, Ulrich et al (1995) carried out a
large-scale survey in the US looking at specific competencies in HR in order to produce
benchmarking standards. One of the recent developments they identified was the emergence
of HR ‘business partners’ resulting in a need for the professional growth of HR practitioners
themselves, and the need to contribute to the organisation’s competitive stance as a whole.
Ulrich et al define competence as the ability to add value to the business; competence must
focus on the process leading from changing business conditions to achieving sustainable
competitive advantage. This can be done by generating sources of uniqueness and hence
developing unique organisational capability. And fundamental to this is ensuring that HR
practices are central to the creation and maintenance of this organisational capability.
This section has looked at definitions of competencies and considered the importance of job
roles and models of personnel management to competency definition. It has also examined
how HR contributes to the organisation as a whole. This raises the issue of how the specific
competencies and the process of developing an HR competency model are being identified in
the literature.
II.4. Developing an HR competency model
Initially, although we note that some of the literature casts doubts on the value of developing
prescriptive competency models for HR (see for example Gibb 1994), there is a large body of
HR literature that argues the need to develop a competency model. The reasons for this are in
order to audit the current skills gap and to provide appropriate development to ensure the
function is able to add value. Such a competency model can either be developed based on
senior management input (subjective approach) or on a conceptual framework such as
functional analysis (objective approach). A number of surveys have already been carried out
around the world to try to build such a conceptual framework using both the subjective and
objective approaches (Schoonover 1998, Csoka & Hackett 1998, Heneman et al 1998, Laabs
1996, Lawson & Limbrick 1996 and Walker 1988). These also include work done by
companies (e.g. UPS, Unilever) and by the personnel management associations in a number
of countries around the world. According to these studies, the core HR competencies can be
divided into four broad areas: individual style, organisational involvement, leadership and
technical activities (see Appendix 5).
Style focuses particularly on personal credibility. Tyson & Fell (1986) define this as resulting
from experience across the range of HR competencies, including expertise in the academic
disciplines that provide the theoretical basis. Other competencies that develop individual style
include interpersonal effectiveness and a relationship orientation. It also includes personal
strengths such as tolerance for stress, change and ambiguity as well as being able to adopt
creative and analytical approaches to problem solving.
The organisational involvement competencies refer to issues related to business acumen and
market orientation. They focus on managing change and culture, having a strategic business
perspective and being able to align HR with business and organisational planning processes.
The ability to develop a learning organisation also falls under this heading.
The leadership role competencies are more about relationship management, facilitation and
building. They focus on the various areas of organisational management such as project,
assets, talent and information. Responsiveness to stakeholders is another key competency that
8
also links back to the organisation awareness competencies. Issues such as quality and value
are key words found amongst these competencies.
The technical competencies are perhaps the most familiar in the HR literature. These include
the knowledge and delivery of traditional personnel and HR management, for example,
reward and compensation, labour relations, training and development, organisational design,
staffing and retention, performance management, communication, grievance and discipline.
Emerging competencies in this area include the application and exploitation of information
technology and compliance with increasingly complex legislation. Likewise, an emphasis is
also starting to appear in the literature on skills in evaluating the HR function, on clear
objective setting and on HR accountability.
As we have indicated, this study adopts a broad definition of HR competencies, which is

most appropriate to our purpose. It includes not only technical competencies in dealing with
transactional tasks such as recruitment, retention, release, motivation and development of an
organisation's employees, but also includes the strategic skills and knowledge required to deal
with the personnel functions’ staff and involvement in the organisation as a whole.
The literature is clear in dividing out the technical and the strategic competencies required
within HR. In the past, it is argued, the personnel function was about welfare and
remuneration, but now it is centred on organisational reaction to changing environments with
increases in globalisation and the use of technology and knowledge-based workers. This is
affecting the technical competency requirements of personnel practitioners and it is also
having an impact on where the personnel function fits into the organisation as a whole. The
literature clearly states that personnel should be taking a more strategic role within
organisations, and there is research evidence that this is actually taking place. In Europe, the
number of organisations with the head of personnel on the top management board (or
equivalent) has been around 60% for the last decade. The number of organisations with a
written personnel strategy increased on average by 12% during this period.5 This amounts to
clear evidence of the increased strategic approach to HR across Europe, and similar evidence
can be seen in literature from the USA, Australia, New Zealand and Hong Kong.
We have identified that the literature specifies some strategic and technical HR competencies,
and indicates that required competencies, or the weighting of required competencies, can vary
according to the job role. The next section considers how requirements for competencies vary
according to the prevailing organisational context.
II.5. Variations in HR competency requirements
Throughout the literature it is argued that context influences the required competencies for
HR practice. The nature and degree of variation is, however, open to discussion. This section
examines the variations in context under the headings of national, organisational and time
contexts.
5
Trend data from 1992 to 1999 from the CRANET survey.
9
II.5.1. National context
Although, there is an increasing shift towards globalisation, and hence arguably towards
convergence, in a global project as this is, it is still essential to consider national variations in
the definition of HR competencies and professional standards.
Sparrow and Hiltrop (1997) divide the national context into four sets of factors: culture,
institutionalisation, business structures/systems, and roles/competence of practitioners. They
explain, for example, how organisations face different legal and regulatory systems,
depending on the country of residence. These systems vary immensely between countries
(see also Brewster & Hegewisch, 1994). Furthermore, differences in economic wealth and
labour markets are large between countries.
Legal and regulatory systems, economic wealth, the functioning of labour markets, and
culture, all affect requirements of HR competencies. Examples can be easily given. In some
countries, the consequences of not abiding by laws on discrimination may have major
financial consequences for the organisation (in the United States, for instance). In others, this
may not be so significant. In some countries, laws on discrimination are very comprehensive,
whereas in other countries these laws are used in fewer areas: in the UK, Italy and in the
Netherlands, the use of age restrictions while recruiting is not against the law. As a result, in
Italy, about 50% of all advertisements explicitly state age requirements. In the Netherlands,
about 20% of all vacancies explicitly use age requirements. In contrast, in the United States,
the use of age restrictions is seen as a discriminatory practice. Equally, legislation in Europe
is generally stricter than in the US regarding issues of health and safety, working time and
employee consultation. Hence, in countries where there are higher legislative demands on the
employment of labour, HR employees need to have a more fundamental knowledge of
employment law.
Economic wealth may influence the use of HR competencies, since the use of fringe benefits
(for example, pensions or healthcare) seems to be more common in wealthy countries. This
suggests that in wealthy countries, a higher proportion of HR staff must be specialised in the
running of benefit schemes. In addition, rich countries tend to spend more resources on
training, so in these countries, more specialised training staff are needed.
National culture affects the use of HR competencies, though since this is an indistinct
concept, it is difficult to identify exactly how it does so. For example, it has been claimed that
it is useful to focus on national specific differences in the following dimensions: (1) emphasis
on quality of life, (2) formalisation and standardisation of work organisation, (3) whether
tasks prevail over relationships and (4) the subordinate/boss relationship (Schuler and
Rogovsky, 1998). It may be hypothesised, for example, that in societies where formalisation
and standardisation of work organisation are more appreciated, HR staff are more likely to
work to maintain the status quo. However, in countries where formalisation and
standardisation of work is less appreciated, HR staff are seen more as agents of change.
Equally, in more consultative societies, HR staff are perhaps more likely to be seen as experts
if they can manage the consultation processes effectively. Cultural differences can also be
seen, for example, in attitudes and definitions of what makes an effective manager, feedback,
power distance and uncertainty avoidance.
National differences in labour markets and the current type of labour market (eg many
vacancies and a shortage of skills, current levels of unemployment, etc) will affect the
10
perceived nature of HR competencies. For example, one of the main differences between
national labour markets is job turnover. Well-known examples are that in the United States
job turnover is high; whereas in Japan, job turnover has traditionally been low compared to
European countries. Hence, in the United States, the skills needed to recruit may be more
common than in Japan. Similarly, job turnover is usually higher in economies that are
booming than those that are in a depression. Cyclical variation in HR competencies is
therefore to be expected. Another interesting example is job rotation. In countries where job
turnover is relatively low and organisations are not expected to lay off employees, job
rotation is more common. Usually, HR departments are responsible for job rotation. Clearly,
to make job rotation a success, HR departments should have in-depth knowledge of the
organisation and should have the power to overcome the objections of individual line
managers. Hence, in countries where job rotation is very common (for example, Japan), HR
employees must have the skills (and authority) to organise this.
II.5.2. Organisational context
Various theories support the notion that similar organisations tend to make use of similar HR
competencies. This can be explained by considering how an organisation feels the pressure to
conform with the expectations of its stakeholders to introduce business measures of interest
to these stakeholders. Since the expectations of these stakeholders tend to be the same for all
organisations, similar measures spread throughout the population of organisations. In
addition, due to competition, organisations that underperform will be under the threat of
takeover or bankruptcy. Thus, due to competition between organisations, beneficial measures
spread throughout the population, which is of course reflected in organisations’ use of similar
HR competencies.
Nevertheless, when the effect of HR activities on the overall performance of the organisation
is small, these organisations may, for an extensive period, use less, or more, HR
competencies than would be optimal from a maximising-performance principle.
In addition, the expectations of stakeholders with respect to HR competencies may not be

well formulated. This can arise, for example, from the absence of benchmark information.
Consequently, in countries in which HR activities are more relevant to the performance of the
organisation, and in countries where HR activities receive less attention in the media (and
hence less benchmark information is available), the variation in the use of HR competencies
may be much larger than in other countries.
The organisational context in which an organisation is operating has also been proven to
affect the degree to which certain competencies are required. This may depend on the
organisation’s size, ownership, industry sector, geography or degree of globalisation. For
example, an organisation undergoing increased globalisation may be required to focus on
increasing workforce commitment, dealing with conflicting local and parent company
practices, developing effective global leaders and optimising organisational synergy
(Brockbank 1997). These activities may involve the HR practitioners having to acquire new
sets of skills and knowledge. However, Ulrich et al (1995) argue that such factors have little
overall influence on the fundamental elements of competency required.
Another aspect of the organisational context is that of potential outsourcing of HR activities.

Although most large organisations have a human resource department that performs
11
transactional HR activities, operational activities do not have to be performed necessarily

within the hierarchy of the organisation: they can be outsourced to the market.
It is interesting to observe that in the literature on HR competencies, most empirical studies

focus on HR departments in (large) organisations, and not on specialist agencies providing
HR services. Since in some countries outsourcing of HR activities has become important, and
in other countries it is growing quickly, there is currently a large gap in the literature. The
demand for HR competencies in organisations with HR departments is quite different from
the demand for HR competencies in agencies that specialise in HR activities.
One of the most fundamental decisions of an organisation is to decide whether to make a

product or to buy it in the market, i.e. outsource it. Organisations tend to buy the product
from the market when the product is standardised and this market is developed. Technical HR
competencies are relatively standard. As a result, recruitment, wage administration and
general training skills can be outsourced to the market. In general, organisations specialising
in recruitment, wage administration or general training will be able to offer these activities at
lower costs than if organisations organise these HR activities in-house.
In countries where the markets for HR activities are more developed, it is unlikely that
organisations will report difficulties in acquiring employees with technical HR competencies
because technical HR activities are more likely to be outsourced. Similarly, in these
countries, HR employees (working for organisations that do not specialise in HR) are more
likely to concentrate on HR activities that are more firm-specific or that require knowledge of
a combination of HR activities. The extent to which outsourcing is prevalent in a country is
therefore of importance when considering the skills and knowledge required by practitioners
working in HR departments or those working in specialised agencies.
II.5.3. Time context
The primary comment regarding the change in competency requirements over time,
particularly in the US, Australian and UK literature is the increasing importance of business
knowledge, and in particular, financial management. This appears to be acquiring a particular
interest in organisations, especially where senior-level HR practitioners have a place on the
main board of management.
Equally, as time progresses, so certain management techniques and processes come in and
out of fashion: changing the focus of HR practices. For example, the relatively recent
phenomenon of outsourcing described above demands new technical competencies. In
another example, in the 1980s business skills and knowledge of the work environment were
already important factors in the effectiveness of HR Trainer/Developer roles in the UK. This
was starting to appear increasingly in US literature on the topic, but had not pervaded
Australian literature at all at this stage (Moy 1991).
Other causes of variation in HR competencies depend on such things as the level of

decentralisation, strategic integration and HR careers and professional allegiance (Ackerman
et al 1995), all of which can be analysed within national, organisational and time contexts.
However, these and other variations in HR competency requirements are all predicated by the
fundamental purpose of the HR function, which is seen as being to contribute to the success
of the organisation as a whole.
12
II.6. Competency acquisition
Having established details of the broad body of knowledge regarding HR practices from
which a competency model can be developed, it is important to consider how the transfer of
skills and knowledge to HR practitioners can take place to ensure added value in the
organisation. It is also important to establish to what extent this body of knowledge is tested
and certified, and has become a requirement in the working environment.
Considering first the education levels of senior HR practitioners across Europe, almost three-
quarters of senior HR practitioners have an academic degree.6 However, there is a large
difference in the proportion that have a university first degree between countries, ranging
from four out of ten in the Netherlands to over nine out of ten in Turkey, Spain, France and
Bulgaria. It is important to consider the influence of the national context and particularly the
national education system when considering statistics such as these. For example, France is
well known for its requirement on people to have achieved as highly as possible in
educational terms before starting their career in whatever occupation. The percentage of
senior HR managers in France with a degree is thus correspondingly high (91%).
We discussed earlier the emerging requirement for HR practitioners to adopt business

knowledge, and correspondingly, in the 1990s, the academic disciplines of senior HR
managers across Europe reflect this emphasis on the business studies and economics areas of
study. The divisions amongst disciplines of study are shown in Table 1.
Table 1: Academic disciplines of senior HR managers (%)
Discipline 1992 1995 1999

Business studies/economics 34 40 37
Social sciences 19 20 21
Humanities/arts 11 9 9
Law 14 12 13
Engineering 8 8 9
Natural Sciences 4 3 3
Other 10 8 8
Source: CRANET (1992, 1995, 1999)
There are also different patterns in educational profiles of senior HR specialists between
certain European countries. For example, in Spain a degree in law is more common, whereas
degrees in social sciences are more common in Sweden and arts/humanities in the UK (Tyson
& Wikander 1994). Again this is an example of how national context can have an impact on
HR specialist training and education that cannot be ignored in a study of this nature. Any
Europe-wide educational programme has to be sufficiently flexible to take into account
different educational systems, to meet specific country needs and to prepare managers to
work at the strategic level. Taking the argument on a worldwide scale inevitably exaggerates
this point.
With regard to job-related training, there is a great deal of consensus across Europe regarding
the method of training received by senior HR practitioners from their employer for their
6
CRANET survey 1999.
13
personnel management role. In Europe, short courses and seminars are the most popular
method with an average of eight out of ten respondents having received training via this route
(the highest being Norway with 95%, and the lowest Portugal with only 50%). Job-related
projects was second most popular at around half (highest Austria 84%, lowest France 22%),
then job rotation for three out of ten practitioners (highest Turkey 39%, lowest Portugal
10%), formal coaching for two out of ten (highest Denmark 34%, lowest Czech Republic 4%)
and the least popular being formal mentoring, available to only one in ten (highest Greece
37%, lowest Czech Republic 3%).7 As the figures in brackets show however, country
variations are highly significant. Although we can see that much training is done off-the-job
via short courses and seminars, there is still a very significant proportion taking place on-the-
job (e.g. job-related projects, job rotation, coaching and mentoring).
An earlier section identified the distinction between different models of personnel

management: clerk of works, contracts manager and architect (Tyson and Fell, 1986) and
how this relates to strategic and technical competencies. Amongst the strategic HR
competencies required by the architect role are the skills necessary to integrate human
resource management with the overall business strategy. For example, a strategic HR skill is
to know which types of contracts are offered to employees (permanent contracts or temporary
contracts), or whether the organisation should offer more or less training to its employees.
Strategic HR competencies are by definition more difficult to acquire since they are less
theoretical and require more on-the-job experience. In addition, strategic HR competencies
are especially valuable if accompanied by an in-depth knowledge of the organisation. This
makes strategic HR competencies more idiosyncratic than technical HR competencies that
are presumably easier to transfer to other organisations.
In a number of countries, technical HR competencies are nowadays relatively easy to acquire,

although this was not necessarily the case a number of decades ago. For example, in the
United States, most organisations are able to hire employees with the required skills to
recruit. However, in these countries, strategic HR competencies are still scarce. Hence, it is
not surprising that empirical studies have shown that organisations in the United States
emphasise the importance of strategic HR competencies and not those of technical HR
competencies. Nevertheless, in other countries, the 'markets' for technical HR competencies
may be less developed. In these countries, organisations can still attempt to obtain a (short-
lived) competitive advantage by improving the technical HR competencies, whereas the
strategic HR competencies will receive less attention. Since technical HR competencies are
easier to acquire, it makes sense for organisations to focus first on technical HR competencies
before focusing on strategic HR competencies. For the same reasons, in countries where
technical HR competencies cannot be used any more to obtain a competitive advantage, on-
the-job experience will be emphasised as being desirable. Whereas in countries where
technical HR competencies can still give additional value compared to competitors, these
competencies will still be relatively more valuable.
However, very little appears to be available within the HR competencies’ literature to show
how practitioners should aim to enhance their skill and knowledge levels. Most journal
articles are content to list the required competencies for the future and suggest practitioners
act on the gap they see between their own skills and what is required (for the exceptions, see
Yeung et al 1996 and Yeung 1996). Later in this report, we explore some of the ways in
which Associations are addressing this need.
7
CRANET survey 1992 – the last time this question was asked.
14
II.7. Summary
In this chapter we have looked at the substantial contribution that the existing literature can
make to this worldwide HR competencies and professional standards project. We have
studied the debate on the ‘professionalism’ of HR, identifying opinions varying from the
positive to the negative. Some of the concerns here were addressed in part by identifying the
value of substantial experience within the HR function held by those in senior HR positions,
however this did not appear to be backed up by a requirement for an equivalent level of
formal qualifications.
We provided our own definition of competencies for the purpose of this document,
encapsulating both technical and strategic competencies, and went further to discuss the
clustering of competencies advocated by certain authors. The idea that core competencies do
not necessarily vary in nature but rather in weighting was also discussed in the context of
different job roles and models of personnel management. The issue of outsourcing certain HR
activities was also raised as one that will affect the skill requirements within an organisation,
and of individual practitioners whether they are working in an HR function or a specialised
agency.
The potential conflicts that may arise when developing a competency model were mentioned,
however, the overwhelming position of HR literature is that there is a need for a competency
model in order to make progress in developing the HR function further. A summary was
provided of the common key competencies being identified throughout the literature and
variations in these core competencies were discussed based on three important contexts:
national, organisational and time.
The underlying purpose of HR was clarified as adding value to the organisation, which could
be achieved via two routes: one through line management or external contractors carrying out
HR activities, and the other through HR practitioners themselves. Competency was identified
as one of the key enabling factors for an organisation to create its own sustainable
competitive advantage in the marketplace.
Finally we discussed how HR practitioners could go about improving their own personal
levels of competence. We looked at existing education and training levels globally, and the
different methodologies suggested for overcoming competency gaps. In the following
chapters, we will provide an analysis of the survey data that we collected from around the
world, bearing in mind the findings from this literature review.
15
III. Methodology
In addition to the literature review, the project included carrying out three separate but related
surveys. These included a major worldwide survey of personnel management associations, a
second follow-up survey at a conference in the USA, and a worldwide survey among
academics in the field of human resource management. The methodology of these surveys is
detailed in the following sections.
Out of the 53 countries contacted, 28 responded by either returning a personnel management

association questionnaire, and/or returning an academic literature questionnaire (see Figure
1). This gives an overall response rate of 53%.
Figure 1. World map showing the total spread of responses received from countries
which were members of the WFPMA at the time of the project
SE
NO
DE
DK
CA
CZ
UK
AT
NL
HU
FR
US
PT ES
JP
MX BG GR
HK
IN
TH
VE
MY
BR
AU
ZA
RA
NZ
III.1 The survey of personnel management associations
We chose to use a postal survey that consists of four sections. The first section deals with the
nature of the personnel management associations (for example, the composition of the
membership). The second section deals with education and training (for example, types of
training courses). The third section includes questions on skills and knowledge (for example,
which levels of personnel practitioners are responsible for which tasks). The last section
covers the personal details of the respondents.
The responsibility for the design of the survey was shared by a large number of academics
and practitioners knowledgeable in the field of (international) human resource management.
Professor Chris Brewster, Dr Jos van Ommeren and Elaine Farndale (Cranfield School of
Management, the United Kingdom) have taken the first and primary responsibility for the
design of the questionnaire in close collaboration with Judy Whittaker (CIPD, United
Kingdom). Based on the first design of the questionnaire, the members of the steering group
16
indicated improvements. The amended version of the questionnaire was mailed again to all
the members of the steering group and the comments were incorporated into the final version.
After the questionnaire had been designed in English, it was translated into Spanish.
A total of 70 questionnaires were posted on 5 January 1999 to 51 countries all over the world,
primarily to the head of the national personnel management associations (see Appendix 2).
The CIPD administered the mailing lists and posted out the questionnaires. After the initial
closing date for receipt of completed questionnaires, members of the research team at the
Cranfield School of Management attempted to increase the response by telephone, fax and
email. A total of 23 completed questionnaires were received from the following 22 countries:
Argentina (RA), Brazil (BR), Canada (CA), Denmark (DK), Germany (DE), Hong Kong
(HK), Hungary (HU), India (IN), Japan (JP), Malaysia (MY), Mexico (MX), the Netherlands
(NL), New Zealand (NZ), Norway (NO), Portugal (PT), South Africa (ZA), Spain (ES),
Sweden (SE), Thailand (TH), United Kingdom (UK), United States of America (US) and
Venezuela (VE). The final date for receipt of completed questionnaires was 31 May 1999.
Figure 2. World map showing the spread of personnel management questionnaires

received
SE
NO
DE
CA
UK DK
NL HU
US
PT ES
JP
MX
HK
IN
TH
VE
MY
BR
ZA
RA
NZ
The response rate achieved from the WFPMA member associations was 31%, covering 41%
of the countries contacted. The spread of responses from personnel management associations
around the world is good (see Figure 2). Hence, we may presume that our sample of
personnel management associations is reasonably representative for personnel management
associations around the world.
In some countries, the personnel management associations are mainly divided according to
region. In particular, from Spain, we received responses from six different regional personnel
management associations. When these regional personnel management associations indicated
differences in their responses, we generally assumed the answers of the majority of
respondents to be representative for Spain as a whole.
17
We received two questionnaires from Brazil. This enabled us to examine the reliability of the
answers of the respondents. It is well known that respondents who are both very familiar with
a certain topic, may still disagree how to respond to questions asked. It appears that the
respondents from Brazil agree to a large extent about the answers to the questions in our
questionnaire. Hence, the country-specific variation in answers due to idiosyncratic answers
of respondents is limited. For this reason, only one of the two questionnaires received from
Brazil has been included in the data analysis, so as to maintain even weighting from each of
the countries.
III.2 Second survey in USA
A further 10 shortened questionnaires were circulated amongst participants at a presentation

of the project at a conference in Orlando, USA in April 1999. The questions posed are limited
to those on education and training, which levels of personnel practitioners are responsible for
which tasks, and the personal details of the respondents. The results of these questionnaires
were checked against the SHRM response from the USA, and provided additional
information on whether the effects of idiosyncratic answers of respondents are limited. To a
large extent the results of this survey reinforced the data provided by the USA.
III.3 The academic literature survey
A total of 48 academic literature questionnaires were sent out to 27 countries worldwide (see
Appendix 2), and all 70 recipients of the main survey were asked to pass on an academic
literature questionnaire to a suitable academic representative in their country. We received 23
responses from a total of 20 countries (see Figure 3).
Figure 3. World map showing the spread of academic literature questionnaires received
CZ
UK
AT
NL
BG
FR
US
ES GR
PT JP
HK
IN
TH
VE
MY
BR
AU
ZA
NZ
18
IV. Survey findings
This chapter reports the data collected from the questionnaires received, and is divided into
sections corresponding with the sections found in the questionnaire. A full account of all the
response data can be found in Appendix 1. The figures that follow are based on 22 responses
from WFPMA associations all in different countries.8
IV.1 Background information on personnel management associations
The majority of associations have a combination of individual and organisational categories

of membership (62%), with only two countries out of the 22 limiting membership to
organisations (Mexico and Hungary). The response received from Canada was from the
Canadian Council of Human Resource Associations (CCHRA), which is an association of
associations representing most HR-related functional area associations within Canada. The
Spanish response was also representative of six regional associations in Spain.
Membership of associations is restricted in the minority of cases. These restrictions are

related to an individual’s job experience (39 per cent), country of residence (20 per cent),
education level (18 per cent) or language/region (six per cent). For corporate membership,
restrictions are placed in relation to location (country - 14 per cent; region - seven per cent).
Individual and corporate membership are not limited according to economic sector in any of
the respondent countries.
A large majority (73 per cent) of associations divides membership into different categories.
On average, there are five categories of membership, based primarily on
individual/organisation status, education levels and work experience (see Figure 4).
Figure 4. Criteria for categories of membership
Individual / organisation status

Education level
Work experience
Seniority of individual
Achievement of standards
Location
Size of organisation
Fees paid
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
% of associations
8
When the term ‘average’ is used in this section, this refers to the median of the set of data, rather than the mean
so as to eliminate the effects of the extremes of the responses.
19
In a project of this nature, the size of the associations obviously varies greatly from country
to country. For example, the number of members of the associations in each country varies
from 34 organisations to 114,000 individuals (see Figures 5a, b and c).
Figure 5a. Number of members - associations with less than 2000 members in total
Organisations
Individuals
2000
1500
1000
500
0
MX HU VZ RA DK TH NZ DE PT
Country
Figure 5b. Number of members - associations with between 2000 and 10000 members in
total
Organisations
Individuals
10000
8000
6000
4000
2000
MY HK ES SE NL ZA BZ
Country
Figure 5c. Number of members - associations with more than 10000 members in total
Organisations
Individuals
130000
90000
50000
10000
CA UK US
Country
20
The number of paid employees averages at nine, comprising seven full-time and two part-
time staff. Canada is the only Association without paid employees. The number of paid
employees in each country can be seen in Figures 6a and b.
Figure 6a. Number of paid employees - associations with less than 20 employees in total
20
15
10
0
RA
MX
NL
HK
VZ
TH
SE
Country
Figure 6b. Number of paid employees - associations with more than 20 employees in
total
220
180
140
100
60
20
ZA DE DK US UK
Country
Most countries have more than one association representing the interests of personnel
practitioners (59 per cent). The majority of these focus either specifically on training and
development or on general personnel management and training and development issues.
Around one quarter of these other organisations are specific to a particular function of
personnel management, such as employee relations or employee reward.
Of the responses received, an average profile of the person who took responsibility for
completing the questionnaire can be established. This would be the head of the Association,
or another senior manager. The average length of time spent working for the Association is
six years and the average length of time working in personnel management is over twenty
years. The respondent would have a higher education degree, most likely in social or
behavioural sciences (32 per cent) or business studies (23 per cent).
21
IV.2 Education and training
This section reports on both the level of achievement of associations’ members, and on the
education and training activities of each association.
Across all of the countries, a very large majority of members is qualified to university degree
level (85 per cent). The spread between countries is shown in Figure 7.
Figure 7. Members with a university degree
100
80
% of members
60
40
20
0
UK NZ RA ZA CA SE BZ MY NO DE ES NL VZ PT TH HU IN
Country
Amongst these degrees, business studies was the most popular discipline for personnel
management association members, followed by psychology and then law (see Figure 8).
Figure 8. Most common degree disciplines among personnel management association

members
Business Studies
Psychology
Law
Economics
Arts/Humanities
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
% of associations
22
Almost all (96 per cent) of respondents believe that personnel management practitioners in
their country were more likely to have a degree now than ten years ago. Three-quarters
believe it is very important to have a university degree to practise personnel management,
with the remainder seeing this as quite important. Very similar opinions are held with regard
to the need to follow a course of study in personnel management (see Figure 9).
Figure 9. The importance of education levels
Very important
Quite
important University degree
Personnel Management study
Not important
0 25 50 75 100
% of associations
This data shows an apparent rise in the importance of gaining a personnel management
qualification, compared with the findings of the Cranet survey in 1992 reported in section
II.2. In 1992, only a quarter of senior HR managers had specific HR qualifications.
Over half of all the associations who responded run professional personnel management
certified courses of study (see Figure 10) and/or recognise those run by other institutions.
Those who run their own courses are based in Argentina, Brazil, Hong Kong, India,
Malaysia, Mexico, Thailand, United Kingdom and South Africa. In addition, Norway
recognises courses but does not run them. In general, these courses are well established, with
the average length of time that a course has been in existence being 20 years.
Figure 10. Associations who run personnel management certified courses of study
Run own courses
Recognise other institutions
0 20 40 60 80 100
% of associations
Of these courses, over half differentiate between levels of competence. The average time
taken to complete a certified course of study at elementary level is 114 hours, and at
advanced level 216 hours. The total time taken to complete a certified course of study with no
differentiation between levels is 292 hours, the longest courses taking up to three years.
23
There is also much use made of different modes of study. Almost three-quarters of the
associations who responded offer different modes of study to their students, with the full-time
option being the most popular (see Figure 11).
Figure 11. Modes of study
Full-time
Part-time
Distance Learning
In-company
0 20 40 60 80 100
% of associations
On average, 175 individuals pass the certified course of study each year. An average of 4,200
individuals currently holds the course certificate per association. All who follow the certified
courses of study are formally examined.
In addition to certified courses of study with formal examination, there are also other means
of recognising competence in the field of personnel management. Over half of all respondents
have a mechanism for awarding certificates for demonstrating competence in the field of
professional personnel management rather than students having to sit an examination (see
Figure 12).
Figure 12. Do you award certificates for demonstrating competence?
100
associations
75
% of
50
25
0
Yes No
A small minority of institutions, eight per cent, requires practitioners to undergo re-
certification. There is a significant usage of continuing professional development
requirements, being operated by over half of all associations (54 per cent). On average, 200
members gain some form of personnel management certificate each year. Approximately
111,500 association members from 22 countries currently hold their association’s
professional personnel management certificate.
24
In addition to formal courses of study, most associations offer training courses to both
members and non-members (see Figure 13). Few licence other institutions to run training
courses (six per cent), but over half also recognise training courses offered by other
institutions.
Figure 13. Do you offer training courses?
100
associations
% of
50
0
Yes No
Approximately an average of 550 individuals per association (a total of over 51,000

individuals a year in 22 countries) participates in training and development courses and
programmes offered. The training courses offered cover the whole spectrum of personnel
management issues throughout most countries (see Figure 14).
Figure 14. Training courses offered
Recruitment and selection

Training and development
Change management
Strategic management
Pay and benefits

Retention/promotion/appraisal
Employment law
Industrial relations
Employee communication
Health and safety

Counselling/welfare
International personnel management

Discipline and grievance
Equal opportunities
Computing/IT
Environmental issues
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
% of associations
When asked to identify the most popular courses from all those offered, similar responses
were received from across the world. The data is summarised in Figure 15.
25
Figure 15. Most popular training courses

Employment law
Pay and benefits

Change management
0 10 20 30 40 50
% of associations
As we stated above, because we are working with data from across the world, it is sometimes
difficult to group findings and activities as averages and percentages as each association has
its own ways of operating. The figures and charts above summarise some of the key findings,
however it is important to remember the significant circumstances in some countries.
In Canada activities are carried out at regional level, so no data has been collected regarding
certified course of study at national level. Some of the provincial and national member
organisations do provide seminars and upgrading courses to meet re-certification
requirements, etc. CCHRA is developing national standards and assessment processes to
assist its member associations in this. The focus is being placed on an individual’s
competence irrespective of whether this has been gained from education or experience.
In Germany a lot of informal training and development takes place in their experience
exchange groups and networks, which has not been recorded in the data above.
In New Zealand certification is not achieved via an education route, but is awarded based on
an application form considered by a panel. A similar system was in place in the USA between
1976 and 1988, before the certification preparation course was introduced. Also, in the USA,
a person does not need to be an association member in order to be certified.
IV.3 Skills and knowledge
In this section we focus on the actual skills and knowledge required by personnel
practitioners according to the personnel management associations. About half of the
associations define or publish guidelines on the skills and knowledge required for personnel
management activities and responsibilities (53 per cent). Like the range of training courses
offered by associations, these guidelines cover all personnel management activities, with
recruitment and selection being quoted by the most associations (see Figure 16). The fact that
many areas of personnel management are covered by guidelines in fewer than half of the
associations surveyed may indicate a gap in the setting of standards in some countries.
26
Figure 16. Range of association guidelines produced

Employment law
Discipline and grievance
Pay and benefits
Change management
Equal opportunities
Employee communication
Health and safety
Retention/promotion/appraisal
International personnel management
Counselling/welfare
Computing/IT
Environmental issues
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
% of associations
In addition to the guidelines on skills and knowledge, over three-quarters of associations

produce formal guidelines on a code of conduct for personnel management practitioners (see
Figure 17). A quarter of associations impose penalties for members failing to abide with any
of these guidelines.
Figure 17. Do you produce a code of conduct?
100
associations
75
% of
50
25
0
Yes No
The information represented in figures 14, 16 and 17 are evidence of the existence of a body
of knowledge and codes of conduct, which are important findings in terms of establishing the
professionalism of HR. One of the issues raised in Chapter II was that HR as a profession
should have its own standards, qualifications and ethics, as this is important in order to
establish worldwide HR competencies and standards.
The questions regarding what levels of personnel practitioner carry out which activities
produced a wide range of responses. One association in Denmark found that it was
27
impossible to differentiate tasks between the levels as presented in the questionnaire due to
the nature of the personnel practitioners’ role in that country. Others stated that the
responsibilities depend largely on the size of the organisation. However, there was a large
degree of consensus between the responses as presented below.
Recruitment, retention, promotion and termination activities are carried out at the three levels
of HR practitioners: support/administrative, professional/specialist and senior/strategic
management (see Figure 18). Support/administrative staff are mainly responsible for
administering recruitment activities, followed by administering promotion schemes and
implementing induction programmes for new employees. Professional/specialist staff are
responsible primarily for interviewing and selecting new employees, implement induction
programmes for new employees and carrying out procedures for termination of employment.
The key responsibility at senior/strategic management level is authorising recruitment
budgets and staffing levels, followed by formulating a corporate resourcing strategy.
Figure 18. Recruitment, retention, promotion and termination

Support/Administrative
Professional/Specialist
Senior/Strategic Management
Not applicable to personnel
Interview/select new
employees
Implement an induction
programme for new
employees
Formulate a corporate
resourcing strategy
Carry out procedures for

termination of employment
Authorise recruitment
budgets/staffing levels
Administer recruitment
activities
Administer promotion
schemes
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
% of associations
Performance measurement, reward and development activities are also divided amongst the
three practitioner levels (see Figure 19). Support/administrative and professional/specialist
staff take equal responsibility for administering reward and benefits schemes.
28
Professional/specialist staff are also responsible for delivering training, carrying out
performance appraisals, deciding on training activities and methods and administering job
evaluation schemes. Senior/strategic management staff develop employee training strategies,
determine the levels of reward and benefits and develop corporate reward strategies.
Figure 19. Performance measurement, reward and development
Implement equal opportunities

programmes
Develop employee training

strategies
Develop corporate reward

strategies
Determine the levels of reward

and benefits
Deliver training to individuals
Decide on training activities

and methods
Carry out performance

appraisals
Administer reward and benefits

schemes
Administer a job evaluation

scheme
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
% of associations
The third category covers the areas of employee communication and the working
environment (see Figure 20). Aside from supporting the welfare of individuals,
support/administrative level practitioners were not seen as responsible for many of these
activities. Professional/specialist level practitioners are mainly responsible for developing
information systems, providing advice to other functions on employment law and supporting
the welfare of individual employees. Senior/strategic management level staff responsibilities
include developing an employee relations strategy, developing an internal communications
policy and managing culture change programmes.
29
Figure 20. Employee communication and the working environment
Support the welfare of n

i dividual
employees
Provide advice to other functions

on employment law
Negotiate with staff

representatives
Monitor health and safety policy

implementation
Manage culture change

programmes
Handle grievance and

disciplinary cases
Evaluate the personnel

managementfunction
Develop personnel management

information systems
Develop an internal
communications policy
Develop an employee relations

strategy
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
% of associations
A number of activities were expressed as not being applicable to the personnel management
function by one or more countries (see Figures 18, 19 and 20). These include implementing
equal opportunities programmes (23 per cent), developing personnel management
information systems (fourteen per cent), evaluating the personnel management function (nine
per cent), monitoring health and safety policy implementation (nine per cent) and developing
corporate reward strategies (nine per cent). These percentages show that very few of the
activities listed are actually seen as irrelevant to the personnel function. This would indicate
that although the literature refers to many HR activities being devolved to line management
in organisations, in practice, this is not very common.
If we compare these findings to the job roles identified in the literature, we can see a large
degree of correlation with the findings of previous studies. In particular, the studies carried
out by Tyson and Fell (1986) which identified three HR roles (clerk of works, contracts
manager and architect), can be compared to the findings of this survey. The clerk of works
role, which focuses on the day-to-day operations carried out by the personnel department, is
the support or administrative HR practitioner role. The contracts manager role which is the
30
expert ensuring that every aspect of policy and procedure, is the professional or specialist HR
practitioner role. The architect role, which is that of the long-term designer and planner, co-
ordinating the activities of other members of the department, is the senior or strategic
management HR practitioner role.
Taking this analysis further, the division of activities between different levels of personnel
practitioner around the world, shows the professional/specialist level of practitioner as
primarily responsible for the technical activities, whilst the senior level is focusing more on
the strategic management activities. This raises the issue of whether this division is necessary
and/or desirable, and whether the focus of personnel management activities is shifting
towards strategic activities as is often advocated in the literature. Clearly, the skills to
perform these roles are quite different. As we noted earlier, the challenge for the future for
HR appears to lie in sustaining an appropriate balance between strategist and technical roles
in the face of a changing environment. The fact that very few activities were seen as outside
of the scope of the personnel function, indicates that there may be less devolution of activities
to line management than the literature promotes.
IV.4 Academic questionnaires
In this section, we summarise the data collected from the academic questionnaires that we
received. The primary aim of this questionnaire had been to gather information for the
literature review, but it also revealed interesting insights into the terminology used and
particular topics of interest. The responses have been divided into English and Non-English
language, as the literature review focused on English language texts. A full account of all the
response data can be found in Appendix 3.
IV.4.1 English language responses
The terms human resources, human resource management or HRM are cited in 60% of all the
core textbooks cited by 14 respondents. Although it has been said that in some countries,
particularly the UK, organisations are not all embracing the new terminology of HRM, there
is an obvious focus in the recent literature on HRM rather than ‘personnel management’
(13% of texts used this latter terminology). The core texts also show that there is no single
dimension of personnel management which is dominating teaching - specific texts on
strategy, industrial relations and employment law still hold minority proportions in this field
of study (9%, 9% and 2% respectively). Interestingly, Thailand and South Africa cited the
same core personnel management textbooks as the USA, which gives an indication of the
degree of influence of the US model of HRM in these countries.
IV.4.2 Non-English language responses
The questionnaires of the 10 respondents who provided non-English language academic

literature references, reflect those of the English language references: 57% of titles included
the words ‘human resources’ or ‘human resource management’. The figure for ‘personnel
management’ was considerably higher than the English language responses at 39%.
However, whether this is an indication of a stronger focus on personnel management in these
countries, or whether this is merely a linguistic phenomena, would need further investigation.
We can see again that it is predominantly generalist texts that are being cited rather than those
on specialist HR topics.
31
V. The HR body of knowledge
V.1 Introduction
In this chapter we focus on the standards that support the many personnel management
practices which are in operation around the globe today. We lay out what practitioners are
expected to know and to be able to do in order to operate at a support, professional or
strategic level in the management and development of people.
Firstly, we clarify what we mean by a framework of knowledge and skills. A framework is

then presented which prescribes the areas of professional knowledge and skills that could be
used in setting the criteria by which an association assesses the suitability of individuals for
professional membership or achievement of professional qualifications. It goes beyond the
boundaries of functional specialism and describes the areas of skill and knowledge that a
‘typical’ (generalist personnel practitioner for an organisation with 100-300 employees,
reporting direct to the chief executive, with administrative support) personnel professional
might reasonably be expected to have. It does not include the definition of standards of
performance as these are left to individual organisations to define due to the many possible
variations based on an organisation’s size, ownership, sector, etc.
As discussed earlier in this report, the advantages of having such a framework of knowledge
and skills include encouraging and supporting the development of professional knowledge
and competence and high standards of performance among personnel practitioners, and hence
improving HR credibility and professionalism. A framework can also provide guidance to
professional associations and other educational bodies for the development of people
involved in the fields of personnel management and development. It can act as a basis against
which the development needs of association members can be assessed, and can provide a
basis for syllabuses for education and training programmes and publications. The framework
can also act as a benchmark for HR professionals to compare their knowledge, skills and
abilities with those that their peers consider appropriate. And importantly, it is a means of
providing a focus within the increasingly complex field of personnel management.
The next section of this chapter provides a snapshot of a framework of HR skills and
knowledge. This snapshot is expanded in the following sections, explaining not only the
content of the framework, but also how it can be used for the purposes identified above.
32
V.2 Global framework of the HR body of knowledge
HRM principles
Operating within:
Organisation context Sector/Industry context Country context
Defined by:
Job levels Job roles
Determining skill and knowledge requirements:
I. Personal II. Organisational III. Managerial IV. Functional
I.1 Communication II.1 Knowledge of III.1 Management of IV.1 HR planning

the environment self and staffing
I.2 Decision making II.2 Knowledge of III.2 Management of IV.2 Performance

and problem solving the industry/sector people management and
development
I.3 Business acumen II.3 Knowledge of III.3 Management of IV.3 Employee and
the organisation resources labour relations
I.4 Credibility and II.4 Impact III.4 Management of IV.4 Compensation
professionalism assessment operations, including and benefits
outsourcing
I.5 Leadership II.5 The HR III.5 Management of IV.5 Health, safety,
department as a part information welfare and security
of the organisation
I.6 Relationship III.6 Change IV.6 Systems and
management management information
management
I.7 Adaptability IV.7 Organisational
design and
development
33
V.3 Contextual analysis
Before being able to determine the appropriate set of skills and knowledge required by HR
practitioners doing a particular job at a particular level in a particular organisation in a
particular country, it is essential to consider the whole environment in which this individual is
working. This means analysing the first three levels of the Global Framework in terms of the
relevant situation. Without this, there is a risk of reaching inappropriate solutions for the
country, organisation or job for which the skill and knowledge requirements are being
defined. This is crucial when designing training courses for particular audiences, or setting
standards that are to be applied in a given context.
As discussed in the literature review, problems can arise where the consequences of not
abiding by laws may have major financial or operational consequences for the organisation
Factors such as legislative demands and the economic wealth of a country need to be
considered to develop an understanding of the national context. Many studies in the literature
have identified these issues of cross-national comparisons (see for example Adler 1997,
Francesco & Gold 1998, Gooderham et al 1999, Hofstede 1991, Mueller 1994, Sorge 1991,
Teagarden & Von Glinow 1997, Trompenaars 1998).
The examples of key issues and questions in the following sections will be of use to people
looking to adapt standards or training programmes that have been produced in a different
country, industry or organisation. The list will also be useful for those wanting to develop
standards or training programmes that cross national, industrial or organisational boundaries.
V.3.1 HRM principles
The first stage of this process of contextual analysis is to refer to the principles of HRM on
which HR activities are based. These principles have been defined as a combination of
generic rules and specific examples of practices in different countries. The following is an
example list of topics relevant to HRM that is needed to start the analysis. The list is not
exhaustive, but raises many of the key issues that should be considered.
• Motivation (see also Iyengar & Lepper 1999)
1. What is the accepted wisdom in the relevant country with regard to what motivates
people?
2. How does the national culture influence the rewarding of desired behaviour or the
punishing of poor performance?
3. What is the relative importance of financial rewards or security and status rewards for
employee motivation?
4. Do employees expect a ‘job-for-life’ or do they expect to move between jobs on a
relatively frequent basis?
• Learning
5. What are the favoured learning styles?

6. To what level have employees been educated through the national education system?
34
7. Are employees responsible for their own training and development or is responsibility
assumed by their employer?
8. What facilities and media are available to support the training and development of
employees?
9. What national or regional schemes exist to promote learning in the workplace?
10. Does the country have personnel management courses available at national, regional
or industry levels?
• Teams and individuals
11. Is the culture one in which individual effort is assumed to be a key to organisational
performance or is the assumption that effective work involves teamwork?
12. To what extent does the organisational structure support team effort as opposed to
individual effort?
• Organisational culture
13. What are the shared beliefs and values in the organisation? Do they vary with
different groups within the organisation?
14. How strong is the organisational culture?
15. What are the power structures between departments in the organisation?
• Management theory
16. How would you describe the management style?

17. Is centralised control or decentralised control favoured?
18. Do decision-making structures tend to be hierarchical or collegial?
• Change management
19. Is the prospect of change seen as a welcome opportunity or is it seen as a threat?

20. Who takes responsibility within the organisation to manage major change initiatives?
21. Is the organisation, industry or country as a whole undergoing a period of rapid
change or is it relative stability?
V.3.2 The work environment
As we can see, these basic principles are moulded by the national, industrial and
organisational context in which they are being applied. In order to analyse this context, we
need to consider these levels in more depth.
Organisational context
• Size
1. How large is the organisation?

2. Is the organisation in a period of growth, stability or decline?
35
• Ownership
3. Is the organisation privately or publicly owned?

4. For privately owned organisations, is it stock market owned, owned by banks or
family owned?
5. To what extent are employees involved in the ownership of the organisation?
6. What are the expectations of the major investors in the organisation?
• Culture
7. What are the cultural values of the organisation?

8. How well aligned are the HRM practices to the culture?
9. What is the identity the organisation is creating for itself?
• Technology
10. How advanced is the use of technology in the organisation?
• Markets
11. Which markets does the organisation serve?

12. Who are the current and potential competitors?
13. What is unique about the organisation in the eyes of its customers or clients?
14. What are the goals of the organisation in terms of desired capabilities?
• Location
15. Where in the country/world is the organisation based relative to its suppliers,
customers and employees?
16. To what extent does the organisation operate on a global scale?
17. In how many countries does the organisation operate?
18. Do employees transfer between countries to carry out their work?
• Outsourcing
19. Are any of the HR activities of the organisation outsourced?

20. Are there any providers offering outsourcing services for HR activities?
Sector/Industry context
• Stability
21. How fast is the pace of change in the sector?

22. What is the life-cycle of organisations within the industry/sector?
• Expectations of stakeholders
23. Within the sector/industry in particular, are there any peculiar demands on the
organisation from its stakeholders, e.g. environmental concerns, maximum profit,
social acceptance, lifelong employment, etc?
24. What are the industry shifts, and where do you find early indicators of them?
36
• National or regional standards
25. Are there agreements or regulations set at national, regional or local levels which
affect employment in this industry/sector?
National context
• Economic wealth
26. What is the comparative economic wealth of the country on a global scale?
27. What are the accepted forms of financial reward for employees?
• Legal and regulatory systems
28. What legislation and regulations apply to employment rights in the country?
29. What is the body of legislation and regulations regarding human rights in the country
and how does this relate to the employment of individuals in the workplace?
30. How is the system of industrial relations legislated or regulated?
• Labour market
31. How stable is the labour market?

32. What are the labour demographics that affect the country, industry and organisation?
33. Are there any shortages of employees based on skill requirements or location?
34. How extensive are alternatives to long-term, full-time employment in the country?
35. What are the most common methods of recruitment and selection in the country?
• Government influence
36. How strong is the influence of the national government on employment activities?
37. To what extent are organisations free to choose their employment arrangements?
• Ethics
38. How are issues of integrity and confidentiality addressed?

39. Is employment equity a key issue in the field of employment?
40. Is diversity encouraged in employment? How is this managed?
41. What is the value accorded to family life for employees?
• Formalisation of work
42. Are formalisation and standardisation of work organisation more appreciated, or is

change more desirable?
43. How does the country compare with others on a global scale with respect to power
distance and uncertainty avoidance?
• Quality of life
44. To what extent is the quality of life of employees valued by organisations?

37
• Manager /subordinate relationships
45. What is considered to make a manager effective?

46. In what form does employee feedback take place?
47. Is the managerial culture more people or task oriented?
V.3.3 Job levels and roles
These wider contexts described above determine the environment in which the individual HR
practitioner is working. However, the actual role that the individual is carrying out and the
level at which they are operating determine in greater detail the actual skill and knowledge
requirements. The distinction between a level (e.g. administrator, functional specialist, team
leader, middle manager, or executive manager) and a role (e.g. specialist, generalist, or
strategist) can often be confused. The extent of differentiation also varies between contexts,
such as between organisations of different size.
The differentiation between levels can best be described through the presentation of
examples. Based on the responses received from the WFPMA members’ survey, Figures 21,
22 and 23 demonstrate the most common activities of generalist practitioners in large
organisations. It is clear that there is a consensus across the countries that participated in the
survey (see Appendix 2) that certain types of HR activity are associated with the level at
which the HR practitioner is operating.
In the following section, the full range of potential elements of skills and knowledge gleaned
from countries around the globe are presented.
38
Figure 21. Primary responsibilities of support/administrative roles
22 Administer recruitment activities

20
Administer reward and benefits schemes
18
16 Administer a job evaluation scheme
No. of countries
14 Support the welfare of individual employees

12
10 Deliver training to individuals
8 Administer promotion schemes
6
4 Implement an induction programme for new
employees
2 Monitor health and safety policy
0 implementation
HR activities
Figure 22. Primary responsibilities of professional/specialist roles
22 Interview/select new employees

20
18 Develop personnel management information
systems
16 Deliver training to individuals
No. of countries
14
Implement an induction programme for new
12
employees
10 Carry out performance appraisals
8
Provide advice to other functions on
6 employment law
4 Administer a job evaluation scheme
2 Decide on training activities and methods
0
Support the welfare of individual employees
HR activities
Figure 23. Primary responsibilities of senior/strategic roles
22 Develop an employee relations strategy

20
18 Develop an internal communications policy
16
No. of countries
Authorise recruitment budgets/staffing levels

14
12 Develop employee training strategies
10
Formulate a corporate resourcing strategy
8
6 Determine the levels of reward and benefits
4
2 Develop corporate reward strategies
0
Manage culture change programmes
HR activities
39
V.4 Elements of skills and knowledge
Following the analysis of the context, the following lists provide a choice of skills and
knowledge that a personnel practitioner may need in order to be effective in the environment
identified. The lists are presented in a relatively arbitrary order, generally following the
processes of employment from recruitment through retention to termination where this is
applicable, else progressing from general to more specific skills and knowledge.
I. Personal
I.1 Communication • Communicate and influence

• Interpersonal effectiveness
• written, oral and other communications media
• sensitivity to others
• persuasion skills
• negotiation skills
• listening skills
• presentation skills
• ability to initiate/conduct/promote/facilitate interactions
I.2 Decision making • cognitive complexity and agility
and problem solving • analysis
• problem solving
• decision making
• access to decision makers
I.3 Business acumen • business acumen
• strategic planning
• results orientation
I.4 Credibility and • personal credibility
professionalism • achievement directed assertiveness
• partnership development
• define own role in organisation
• develop and maintain a professional image
• continuous learning
• technological competence
I.5 Leadership • visionary
• proactive
• influence
• inspire
• guide
• provide clear direction
• resilience to opposition
I.6 Relationship • understand group processes
management • team commitment
• ability to work with others
• relationship orientation
• skilled manager of relationships
• manage expectations
I.7 Adaptability • creativity
• tolerance for stress/ambiguity/change
40
II. Organisational
II.1 Knowledge of • the social/economic/political environment, including product and
the external labour markets, legislative and regulatory frameworks, etc.
environment
II.2 Knowledge of • stakeholder perspectives
the industry/sector • sector/industry standards
II.3 Knowledge of • market position, vision, mission, management style
the organisation • organisation structure and culture
• organisation development and change
• cross-functional flexibility
• who the stakeholders are
II.4 Impact • awareness of the environment
assessment • ability to assess the impact of the external environment on the
organisation
• strategic business perspective
• how to achieve strategic contribution to organisation success
• understand and contribute to the organisation as a whole
• alignment with organisation needs and goals
II.5 The HR • manage the personnel function: vision and fit, staffing, physical
department as a part resources, financial resources
of the organisation • provide organisational consultancy
• plan, model and forecast trends
• develop and implement strategies, policies, practices
• measure results
• understand the contribution/role of the department to/in the
organisation as a whole – manage the interface
• empower line management and employees
III. Managerial
III.1 Management of • performance management
self • time management
• career management
III.2 Management of • lead/guide/give feedback
people • identify development needs
• evaluate performance
• able to gain trust and respect
• concern for others (individuals and groups)
• effective working relationships
• fair and ethical
• corporate loyalty and responsibility
• strategic management
III.3 Management of • plan, budget, control and evaluate
resources/assets • human
• financial
• technical
• systems
41
III.4 Management of • manage projects and products

operations, including • plan, implement, maintain
outsourcing • quality orientation
• customer value creation
• auditing
• use of outsourcing
III.5 Management of • identify, gather, manipulate, interpret and report information
information • manage information systems
• statistical and financial skills
• deal with qualitative and quantitative data
III.6 Change • change management
management • innovation, creativity
• reorganisation
• process change - goal clarification, problem identification
• culture change - sharing knowledge across boundaries, employee
behaviour
IV. Functional
IV.1 HR planning • HR planning, staffing, resourcing
and staffing • Gather information, identify trends, analyse, forecast, plan, take
action and monitor
• Develop/implement/monitor recruitment, selection, appointment,
deployment and placement processes and activities (including the
use of assessment tools, interviewing, advertisements, contract
preparation, etc.)
• job analysis, job description, job specification
• work organisation (flexibility, etc.)
• promotion
• succession planning
• employee absence (maternity, sickness, holiday)
• knowledge of legal framework of employment rights
• equal employment opportunities
• termination – organisational exit
• international HRM: culture, legislation, expatriation and
repatriation, multinational corporations
IV.2 Performance • key principles/techniques of learning
management and • knowledge management and the value of intellectual capital
development • managing learning processes
• organisational learning / learning organisation
• funding and cost/benefit analysis
• training needs analysis and employee performance monitoring
• total performance management
• training interventions: plan, design, develop, recommend, deliver,
implement, measure, monitor, evaluate
• induction
• performance development
• career planning/management
42
• developing groups and individuals

• long-term development
• management development
• technology-based learning
• total quality management
• appraisal: goal setting, results measurement/assessment process,
feedback processes, evaluation
• appraisal criteria, standards, documentation and methods
• managing poor performance
IV.3 Employee and • recommend/implement/monitor industrial relations and employee
labour relations relations strategies (staff consultation and participation)
• knowledge of and compliance with legislation employee
counselling, support and welfare
• awareness of organisational culture and management style
• ethical approach
• deal with union representation and collective bargaining
• produce and enforce terms and conditions of employment
• produce and enforce disciplinary and grievance procedures
• dispute/conflict resolution and corrective action
• design, implementation and evaluation of communication
programmes
• employee involvement: teamworking, suggestion schemes,
participative management, employee attitude /opinion
/satisfaction surveys
• international employee relations
IV.4 Compensation • total compensation: reward, benefits, recognition and
and benefits remuneration
• develop/implement/administer strategies and programmes
• job pricing and job evaluation, pay structures
• budgeting and cost control
• fixed and variable pay schemes
• non-money benefits
• pensions
• payroll systems management (including taxation)
• develop equitable (legally compliant and externally competitive)
policies and systems - to encourage people to join, contribute,
remain with the organisation
• awareness of needs of special groups - executives, expatriates
• team/individual reward
• equality management
43
IV.5 Health, safety, • understanding of issues and legislation

welfare and security • management and evaluation of policies and programmes
• occupational health and hygiene
• employee assistance programmes
• employee wellness programmes
• stress management
• ergonomics
• behavioural science
• compensation for torts
IV.6 Systems and • determine requirements (integration of information)
information • develop/maintain information systems: manual and computerised
management • formulate/implement/manage systems, programmes, practices
• information technology capabilities (computerised human
resource information systems)
• research, analyse, report, disseminate
• awareness of confidentiality/sensitivity issues
• internal communication processes
IV.7 Organisational • organisation structure and design
design and • organisation development
development • organisation performance vis-à-vis HR effectiveness
• strategic HRM
• change management: causes/diagnosis, process, implications
44
VI. Training and education
VI.1 Introduction
There is no single way to deliver training and education. For example, we can distinguish
between formal learning in the classroom between student and tutor, informal learning
between colleagues over lunch, experience gained from doing a particular job, self-teaching
through reading, etc. As we can see, the way in which we deliver training and education is
bound by many factors:
• Who is the intended audience?

• What resources do we have available (physical space, technology, media, tutors)?
• What are the cost restrictions we need to apply?
• What are the learning objectives of the training/education – are they knowledge-
based or skill-based?
In the marketplace there is a demand for continuous learning opportunities, through seminars
and workshops on specific subjects, and certified training programmes at basic, intermediate
and advanced levels. To meet this demand, Associations can run their own programmes or
recognise HRM courses run by other universities, institutes and professional bodies.
This shows the diversity of approaches to the delivery of training and education in HRM
currently in practice around the world. The following sections of this chapter will outline
what the key considerations are in designing delivery mechanisms, and give some examples
of training and education programmes which are currently in operation.
VI.2 Delivery options
As discussed in the previous chapter, based on the survey of WFPMA members, many
methods of delivering events for knowledge and skill acquisition were identified. With regard
to formal learning programmes, these involved a mixture of training sessions, seminars and
workshops held either in classrooms, by distance learning or in-company.
For syllabus-based education programmes, there was also differentiation between levels of
competence and division between contact and self-study time: courses either being full-time
or part-time, classroom based, by flexible or distance learning or run in-company. There is
also the provision of continuous learning opportunities. To provide more informal learning
experiences, Associations also offer help and advice with work experience and networking
and hold conferences.
One thing that was very clear from the survey was that the training courses offered by
Associations cover the full range of skills and knowledge required by HR practitioners (see
Figure 14).
VI.3 Case examples
Training courses are offered by more than four out of five of the associations that responded
to the survey. Below are a few examples of the ways in which such courses are structured,
and the content they cover.
45
VI.3.1 Training courses in Portugal (APG)
The Associaçã Portuguesa dos Gestores e Técnicos dos Recursos Humanos (APG) provides a
number of specialist training courses for both trainers and for general HR practitioners. These
courses are open to both APG members and non-members. The association does not
recognise courses offered or run by other institutions. Around 200 people participate in the
APG training courses each year. The main areas of training provision are in employment law,
change management and strategic management.
Training for trainers is provided at different professional levels:

(264 hours training using 13 trainers)
1 – Identification and Analysis of Training Needs
2 – Foundation Course for Trainers
3 – Training and Development Dynamic Strategy
4 – Case Study for Trainers
5 – Multimedia in Training
6 – Trainers Toolkit: New Programs
7 – Interactive Foundation Course for Senior Trainers
General training is also offered for HR professionals:

(298 hours training using 17 trainers)
1 – HR Performance Evaluation
2 – Powerpoint for Presentations
3 – Effective HR Planning
4 – Recruitment and Selection
5 – Essential Interviewing Skills
6 – Temporary Employment
7 – Outdoors Training
8 – Communication Skills
9 – English for HR Managers
10 – Finance for HR
11 – Marketing for HR
12 – Teamwork and Performance
13 – Assertiveness Skills
14 – HR Administrative and Management Skills
15 – HR Training Management
16 – Job Evaluation
The APG also provides a number or regular seminars and conferences. These include a major employment law
seminar that is held at seven different locations in Portugal. In addition, there are four themed annual
conferences: the Annual Trainers Conference, the Annual Remuneration and Compensation Conference, the
Public Administrative Matters Conference and the APG National Conference. There are also two international
conferences, one in Lisbon and the other held in Brazil.
46
VI.3.2 Hong Kong Institute of Human Resource Management (IHRM)
This is an example of an association that runs a number of certified training programmes,

which have an attendance requirement in order to receive the certificate. The programmes are
designed for practitioners operating at different levels of the organisation:
Certificate training programmes at fundamental level:

1. Foundation skills in HRM (10 modules each 2 x half-day sessions)
2. Fundamentals of HRM in Peoples’ Republic of China (7 x 3-hour modules)
Certificate training programmes at intermediate level:

1. Supervisory Management (4 x 4-hour modules)
2. Train the Trainer (8 x half-day modules)
3. Recruitment and Selection (5 x 2-hour modules)
4. HR Employment Law (8 x half-day modules)
Certificate training programme at advanced level:

1. Advanced Training Management (6 x 4-hour modules)
The association also provides continuous learning opportunities in the form of seminars and
workshops on specific subjects.
VI.3.3 Human Resources Institute of New Zealand (HRINZ)
The HRINZ offers training courses both to its members and to non-members. At national
level, all courses are run by the association, and it does not give formal recognition to courses
offered or run by other institutions. Around 250 people participate in the HRINZ training
courses each year, with three-day events being arranged each month. The areas of training
currently being provided are:
• HR Foundations
• The HR Investment
• Structured Employment Interviewing
• Project-Based Learning & Coaching and Mentoring
• Strategic Human Resource Management
The HRINZ also holds an annual national conference. Local branches in New Zealand also
provide training. For example, the professional development activities offered by the
Auckland branch include a combination of workshops for starting level HR practitioners and
networking and seminar opportunities for middle and senior level practitioners.
The ‘Starting HR’ Practitioner workshops include:
• Introduction to reward and recognition

• Competency-based, structured interviewing
• Job analysis
• Introduction to employment legislation
• HR measurement & benchmarking
• Training needs analysis
• Foundations of competency profiling
• Performance management
47
For ‘Middle Practitioners’ there are networking and seminar opportunities organised
quarterly to discuss "hot topics". These topics are brainstormed several months prior to the
scheduled meetings. There are also networking and seminar opportunities for ‘Senior
Practitioners’ on an invitation only basis to discuss matters of strategic HR interest. The local
branch is currently setting up a formal mentoring programme that will match up 'starting' HR
practitioners with 'senior' HR practitioners who can provide guidance and support for people
who want to develop their careers in HR.
VI.3.4 Training programmes in Singapore (SHRI)
The Singapore Human Resources Institute (SHRI) provides a number of training programmes
based both on academic and practical objectives. Specifically, a recent innovation has been
the Essentials of Human Resource Management & Practice for SMEs programme. As its title
suggests, this course focuses on the key elements of HRM in small to medium-sized
organisations, and is divided into three modules each with eight hours of tuition. There is also
a wide range of workshops offered on particular topics. These include:
• Job analysis and evaluation

• Performance coaching
• Training needs analysis
• Recruiting foreign manpower
• Writing skills for HR practitioners.
The more academically-focused training courses are certified, and include the Certificate in
Compensation and Benefits Management, the Certificate in Applied Psychology and the
Certificate in People Management. Higher level academic qualifications are also offered,
such as the Degree in HRM and Industrial Relations and the Masters in HRM. Such
qualifications are awarded based on mandatory attendance requirements, assignments,
projects, tests and examinations.
VI.3.5 Hungarian Association for Human Resources Management (OHE)
The Hungarian Association for Human Resources Management (OHE) is an example of a

smaller personnel management association that primarily has corporate membership. Around
200 people attend the training courses provided by the association on an annual basis. The
main courses provided are in recruitment and selection, employment law and training and
development. In addition to these training programmes that focus on specific subjects, the
OHE also runs a three-semester Human Resource Academy.
Many of the programmes run by the Hungarian association started as courses that had been
requested by a certain company. Over time, these courses have developed into open
programmes which has permitted attendance from companies which otherwise could not run
such programmes in-house.
48
VII. Assessment and certification
VII.1 Introduction
In the development and training of personnel practitioners, the assessment and certification of
learning plays an important role in the recognition of the professional experience, skills and
knowledge of individuals. Certification can form the criteria of association membership, and
can demonstrate an individual’s adherence to standards and a commitment to staying abreast
of new developments in the HR field. It is also a visual statement of professional status and as
such is a useful tool in career advancement
In devising a scheme of certification it is important that the scheme allows individuals to

demonstrate that their knowledge, skills and experience in a generalist or specialist role in
HRM and/or HRD are sufficient to meet the criteria for professional competence. This can
entail the demonstration of professional experience and/or the passing of a written
comprehensive examination to meet pre-set requirements.
VII.2 Mechanisms
As with training and development events, the majority of Associations runs its own certified
courses of study or recognises courses run by other institutions. Such courses are different to
the training programmes offered, as they often involve a number of modules, and have an
assessment process that can result in the award of a certificate.
The various assessment mechanisms range from the practical to the more theoretical. For
example, skills can be measured through a competency portfolio assessment, whereby an
assessor is appointed to judge a person’s work. An alternative mechanism, and one which is
more widely used, is a written examination of knowledge which can take the form of
multiple-choice or essay questions. These courses are assessed against standards at national
or association level (Wiley 1999).
VII.3 Case examples
In this section three examples of well-established systems of certification are presented, each
one having been designed according to a different mechanism.
VII.3.1 Human Resource Certification Institute (HRCI) - USA
In the USA, the HR credentialing body (HRCI) is separate from the HR association (the
Society for Human Resource Management - SHRM). This means that the HRCI runs a
voluntary programme, and is not accredited by anyone, nor does it accredit any programmes
that use its body of knowledge content outline. Equally there is no membership scheme and it
does not run any courses: it purely assesses and certifies the knowledge of HR practitioners.
This certification scheme has been in place since 1976.
Complementary to the work of the HRCI, SHRM provides certification preparation courses
of study, and these have been running since 1988. These courses are available in different
modes of study, primarily on a part-time or in-company basis.
49
The certification scheme is intended for those currently working in the HR field. There are
two possible designations: Professional in HR and Senior Professional in HR. The assessment
structure is based on having achieved the prerequisite HR experience (a minimum of two
years in a position involving HR at least 51% of the time) and passing a written examination.
This examination is based on the technical and operational aspects of HR at the Professional
level, and on strategic and policy issues in HR at Senior Professional level. There is no prior
requirement to have a university degree. The examinations themselves are based on 250
multiple-choice questions tested over a period of four hours. For the certificate to be awarded,
candidates must agree to abide by the SHRM Code of Ethics and the HRCI Model of
Professional Excellence. Re-certification is possible but not mandatory after one year, either
through evidence of continuing education and experience or through retesting. Each year,
around 7,500 individuals follow the certification preparation courses, with an average
examination success rate of approximately 50%. Currently, some 33,000 individuals hold the
HRCI certification, of which 17,000 are members of SHRM.
VII.3.2 Human Resources Professionals Association of Ontario (HRPAO) -

Canada
HRPAO is a regional HR professional association and since 1990 has been the body that is
legally entitled to grant and administer the Certified Human Resources Professional (CHRP)
designation of Ontario.
The CHRP designation is awarded based on an examination and on acquired professional

experience. The first step is to follow an academic programme that leads to the Certificate in
Human Resource Management. Once this has been achieved, and providing an individual has
the requisite professional experience and is sponsored by an existing CHRP member, that
individual can either sit the Comprehensive Provincial Examination, or undergo a peer
review process as long as this option remains available. The examinations are in essay format
and focus on the application of knowledge. Candidates must also agree to comply with the
HRPAO codes of behaviour. Once certified, individuals can remain certified so as long as
they remain a member of HRPAO.
The courses leading to examination are offered on-site and off-site at accredited institutions
on a part-time or full-time basis. Students must complete all four of the compulsory subjects
in Tier I, and four of the speciality subjects in Tier II. These are:
Tier I -- Compulsory Subjects

• Human Resources Management
• Organisational Behaviour
• Finance and Accounting
• Labour Economics
Tier II -- Specialised Subjects

• Compensation
• Training and Development
• Labour Relations
• Occupational Health & Safety
• Human Resources Planning
• Human Resources Research and Information Systems (HRRIS)
• Designated Elective Course (DEC)
50
VII.3.3 Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) - UK
In the UK, the CIPD is the professional association as well as the certifying and awarding
body. It is accredited by the National Council for Vocational Qualifications and the Open
University. The CIPD has its own professional standards that have been developed through
multiple stakeholders, and which have been mapped against the UK national standards. The
certified courses of study run by the CIPD have been in place for 30 years.
Certification is awarded based on either experience and/or examination. The following list
shows the different routes to CIPD certification:
• Professional education
Approved centres offer a variety of courses including flexible learning courses and
assessment via essay style examination, assignments and a management report.
• Competence assessment against national standards
Individuals can gain both a National Vocational Qualification as well as the CIPD
certification. This route is measured by the development of a professional portfolio that is
assessed by a qualified assessor.
• Professional assessment against CIPD standards
Again, this route is based on experience via portfolio development and assessment through an
approved centre.
• Assessment of prior certified learning
Relevant academic or professional qualifications previously gained are assessed against CIPD
standards for certification to be awarded.
These courses and assessment centres are either accredited centres which run internally-
assessed programmes, or approved centres that prepare students for assessment by CIPD
national examinations. Courses are run using a range of modes of study, with the part-time
option being the most popular. Each year, around 12,000 individuals are successful in passing
the certified courses of study, with approximately 76,000 individuals currently holding
certification, but over 95,000 either certified or working towards certification. The average
pass rate for the examinations is 55%. There is a requirement to be a member of the CIPD in
order to sit the CIPD examinations. Agreement to comply with the standards of professional
conduct is also required of CIPD members.
Each of the certification routes described above has a different certification level, which in
turn results in a different grade of membership:
• Certificate in Personnel Practice – Associate member
• Certificate in Training Practice – Associate member
• Professional Qualification Scheme – Licentiate member (after partial completion),
Graduate member (upon completion of the whole programme).
There is no re-certification requirement but Continuing Professional Development records are

required for upgrading membership.
51
VIII. Conclusions
VIII.1 Project boundaries
At the outset the HR Competencies and Professional Standards Project's aim was identified as
being to develop a worldwide definition of what a personnel management professional is and
does in terms of a global set of core competencies. This report has taken a major step towards
achieving this aim by examining the range of practices and activities taking place in
personnel management associations around the world, and by looking at what the literature
can tell us.
One of the key exercises in this global project has been to consider the individual perspective
of each country involved in terms of its organisational practices, the education and training of
individuals and its legislative and social systems. None of these aspects are static, particularly
in the business environment, so not only do we need to establish the historical context when
carrying out such a project, but we also need to know about the way in which change is
happening. For this project, this information has been gained partly from academic writings
on these subjects, and partly from the responses to the survey questionnaires. Equally, the
summaries in this report have to be read against a background of diversity within countries,
as well as between countries, due to the differential effects of the size and nature of
organisations in which people work.
VIII.2 The status of HR and competencies
The issue of personnel management as a profession is one that is important to this project as
it considers the establishment of a set of professional standards. However, the status of the
field of personnel management throughout the world implies that there is as yet no consensus
on this point. There is currently little evidence of the requirement to be formally qualified in
personnel management in order to be called a personnel professional.
It is, however, clear from the literature that there does exist a personnel management body of
knowledge, and that the elements of this body of knowledge required by individuals varies
according to job roles. In turn, this variation influences the contribution which personnel
management can make to the organisation as a whole. It is also clear that the development of
a competency model for personnel management will be a key milestone in the process of
developing the personnel management function further, despite the inherent difficulties in
establishing such a framework. HR competencies are one of the key enabling factors for an
organisation to create its own unique sustainable competitive advantage.
VIII.3 The associations and their activities
The data from the questionnaires corroborates many of the issues identified in the literature
review, and provides practical evidence for analysing the activities of personnel management
associations around the world. Of course, personnel management associations vary greatly,
for example, in size, but there are many common features. Usually, they have a mixture of
individual and organisational membership statuses with a minimum of restrictions being set
on becoming a member. Regulation takes place by category of membership in terms of
52
achievements, status, location, etc. Most countries have more than one personnel
management association covering similar if not the same interests, so the national co-
ordination of activities is crucial to the credibility of personnel management.
In terms of the education levels of the associations’ members, the vast majority of individual
members have a degree, and most often in business studies. This is a positive sign, if one
believes that the HR function needs to become more business-focused.
Hence, from this perspective this situation has improved over time, and looks set to continue,
with the pressure increasing on individuals working in HR to be qualified to degree level and
to have a personnel management qualification. Personnel management associations are
responding by offering formal courses of study at different levels, and particularly training
courses to both members and non-members. Courses are being offered on a flexible basis as
well as through traditional full-time routes, hence perhaps enabling additional students to
enrol. Many courses have been in place for a number of years, and other associations are
expressing the desire to establish such courses in the near future. As well as formal courses of
study, there are also a number of associations awarding certificates of competence and
enforcing continuing professional development requirements on their certificate holders.
The production of guidelines on personnel management activities is widespread across the

world’s personnel management associations, and covers all personnel management activities.
The most common guidelines include those for recruitment and selection, employment law,
health and safety and industrial relations. However, the once popular role for the personnel
management function, that of counselling and welfare, is regulated by few formal guidelines.
The production of a code of conduct is almost equally common, which is a clear indicator of
the will to develop professional personnel management standards.
Regarding the division of activities between different levels of personnel practitioner around
the world, a relatively clear picture emerges that corresponds with the findings from the
literature review. The professional/specialist level of practitioner is primarily responsible for
the technical activities, whilst the senior level is focusing more on the strategic management
issues. These findings indicate that in order to shift the focus of personnel management
further towards the strategic activities, it is the middle level of professionals and specialists
who need to be targeted in terms of developing their roles. Very few activities were seen as
outside of the scope of the personnel function, which may be surprising given the coverage in
the literature that indicates a growing trend to devolve personnel management functional
activities to the line.
VIII.4 The core HR body of knowledge
The aim of developing a global framework of HR skills and knowledge was to create a set of
guidelines for worldwide professional standards. These standards should then be helpful to
emerging professional associations in developing HR standards in their own country. Equally
they should be capable of being used by associations with existing sets of standards to
benchmark what they have done against the activities of other WFPMA associations. This
may also facilitate the mutual recognition of standards across national boundaries.
A framework of knowledge and skills is useful to associations in a number of respects, such

as determining criteria for association membership, developing teaching syllabuses and
53
setting standards of performance within the profession. However, as mentioned above, any
framework must take account of the context in which it is being applied, as the appropriate
set of skills and knowledge for an HR practitioner will vary greatly, depending on the
country/industry/organisation in which they are working and on their particular job or role.
This means considering how HRM principles are presented in any given country, including
looking at perceptions of motivation, learning, teams, culture, management theory and
change management. It also requires an examination of the organisation context: its size,
ownership, culture, use of technology, location, markets and opportunities for outsourcing. At
the industry/sector level, the stability, the expectations of stakeholders and any national or
regional standards and regulations need to be investigated. And at the national level, it is
important to consider the effect of economic wealth, legal and regulatory systems, the labour
market, government influence, ethics, formalisation of work, quality of life, and
management/subordinate relationships on the work that the HR practitioner must carry out. In
addition to all of this, the skill and knowledge requirements of the HR practitioner will be
influenced by whether they are operating in a specialist, generalist or strategist role, and
whether they are at the administrative, professional, middle management or executive
management level.
Once the context is clear, there is a choice available from a large number of elements that
make up the set of skills and knowledge required to carry out the HR role. These can be
divided into personal, organisational, managerial and functional competencies. The personal
competencies include elements of communication, decision-making, problem solving,
business acumen, credibility, professionalism, leadership, relationship management and
adaptability. The organisational competencies include knowledge of the environment both
external and internal to the organisation and the industry or sector as a whole, the ability to
assess the impact of this environment in organisational terms and an awareness of the role of
the HR department within the organisation. Managerial competencies include the
management of one’s self, other people, resources, operations, information and change.
The functional competencies are perhaps more widely known and include HR planning and
staffing; performance management and development; employee and labour relations;
compensation and benefits; health, safety, welfare and security; systems information and
management; and organisational design and development.
VIII.5 Teaching and development of HR specialists
There is a wide range of delivery, assessment and certification methods currently in use
around the world. This recognises the fact that the body of HR practitioners has a number of
different learning styles, has differences in the preferred times and locations for development
events, and has a varied amount of professional experience and formal educational
qualifications per individual. Some practitioners are at the beginning of their career, others
have reached the pinnacle, and different development and training events are needed for these
different levels of experience. Equally, in different countries, there are different mechanisms
in place for education, different media available to trainers and different values attached to
the training and development of professionals.
As a result of this diversity of demand and supply factors, many options are available to
practitioners wanting to undertake training, or wanting to gain a recognised qualification.
54
Training events can either be based on knowledge or skill development, or can be a

combination of the two. Formal programmes can take the form of workshops, seminars and
courses held in classrooms, by distance learning or in-company. These events are usually
organised according to level of competence, and vary in the amount of contact and self-study
time. Such events are often part of a larger framework of continuous professional
development for HR practitioners. The range of HR activities that these training events cover
is very wide across the globe.
Certification of learning also has a fundamental role to play in the professionalism of HR, and
again there are various routes by which this certification can be achieved. Certification can be
awarded by WFPMA member associations, or the association may choose to accredit other
institutions to provide this facility. Assessment can be designed to test skills, knowledge or
both aspects of competence, and can be in the form of written examinations or by
presentation to an approved assessor.
VIII.6 Implications
There are a number of implications for the personnel function arising from this study, not
least of all to determine a strategy to meet the challenges of the emerging environment. This
strategy can be determined at a number of levels, including individual, functional,
organisational and national, and this study has demonstrated that it can also benefit from
input at an international level. The commonalities between the activities and standards of
personnel practitioners in each of the countries involved far outweigh the differences,
showing that countries have the opportunity to learn from each other.
This report has suggested some practical ideas for the content of professional standards, and
how these might be translated into sets of skills and knowledge for the development of
personnel professionals. The opportunity now exists for associations to share their
experiences and make use of the examples provided by others.
In general terms, the commonalities between the activities and standards of personnel
practitioners in each of the countries who participated in the survey outweigh the differences,
showing that countries do have the opportunity to learn from each other.
The information gathered in this study may now be developed further to define a worldwide
competency model for personnel management, again using the experiences of different
personnel management associations. Having started to distinguish the challenges for the
future, the necessary competencies and behavioural practices can be identified.
In order to investigate this, further detailed research will need to be undertaken, examining the
specific competence requirements for carrying out HR practitioner roles at the support,
administrative and senior levels. Once this has been tackled, it will then mean the final project
aim will be made a reality, and standards could be expressed in such a way that they would be
helpful to emerging professional associations wishing to develop HR professionalism in their
country. It would also aid the achievement of the key project applications:
• Mutual recognition of qualifications, enabling improved flexibility to

personnel and development professionals around the world whom might
wish to live and work in another country.
55
• Raised standards of professionalism, as countries with less developed

standards of personnel and development might adopt the standards
identified by the World Federation.
There is clearly a need to continue the research in this area in order to build on the work
already completed, and to clarify in greater depth the findings of this particular phase of the
HR Competencies and Professional Standards Project.
56
IX. References
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development of human resource managers in four European countries: from specialist to
general manager. EIASM Conference.
Adler, N J. 1997. International Dimensions of Organizational Behavior. 3rd Ed. Cincinnati,

OH: South-Western Publishing.
Bell, D. et al. 1999. Mapping the employment occupations. UK: ENTO.
Brewster, C, and A Hegewisch, Editor. 1994. Policy and Practice in European Human
Resource Management. London: Routledge.
Brockbank, W. 1997. HR's future on the way to a presence. Human Resource Management
36, no. 1: 65-69.
Csoka, L S, and B Hackett. 1998. Transforming the HR function for global business success.
US: The Conference Board, William M Mercer.
Francesco, A M and B A Gold. 1998. International Organisational Behaviour: Text,

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59
Appendices
Note for Appendix 1:
The percentages given in the summary are the percentage of all valid cases.
The averages stated are the median of all values given.
Appendix 1. Personnel management associations questionnaire
SECTION I - THE NATURE OF THE ASSOCIATION
1. Who can be members of your association?
Individuals only 23%

Organisations only 9%
Individuals and organisations 64%
Other, please specify 4%
2a. If membership includes individuals, is this limited according to:
Yes
Sector of the economy 0%
If Yes,
Public sector employees only 0%
Private sector employees only 0%
Education 18%
Job experience 39%
Language/region 6%
Country 20%
2b. If membership includes organisations, is this limited according to:
Yes
Sector of the economy 0%
If Yes,
Public sector organisations only 0%
Private sector organisations only 0%
60
Size of organisation 0%
Region 7%
Domestic organisations only 14%
3. Does your association have different categories of membership?
Yes No
73% 27%
4a. How many categories of membership are there?
5 categories
4b. What criteria are used to distinguish between these categories of membership?
1. Individual/organisation status 58%

2. Education level 13%
3. Work experience 10%
4. Achievement of standards 6%
5. Seniority of individual 6%
7. Size of organisation 2%
6. Fees paid 2%
8. Location 2%
5. How many members does your association have? Please give an approximation if
the exact figure is not known.
A. In total: 2,274 individuals

B. In total: 274 organisations
6. Approximately, how many paid employees does your association have?
In total: 9 Full-time: 7 Part-time: 2
61
7a. Are you the only personnel management association in your country?
Yes No
41% 59%
7b. If ‘no’, on which areas do the other personnel management associations focus?
Yes
Personnel management generally 27%
Personnel management specifically 9%
(excluding training and development)
Training and development specifically 36%
Reward, remuneration, compensation and benefits 18%
Employee relations, industrial relations, employment law 23%
SECTION II: EDUCATION AND TRAINING
EDUCATION
1. In your association, what is the approximate proportion of individual members:
A. With a university degree 85 %

B. With secondary education only 18 %
2a. Based on your association’s membership statistics, list the three university
degree disciplines most widely held by personnel management practitioners in
your country:
Business studies 51%

Economics 7%
62
Psychology 15%
Humanities/Arts/Languages 5%
Law 12%
Other 10%
2b. In your association, what is the approximate proportion of individual members

with a university degree in the disciplines you have listed above?
100 % of members with a university degree in the disciplines listed above
3. Are personnel management practitioners in your country more likely to have a

degree now than 10 years ago?
Yes No Do not know

96% 4% 0%
4. In your opinion, how important is it in your country that a personnel

management practitioner has a university degree?
Very important 73%

Quite important 27%
Not important 0%
5. In your opinion, how important is it in your country that a personnel

management practitioner has followed a course of study in personnel
management?
Very important 77%

Quite important 23%
Not important 0%
63
PROFESSIONAL PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT CERTIFIED COURSES OF STUDY
6. Does your association run professional personnel management certified courses

of study?
Yes No
57% 43%
7. Does your association recognise professional personnel management certified

courses of study which are run by other institutions?
Yes No
55% 45%
If you answered No to questions 6 and 7, go to question 20a.
8. How long has your certified course of study been in existence?
20 years
9. Do these certified courses of study differentiate between different levels of

competence?
Yes No
55% 45%
10a. If they do differentiate between levels, what is the approximate total time
(including contact and self-study time) needed to complete the certified course of
study at the following levels?
A. Elementary level: 114 hours

B. Advanced level: 216 hours
10b. If they do not differentiate between levels , what is the approximate total time
(including contact and self-study time) needed to complete the certified course of
study?
292 hours
64
11a. Are there different modes of study for the certified course of study?
Yes No
70% 30%
11b. What proportion of students follow the certified course of study:
A. Full-time 70%
B. Part-time 50%
C. Distance learning 12%
D. In-company 6%
E. Other 14%
12. Approximately how many individuals pass the certified course of study each
year?
175 individuals
13. Approximately how many individuals currently hold the course certificate?
4,200 individuals
14. Of those who follow the certified courses of study through your association,
approximately what proportion of these sit a formal/written examination?
100%
15. Does your association award certificates for demonstrating competence in the
field of professional personnel management (rather than students having to sit
an examination)?
Yes No
54% 46%
65
16. Do you have a re-certification requirement for courses of study or demonstration

of competence?
Yes No
8% 92%
17. Do you have continuing professional development requirements?
Yes No
54% 46%
18. Approximately how many members gain your association’s professional

personnel management certificate each year?
200 members
19. Approximately how many members currently hold your association’s certificate
in total?
600 members
PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT TRAINING COURSES
20a. Does your association offer training courses which are not part of a formal
course of study?
Yes No
81% 19%
20b. If so, are these training courses offered to:
A. Members only 0%
B. Non-members only 0%
C. Members and non-members 100%
66
21. Does your association licence other institutions to run training courses?
Yes No
6% 94%
22. Does your association recognise training courses offered by other institutions?
Yes No
59% 41%
23. Approximately how many people participate in training and development

courses and programmes offered by your association each year?
550 individuals
24. Does your association provide, licence or recognise training courses in the
following areas?
Yes
A. Recruitment and selection 94%
B. Retention/promotion/appraisal 82%
C. Pay and benefits 82%
D. Health and safety 73%
E. Industrial relations 77%
F. Employee communication 75%
G. Employment law 81%
H. Discipline and grievance 57%
I. Equal opportunities 53%
J. Environmental issues 36%
K. Training and development 90%
L. International personnel management 60%
M. Change management 89%
N. Strategic management 88%
O. Counselling/welfare 60%
P. Computing/IT 43%
67
25. From the following list, can you identify a maximum of three main areas in
which your association provides training courses? (Please do not tick more than
three)

P. Computing/IT 0%
SECTION III: SKILLS AND KNOWLEDGE
1a. Does your association define or publish guidelines on the skills and knowledge
required for personnel management activities and responsibilities?
Yes No
53% 47%
1b. If so, which areas do these guidelines cover?

68

P. Computing/IT 20%
Q. Other, please specify 0%
2. Do you publish formal guidelines on a code of conduct for personnel

management practitioners?
Yes No
77% 23%
3. Are there any penalties for any members failing to abide with any of these
published guidelines?
Yes No Not applicable

27% 46% 27%
4. In this question, we distinguish between three levels of personnel management

practitioner:
1. Support/administrative
2. Professional/specialist
3. Senior/strategic management.
69
Based on these levels, for which of the following activities is a personnel

management practitioner responsible in your country?
A. Recruitment, retention, promotion and termination

Support Prof. Senior N/A
/Admin. /Specialist
A. Administer recruitment activities 68% 50% 18% 0%
B. Interview/select new employees 23% 86% 41% 5%
C. Authorise recruitment budgets/staffing levels 14% 36% 77% 5%
D. Carry out procedures for termination of employment 18% 64% 41% 5%
E. Formulate a corporate resourcing strategy 5% 23% 73% 5%
F. Administer promotion schemes 36% 50% 41% 0%
G. Implement an induction programme 27% 77% 14% 0%
B. Performance measurement, reward and development

/Admin. /Specialist
A. Administer reward and benefits schemes 55% 55% 23% 0%
B. Determine the levels of reward and benefits 5% 55% 73% 0%
C. Develop corporate reward strategies 5% 36% 68% 9%
D. Carry out performance appraisals 23% 73% 46% 5%
E. Decide on training activities and methods 9% 68% 64% 5%
F. Implement equal opportunities programmes 18% 46% 46% 23%
G. Deliver training to individuals 36% 77% 27% 0%
H. Develop employee training strategies 5% 36% 77% 5%
I. Administer a job evaluation scheme 41% 68% 32% 0%
C. Employee communication and the working environment

/Admin. /Specialist
A. Develop an internal communications policy 5% 32% 82% 5%
B. Support the welfare of individual employees 41% 68% 14% 0%
C. Monitor health and safety policy implementation 27% 59% 32% 9%
70
D. Negotiate with staff representatives 9% 55% 59% 5%

E. Handle grievance and disciplinary cases 23% 55% 46% 5%
F. Develop an employee relations strategy 5% 27% 86% 0%
G. Evaluate the personnel management function 5% 27% 64% 9%
H. Develop personnel mgt information systems 5% 77% 36% 14%
I. Manage culture change programmes 9% 46% 68% 0%
J. Provide advice to other functions on employment law9% 73% 46% 0%
SECTION IV: PERSONAL DETAILS
1. Are you the head of your association?
Yes No
63% 37%
2. How long have you been working for the association?
6 years
3. How long have you been working in personnel management in total?
21 years
4. Do you have a higher education degree?
Yes No
89% 11%
If ‘yes’, in what discipline did you study? (tick main one only)
A. Business studies 23%
B. Economics 18%
C. Social or behavioural sciences 32%
D. Humanities/Arts/Languages 0%
E. Law 5%
F. Engineering 5%
G. Natural sciences 0%
H. Other 14%
71
Appendix 2. Survey participants
PMA PMA ACADEMIC ACADEMIC

QUESTIONN- QUESTIONN- QUESTIONN- QUESTIONN-
COUNTRY AIRES SENT AIRES AIRES SENT AIRES
OUT RECEIVED OUT RECEIVED
Argentina 2 1
Australia 1 1 1
Austria 1 3 1
Bangladesh 1
Belgium 1 3
Bolivia 1
Brazil 1 2 1
Bulgaria 1 1 1
Canada 1 1 1
Chile 1
Colombia 1
Cyprus 1
Czech Republic 1 1 1
Denmark 1 1 4
Dominican 3
Republic
Ecuador 1
Finland 1 2
France 2 2 1
Germany 2 1 3
Greece 1 1 1
Hong Kong 2 1 1
Hungary 1 1 2
India 1 1 1
Indonesia 1
Italy 1 1
Japan 1 1 1 1
Jordan 1
Malaysia 1 1 1
72
PMA PMA ACADEMIC ACADEMIC

QUESTIONN- QUESTIONN- QUESTIONN- QUESTIONN-
COUNTRY AIRES SENT AIRES AIRES SENT AIRES
OUT RECEIVED OUT RECEIVED
Mexico 4 1
Netherlands 1 1 3 1
New Zealand 1 1 1 2
Norway 1 1 2
Panama 1
Papua New 1
Guinea
Paraguay 1
Peru 1
Philippines 2 1
Poland 1 1
Portugal 2 1 2 1
Slovak Republic 1
Slovenia 1
South Africa 1 1 1 1
Spain 2 1 2 1
Sri Lanka 1
Sweden 1 1 3
Switzerland 1
Taiwan 1
Thailand 1 1 1
Turkey 1
United Kingdom 1 1 3 1
United States of 6 1 1
America
Uruguay 2
Venezuela 2 1 1 3
Total no. of 70 23 48 23
questionnaires
Total no. of 51 22 27 20
countries
73
Appendix 3. Academic questionnaires
3a. English language responses
Country Code No. of English language core texts cited

(max. 3 per questionnaire)
Australia AU 3
Austria AT 0
Brazil BR 0
Bulgaria BG 0
Czech Republic CZ 0
France FR 0
Greece GR 1
Hong Kong HK 3
India IN 3
Japan JP 1
Malaysia MY 3 (10 titles given in 3 groupings of texts)
The Netherlands NL 1
New Zealand (x2) NZ 6
Portugal PT 0
South Africa ZA 3
Spain ES illegible
Thailand TH 3
United Kingdom UK 3
United States of America US 19 (first 3 only used)
Venezuela (x3) VE 6
From the references received, the following analysis of the titles of the core personnel
management textbooks which include the following words can be made:
Personnel HRM Strategy Industrial Law Other

relations
IN 3 ZA 3 VE 1 IN 1 MY 1 VE 2
UK 2 NZ 5 US 1 MY 1 JP 1
GR 1 VE 3 AU 1 VE 1
US 3 TH 1 HK 1
MY 1
NL 1
AU 3
TH 3
UK 2
IN 1
HK 2
Total 6 27 4 4 1 3
Percentage 13% 60% 9% 9% 2% 7%
74
3b. English language references
Aminuddin. 1999. An A-Z of Malaysian Employment Law. McGraw Hill. Reference from
Malaysia.
Anthony et al. 1999. Human Resource Management: a strategic approach. Dryden Press.
Reference from USA.
Antony. 1997. Strategic Human Resource Management. Harcourt Brace College. Reference
from Thailand.
Armstrong. 1997. A Handbook of Personnel Management Practice. Kogan Page. Reference

from Ireland.
Ayadurai. 1998. Industrial Relations in Malaysia. Malaysian law journal. Reference from
Malaysia.
Bernardin. 1993. Human Resource Management. McGraw Hill. Reference from Thailand.
Boxall. 1995. The challenge of human resource management. Longman Paul. Reference from
New Zealand.
Carrell et al. 1998. Human Resource Management in South Africa. Prentice Hall. Reference
from South Africa.
Chaudhuri. 1998. Personnel Management for Executives. Himalaya Publishing. Reference

from India.
Davar. 1998. Personnel Management and Industrial Relations. Vikas Publishing. Reference
from Venezuela.
De Cenzo et al. 1996. Human Resource Management. John Wiley. Reference from South
Africa, Thailand and USA.
Dissler. 1997. Human Resource Management. Prentice Hall. Reference from New Zealand.
Gomez-Mejia et al. 1998 (2nd Edition). Managing Human Resources. Prentice Hall.
Reference from USA and South Africa.
Gunnigle et al. 1997. HRM in Irish Organisations. Oak Tree Press. Reference from Ireland.
Gunnigle et al. 1997. Personnel and Human Resource Management in Ireland. Gill &
MacMillan. Reference from Ireland.
75
Hilltrop et al. 1995. Negotiations among cultures. Prentice Hall. Reference from Venezuela.
How. 1995. HRM practices. TIMES. Reference from Malaysia.
Johnson et al. 2000. Managing HRM in New Zealand Organisations. McGraw Hill.
Reference from New Zealand.
Kramar et al. 1997. Human Resource Management in Australia. Addison Wesley Longman.
Reference from Australia.
Milkovich et al. 1997. A Diagnostic Approach to Human Resource. Management Chapter.

Reference from Venezuela.
Nankervis et al. 1997. Strategic Human Resource Management. Nelson. Reference from
Malaysia.
O'Neill et al. 1999. Australian Human Resource Management. Woodslane. Reference from
Malaysia.
Pfeffer. 1994. Competitive Advantage through People. HBS Press. Reference from
Venezuela.
Rudman. 1994 (2nd Edition). Human Resources Management in New Zealand. Longman
Paul. Reference from New Zealand.
Ruysseveldt. 1994. International HRM. Sage. Reference from The Netherlands.
Stone. 1998. Human Resource Management. Jacavanda Wiley. Reference from New Zealand.
Tyson et al. 1992. The Essence of Organisational Behaviour. Prentice Hall. Reference from
Japan.
Ulrich. 1997. Human Resource Champions. HRS Press. Reference from Venezuela.
Venkata Ratnam et al. 1991. Personnel Management and Human Resources. Tata McGraw
Hill. Reference from Venezuela.
Walker. 1992. Human Resource Strategy. McGraw Hill. Reference from Venezuela.
Yeung et al. 1995. Developing Leadership Capabilities of Global Corporations. HRM.

Reference from Venezuela.
Bannister, B J et al. 1998. Managing Human Resources in Hong Kong. Sweet & Maxwell
Asia. Reference from Hong Kong.
Nish, I et al. 1996. Labour and Human Resources in East Asia. Hong Kong University Press.
Reference from Hong Kong.
Ng, S H et al. 1997. Current Issues of Workplace Relations and Management. University of
Hong Kong, Centre of Asian Studies. Reference from Hong Kong.
76
3c. Non-English language responses
Country Code No. of non-English language core texts cited

(max. 3 per questionnaire)
Australia AU 0
Austria AT 3
Brazil BR 0
Bulgaria BG 3
Czech Republic CZ 3
France FR 3
Greece GR 2
India IN 0
Japan JP 2 (no translation available for analysis)
Malaysia MY 0
The Netherlands NL 2
New Zealand NZ 0
Portugal PT 8 (first 3 used)
South Africa ZA 0
Spain ES 1
Thailand TH 0
United Kingdom UK 0
United States of America US 0
Venezuela VE 3
From the references received, the following analysis of the titles of the core personnel
management textbooks which include the following words can be made:
Personnel HRM Strategy Industrial Law Other

Relations
AT 3 VE 3 0 0 0 PT 1
FR 1 PT 1
GR 1 FR 2
BG 1 GR 1
CZ 2 BG 2
NL 1 CZ 2
NL 1
ES 1
Total 9 13 0 0 0 1
Percentage 39% 57% 0% 0% 0% 4%
3d. Non-English language references
Canellopoulos, C. 1991. Personnel management. Greek: University of Piraeus.
Da Camara, P B, P B Guerra and JV Rodrigues. 1997. Humanator. Portuguese: Publicacoes

Dom Quixote.
77
Gomez, L R, R L Cardy and D Balkin. 1998. Gestion de Recursos Humanos. Spanish:

Prentice Hall.
Granell, E. 1996 (2nd Edition). Recursos Humanos y competitividad en organizaciones

Venezolanas. Spanish.
Hentze. 1997. Personalwirtschaftslehre. German: UTB.
Hristova, T. 1996. Human resource management. Bulgarian: Princeps.
Isao Akaoka. 1993. Elegantona Roudou to Seikatu. Japanese: Hourity Bunka Sha.
Kasper and Mayrhofer. 1996. Personalmanagement, Fuhrung. German: Veberreuter.
Kazou Koike. 1995. Shigoto No Keizaigaku. Japanese: Touyou Keizai.
Kluytman. 1995. Personeelsmanagement. Dutch: Kluwer.
Koubek, J. 1996. Personnel management in small businesses. Czech: Grada.
Koubek, J. 1998 (2nd Edition reprint). Human resource managment. Principles of modern
personnel management. Czech: Management Press.
Louart, P. 1993. Gestion de resources humaines. French.
Milkovich, G T and J W Boudneau. 1994. Direccion y Administracion de Recursos

Humanos. Spanish: Addison.
Milkovich, G T and J W Boudreau. 1993. Human resource management. Czech: Grada.
Moura, R. 1991. Gestao e desenvolvimento socio-organizacional. Portugese: CIDEC.
Neuberger. 1998. Personalwirtschaft. German: Enke.
Nondoy, R W and R M Noe. 1997. Gerencia de Recursos Humanos. Spanish: Prentice Hall.
Peretti. 1990. Fonction personel et management de resources humaine. French.
Rocha, J A O. 1997. Gestao de recursos humanos. Potugese: Editorial Presenca.
Shopov, D and M Atanasova. 1995. Personnel management. Bulgarian: Jusautor.
Van de Meeren. 1994. Human Resource Management. Dutch: Kluwer.
Vatchkova, E. 1998. Human resource management - European comparative researches.

Bulgarian: Stopanstvo.
Weiss. 1988. La fonction resources humaines. French.
Xyrotiri-Koufidou. 1997. Human resource management. Greek: Anikoula.

78
Appendix 4. The CRANET survey
The Cranfield survey data we have employed in this report are based on surveys carried out
in 1991, 1992, 1995 and 1999 by the CRANET-E Network. This is a pan-European network
of 22 prestigious business schools that collaborate to conduct joint research and development,
education and training in the field of HRM in Europe. The Centre for European HRM at
Cranfield School of Management acts as the co-ordinator. The Centre analyses and co-
ordinates the results of the survey from the countries involved. Joint working parties meet
regularly to ensure that the survey fully reflects ongoing changes throughout Europe in its
own practice. The survey data includes information about HR practitioners themselves as
well as the practices that they operate in their organisations. The respondents referred to are
all the most senior HR manager in their organisation. The data used in this report is from the
following 22 countries: Germany, UK, France, Ireland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy,
Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, Austria, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Bulgaria, the
Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Cyprus, Greece and Turkey.
79
Appendix 5. HR competencies identified in the literature
STYLE: BUSINESS:
♣ Personal credibility ♣ Business savvy and market
♣ Cognitive complexity and agility knowledge/orientation
♣ Achievement directed assertiveness ♣ Change/culture management
♣ Interpersonal effectiveness ♣ Change agent
♣ Personal management ♣ Leadership
♣ Relationship orientation ♣ Organisation awareness
♣ Continuous learning ♣ Able to assess business impact
♣ Tolerance for stress/change/ambiguity ♣ Strategic business perspective –
♣ Resilience to opposition business strategy formulation
♣ Creative/analytical/problem-solving ♣ Business planning and
approaches implementation – align HR with
♣ Entrepreneurial drive business and organisational planning
process
♣ Adaptability
♣ Business process design and
♣ Results orientation
management
♣ Team commitment
♣ Communication and influence
♣ Developing a learning organisation
ROLE: FUNCTIONAL:
♣ Relationship facilitating/building - ♣ Knowledge and delivery of traditional
management/employee/union HRM – reward/compensation, labour
relations relations, training and development,
♣ Project management organisational design/effectiveness,
♣ Talent management staffing and retention, performance
♣ Facilitator of group relations management, communication,
organisational learning, health and
♣ Information management
safety, information systems,
♣ Responsiveness to shareholders grievance and discipline
♣ Encourage innovation ♣ Application and exploitation of
♣ Action planning information technology
♣ Asset management and cost control ♣ Administrative tasks
♣ Reinforcement management ♣ Assessment/evaluation skills
♣ Quality process orientation ♣ Compliance with increasingly
♣ Customer value creation complex legislation
♣ Developing cultural diversity and ♣ Coaching, consulting and developing
cross-cultural sensitivity others
♣ Environmental scanning ♣ Strategic staffing
♣ Empowering front-line managers for ♣ Cross-functional flexibility
HRM ♣ Clear objective setting
♣ HR accountability
80

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HR Competencies and Professional

Professor Chris Brewster

For further information about the WFPMA, contact:

Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development

Grateful thanks are given to:

Project Steering Group

First survey respondents

Second survey respondents (USA only)

Academic survey respondents

I.1 The project ................................................................................................................................................1

I.2 Definition of terminology ...........................................................................................................................2

I.3 The relevance of HR competencies today...............................................................................................2

II. LITERATURE REVIEW.............................................................................................................................4

II.1. Introduction .............................................................................................................................................4

II.2. HR as a profession .................................................................................................................................4

II.3. Definitions of HR competencies .............................................................................................................6

II.4. Developing an HR competency model ..................................................................................................8

II.5. Variations in HR competency requirements ..........................................................................................9

II.6. Competency acquisition .......................................................................................................................13

II.7. Summary ...............................................................................................................................................15

III. METHODOLOGY ...................................................................................................................................16

III.1 The survey of personnel management associations...........................................................................16

III.2 Second survey in USA..........................................................................................................................18

III.3 The academic literature survey ............................................................................................................18

IV. SURVEY FINDINGS ..............................................................................................................................19

IV.1 Background information on personnel management associations ....................................................19

IV.2 Education and training .........................................................................................................................22

IV.3 Skills and knowledge............................................................................................................................26

IV.4 Academic questionnaires.....................................................................................................................31

V. THE HR BODY OF KNOWLEDGE ........................................................................................................32

V.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................32

V.2 Global framework of the HR body of knowledge .................................................................................33

V.3 Contextual analysis ...............................................................................................................................34

V.4 Elements of skills and knowledge.........................................................................................................40

VI. TRAINING AND EDUCATION ..............................................................................................................45

VI.1 Introduction ...........................................................................................................................................45

VI.2 Delivery options ....................................................................................................................................45

VI.3 Case examples.....................................................................................................................................45

VII. ASSESSMENT AND CERTIFICATION ...............................................................................................49

VII.1 Introduction ..........................................................................................................................................49

VII.3 Case examples....................................................................................................................................49

VIII. CONCLUSIONS ...................................................................................................................................52

VIII.1 Project boundaries .............................................................................................................................52

VIII.2 The status of HR and competencies .................................................................................................52

VIII.3 The associations and their activities..................................................................................................52

VIII.4 The core HR body of knowledge .......................................................................................................53

VIII.5 Teaching and development of HR specialists...................................................................................54

IX. REFERENCES .......................................................................................................................................57

Appendix 1. Personnel management associations questionnaire.....................................................60

Appendix 2. Survey participants .............................................................................................................72

Appendix 3. Academic questionnaires...................................................................................................74

3c. Non-English language responses.....................................................................................................77

Appendix 4. The CRANET survey............................................................................................................79

Appendix 5. HR competencies identified in the literature ...................................................................80

I.1 The project

1.2 How do national associations certify the attainment of professional

1.3 Are there generic standards of professionalism in HR common to all or

I.2 Definition of terminology

I.3 The relevance of HR competencies today