Calling line managers in employee continuous professional development in South East Asia

Purpose: The paper aims to study the relationship of Line Managers’ (LMs) Human Resource (HR) role and its facets within employee’s Continuous Professional Development (CPD).

Design/methodology/approach: A quantitative approach using 100 questionnaires were distributed to line managers in a South East Asia with a response rate of 87%.

Findings: Results depict that LMs are actively involved in Strategic Partner, Employee Champion, and Change Agent roles. Study also shows that these three HR roles correlate with employee CPD. LMs’ are neither involved in Administrative Expert role, nor it correlates with employee Continuous Professional Development.

Research limitations: Inability of the line managers to be fully involved with the four HR roles constraints the process of line manager deployment of HR roles specifically to employee CPD.

Practical implications: Argues that the importance of strategic partner, employee champion, and change agent roles are the most important barrier and enabler of employee CPD, thus indirectly promoting organizational success and productivity.

Social implications: Highlights the difficulties of managing organisations by getting the line managers directly involve in the development of employee CPD. Many line managers have to be made and given opportunities to develop their capabilities on this platform. Contends that HR can help an organization to succeed, provided that all line managers understand their roles, work together and take responsibility for their contribution. In addition is the adoption of the HR roles for the smooth delivery of HR functions which aligns with the overall organizational success.

Originality/value: Specific HR roles are significant importance to the development of employee CPD within the setting of this South East Asian organization.