Readiness of Malaysian human resource professionals to be a strategic partner

The Ulrich’s HRM Four-Role Model is used in this study. The various roles that are examined are strategic partner, change agent, administrative expert and employee champion. All these roles will be tested whether or not they are significantly related to a firm’s performance. This study also examines the potential barriers that hinder the HR professional from being a strategic partner in an organisation. The sample employed here consists of HR professionals from Malaysian manufacturing companies in the southernmost state of Malaysia, Johor. The total number of firms involve in this study are 89 respondents. This study uses quantitative method such as spearmen rho correlation and multiple regression analysis to test the variables. The finding shows that the role of an administrative expert and employee champion obtained highest score in this study. All HR roles are tested and are significantly related to firm performance. Furthermore, it is found that role of strategic partner and change agent contributes most to firm performance. This study also found that the main barrier that hinders HR professional to play strategic roles in an organisation is they have no time to address both administrative and strategic issues.