Evaluating Key Competencies for HR Directors in Multinational Firms

This essay explores the key competencies that a CEO of a multinational corporation (MNC) expects from their Human Resources (HR) Director. It emphasizes the importance of HR professionals adapting to the changing global landscape and focusing on delivering value. The essay highlights core competencies such as communication skills, critical thinking, flexibility, organizational skills, capacity for influence, and being a role model. These competencies are essential for fostering a positive and inclusive workplace culture, resolving conflicts, and ensuring the HR department aligns with the organization's objectives and vision. The discussion draws upon models by Karen Legge and Ulrich, emphasizing the HR director's role in managing organizational processes and people, as well as providing consultation services on strategic staff planning, compensation, training, and labor relations. Ultimately, the essay concludes that a well-balanced combination of these skills is crucial for the success of any MNC in today's competitive business environment.

Running head: COMPETENCY OF MNC HR DIRECTOR
Competency of MNC HR Director
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author note:

1COMPETENCY OF MNC HR DIRECTOR
In this world of gradually changing global visions, it is high time for the human
resource professionals for gearing themselves and making further plan, prioritize them and
set some new goals accordingly. The HR professionals at present are considered to be one of
the main elements which include in the functioning of HR within the organisation. Rising
through different ranks of human resource fields to the role of a HR directors, it is very
difficult for a person to make this journey in well-productive manner (Albrecht et al., 2015).
In order to create some value and to deliver the best possible results, it is very important for
the HR professionals to not only focus on their activities and works but also to define all the
deliverables of their work. This paper shall elaborate on the key competencies that a CEO of
a multinational corporation would expect from the HR director of the company.
It is to note that the responsibilities of the Human resource management need an
overlapping set of competencies and varied skills (Ellinger&Ellinger, 2014). Being the CEO
of a company, it is his duty and responsibility to assess whether the director that he has
chosen for the Human Resource Management process of his company, possess some of the
core competencies that is essential for the success of the company in today’s challenging and
competitive job market. It is the duty of the HR directors to ensure profitable and smooth
operation of the human resource department of the organisation (Kumar &Pansari, 2016). In
this context, it can be argued that the CEO has some expectations regarding the role of the
HR director. According to the Karen Legge model, the role of the HR director is to follow
the organisational objectives such as cost or conflict reduction and increase the productivity.
This concept is also known as the Conformist Innovator model that the HR must follow
(Thill, Venegas & Groblschegg, 2014). On the other hand, the Ulrich model divided the role
of the HR director into two parts. The first part is associated with managing the organisation
process and on the other the role of the HR director is to manage the people (Aldrich et al.,
2015). In other words, they are responsible for supervising and providing consultation service

2COMPETENCY OF MNC HR DIRECTOR
to the management on different issues such as compensations, strategic staff planning,
training and development process, budget, benefits, labour relations etc. He is also expected
to take an effective leadership rile to develop a culture which allows the employees of the
organisation to perform as per the objectives and visions of the company. Some of these
competencies are-
Communication skill is identified as an important factor in this regard. Communication
has always considered being an essential and primary skill of each and every Human
Resource professional and so is in case of a HR Director. He is expected to be capable of
communicating in clear manner to each and every one in an organisation. This is due to the
fact that communication is something that provides people with an edge and is also a very
strong ability required for resolution of organisational conflicts (Hollenbeck & Jamieson,
2015). It is to note that even in the most pleasing and enjoyable workplace, problems does
arises and those issues need a diplomatic eye and ear for the assessment along with a
diplomatic hand in order to get the problem solved. This competency is always regarded as
invaluable while negotiating the solutions for the problems as well as for keeping the things
on right track.
Critical thinking skills play a pivotal role in identifying the responsibility of the HR
director. It is one of the long lists of duties of the HR Director to balance the complex
situations that brought to him by the HR managers. He then takes time to find out a solution
for the same. Hence, the skill and competency ofthinking critically is one of the key
competencies that a CEO of a Multinational company look for in his HR director. It is to
mention that employees in a MNC corporation come from different backgrounds, culture and
different social groups along with different experiences (Lovelace, Eggers &Dyck, 2016).
Hence, it is necessary for the HR Director to cultivate an environment in strategic manner in

3COMPETENCY OF MNC HR DIRECTOR
which all the employees belonging from different backgrounds could work together towards
the improvement of the very firm and its business.
Flexibility can be argued as an important feature for a HR director. A consequence of
diversity is very necessary for understanding the various different ways for interpreting
several situations that takes place in an organisation. The ability of adopting the vision of the
company to each of the possible interpretations of reality is considered to be one of the key
competencies that an HR director is always expected to possess.
Organisational skill is highly associated with the role of the HR director. Managing
Human Resource department is a very complex act hence it is very important to stay in an
organised way for the HR Director in order to keep himself ahead of what he need to do and
have ample of time for the things that he wants to do. The successful human resource
employees in MNC carries out a wide variety of tasks on a regular basis and these requires
him to work in an organised manner. Hence, it is always expected from a HR director to have
a consistent flow of the paper works that are coming in to him and are going out which might
include information of personal employee and private businesses.
Capacity of influencing is an important factor in this regard. A HR director is also
expected to know how to influence as well as communicate with diverse people present in the
organisation that belongs from different groups and culture. The capacity of working with
diverse group of people and communicating with them effectively is the key to successful
teams (Dutton &Ragins, 2017). It is also important for this profile in order to ensure that the
things that are setting in motion are interpreted in correct manner and that too without hurting
the sensitivities of anyone. It is considered to be one of the key competency as because of the
fact that this skill makes the company walk along the right path. The clear comprehension
and transmission of the objectives and their follow-up is the key to success.

4COMPETENCY OF MNC HR DIRECTOR
Being a role model is another major concern that the HR directors must follow. The HR
Director needs to set the standard when it comes to the question of ethics, business practices
and leadership (Neves, Almeida & Velez, 2018). A CEO of an organisation looks for this
competency in every HR Director as this competency is something that creates a welcoming
and inclusive environment and workplace culture.
Hence, to conclude, it can be said that they key competencies that the CEO of a MNC
shall look for within the HR Director are of communication skills, organisational skills,
capability of influencing, role model, flexibility and critical thinking skills. All these
elements together is a key to success for any multinational company who intends for success
in competitive business world. Therefore every HR director should ensure that he possess all
these skills within himself in a well-balanced manner.

5COMPETENCY OF MNC HR DIRECTOR
References:
Albrecht, S. L., Bakker, A. B., Gruman, J. A., Macey, W. H., & Saks, A. M. (2015).
Employee engagement, human resource management practices and competitive
advantage: An integrated approach. Journal of Organizational Effectiveness: People
and Performance, 2(1), 7-35.
Aldrich, P., Dietz, G., Clark, T., & Hamilton, P. (2015). Establishing HR professionals’
influence and credibility: Lessons from the capital markets and investment banking
sector. Human Resource Management, 54(1), 105-130.
Dutton, J. E., &Ragins, B. R. (2017). Positive relationships at work: An introduction and
invitation. In Exploring positive relationships at work (pp. 2-24). Psychology Press.
Ellinger, A. E., &Ellinger, A. D. (2014). Leveraging human resource development expertise
to improve supply chain managers' skills and competencies. European Journal of
Training and Development, 38(1/2), 118-135.

6COMPETENCY OF MNC HR DIRECTOR
Hollenbeck, J. R., & Jamieson, B. B. (2015). Human capital, social capital, and social
network analysis: Implications for strategic human resource management. Academy of
management perspectives, 29(3), 370-385.
Kumar, V., &Pansari, A. (2016). Competitive advantage through engagement. Journal of
Marketing Research, 53(4), 497-514.
Lovelace, K. J., Eggers, F., &Dyck, L. R. (2016). I do and I understand: Assessing the utility
of web-based management simulations to develop critical thinking skills. Academy of
Management Learning & Education, 15(1), 100-121.
Neves, P., Almeida, P., & Velez, M. J. (2018). Reducing intentions to resist future change:
Combined effects of commitment‐based HR practices and ethical leadership. Human
Resource Management, 57(1), 249-261.
Thill, K., Venegas, B. C., & Groblschegg, S. (2014). HR roles and activities. Empirical
results from the DACH region and implications for a future development of the HR
profession. International Journal of Business and Management, 2(4), 97-109.