Abstract:

The human resource management research has been the source for enhancing the management of employees in organization. The domain has been revolutionized from personnel to human resource (HR) and strategic human resource management (SHRM). The role of HR professionals in organization has been studied more than a decade ago and there are still researchers that focus on how the HR professionals play their part in the strategic discussion in a organization. Nevertheless, there is insufficient explanation on the same issues in public higher educational institutions (HEI). The number of faculty members in the university make HEI one of the public sector agencies that have higher number of knowledge workers to be managed by the HR department. The effort on the internationalization of the universities gives new kind of challenges to the HR department and yet little focus has been given to study how HR manager play their role to cope with all these challenges.

In SHRM, the HR practitioner uses the information system (IS) as a tool in administering human resources. The HR professionals view human resource information system (HRIS) as a tool that can provide them timely and accurate information in supporting the top management in decision making and hence, enable them to play full strategic partnering role. However, is that scenario happening in HEI? In order to explore this further, a case study were conducted each in Denmark and in Malaysia. The objective of the study is to provide better insight on the challenges faced by the HR professionals in HEI in two different countries and to explore the usage of information system in the HR department. This abstract outlines briefly the research methods that were applied, findings of the study, limitations of the study and the future research.
This is a comparative investigation between cases in two different countries. Since it is explorative in nature, the case study approach is the best method that can be applied. Interviews were conducted at different level of positions namely the HR officers, the HR managers and the HR director. The main actor however is the HR director who is referred as the HR manager in this paper. Semi structured interviews were conducted and observations and document reviewed were done where necessary.
Based on the findings, there are dissimilarities on the approach of managing the human resource in HEI in the two countries. The differences can be seen from the structure of the HR department. The nature of the working environment is also different where Denmark for example holds on to the principle of self-management while Malaysia is still believe in monitoring system. They also have different approach in making themselves more visible in supporting the top management. However, there are also similarities between the two organizations especially on the challenges faced by the HR manager in keeping a continuous effort in integrating the HRIS. Another emerging issue that was found is on the leadership of the head of administrator and also the head of faculties/institutes.
This study however only focused in the HR department. It is suggested that the future study can investigate the perspectives from the top management of HEI and the leaders from faculties/institutes on the role of the HR manager in the organization.

Keywords:

Strategic human resource management, leadership, higher educational institutions.