Examining the Relationships Among Human Resources Roles, Professional Competencies and Emotional Intelligence (An Empirical Study)

Table of contents

1. Introduction

uman Resource (HR) professionals, by virtue of their knowledge of human performance, are well positioned to exercise strategic leadership and contribute significantly to a firm's competitive advantage. This paradigm shift concerning the value of human resources will therefore create opportunities for the HR function to develop a more strategic role in a firm's operation (Lawler & Mohrman, 2003).

Traditionally, the human resource function has been viewed as primarily administrative, focusing on the level of the individual employee, the individual job, and the individual practice (Becker, Huselid & Ulrich, 2001), with the basic premise that improvements in individual employee performance will automatically enhance organizational performance. In the 1990s, an emphasis on strategy and the importance of human resource (HR) practitioners began to recognize the impact of aligning HR practices with organizational strategy. HR has now emerged as a strategic paradigm in which individual HR functions, such as recruitment, selection, training, compensation, and performance appraisal, are closely aligned with each other and also with the overall strategy of the organization.

Based on the increased interest in the relationship between human resource management (HRM) and organizational performance, many researchers have heightened interest in the kinds of competencies the HR professionals should display in order to add value to their firm's performance (Teo, 2002;and Boselie, et al., 2004).

Nowadays, competencies are used in many facets of human resource management, ranging from individual functions such as recruitment and performance management to organizational strategic planning and design of organizational structure and culture. HR competencies are said to be a set of characteristics contributing to the effective HR performance that enables an organization to carry out its business strategies in a competitive market. However, many HR executives are not invited to the strategic planning table because they have failed to display the required competencies (Barney & Wright, 1998). In fact, it is suggested that the competency level of the HR manager has an influence on whether he or she is able to get into the executive board chamber (Selmer & Chiu, 2004).

Based on human recourse role on professional competencies, emotional Intelligence will be proved, to enable the manager to demonstrate intelligent use of their emotions in managing themselves and working with others to be effective at work (Boyatzi, Goleman & Rhee, 2000).

Goleman (1998) defined an "emotional competence" as a "learned capability based on emotional intelligence those results in outstanding performance at work." Emotional intelligence can be observed when a person demonstrates the competencies that constitute self-awareness, selfmanagement, social awareness, and social skills at appropriate times and ways in sufficient frequency to be effective in the situation.

According to pervious, this study will examine the relationships among human recourse roles, professional competenciesand emotional intelligence in the five stars hotels in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.

2. II.

3. Literature Review

Now we shed the light on the previous literature review that discussed Human Resource development; the studies are ranged from the new one to the old one. The competencies include business knowledge, strategic contribution, HR delivery, personal credibility and HR technology. All these competencies were tested whether they relate to HR roles such as strategic partner, change agent, administrative expert and employee champion. The sample employed consists of HR professionals from Malaysian manufacturing companies in Johor, the southernmost state of Malaysia. This study uses quantitative method such as spearmen rho correlation to test the variables. The analysis reveals that the top nine ranking HR competency factors are from the domain of personal credibility and HR delivery.

The respondents' self-rated competency shows that personal communication, legal compliance, effective relationship and performance management rank above all other factors. Other findings of this research show that HR professionals are lacking in their capacity to play an important role as a strategic partner and agent for change. Furthermore, it is observed that business related competencies and HR related competencies are significantly related to certain roles of HR professionals in Malaysia.

4. Long (2008) "Examining Human Resource

Competencies and Their Relationship to the Success Factors of HR Profession".

This study examines competencies of Human Resource (HR) professionals in the manufacturing companies of Malaysia. The Human Resource Competency Survey (HRCS) model is used in this study. The competencies that are examined in this study are business knowledge, strategic contribution, HR delivery, personal credibility and HR technology. All these competencies will be tested whether or not they are significantly related to a firm's performance.

Furthermore, researcher wanted to study the relationship of these competencies with variables such as experience, education level, firm's size and salary of the sample. The sample employed here consists of HR professionals from Malaysian manufacturing companies in Johor, the southernmost state of Malaysia.

5. Azmi (2009) "Competency-based human resource practices in Malaysian public sector organizations".

The study shows that Malaysian public service started to use competency-based human resource practices at the end of year 2002 as the response to The exploratory factor analysis (EFA) showed a three-factor structure: Knowledge of Business, HR Functional Expertise and Managing Change. The instrument generates a high degree of confidence in the scale's validity and reliability. This study fulfils an identified need for the development of an empirically validated instrument to measure HR Competencies. This reliable and validated instrument enables and facilitates future studies in the HR competencies research stream.

Long (2009) "The Effect of the Demographic Factors on the Competency of HR Practitioners in Malaysia".

The study examines the relationship of demographic factors of HR practitioners with HR competencies in the manufacturing companies of Malaysia. The competencies that are examined are business knowledge, strategic contribution, HR delivery, personal credibility, HR technology and internal consultation. The sample employed here consists of HR practitioners from Malaysian manufacturing companies in the southernmost state of Malaysia, Johor.

The findings show that the top rank HR competencies are personal credibility and HR delivery. Furthermore, through spearmen correlation analysis, this study found that all demographic factors (HR experience, education level, salary and firm size) are significantly related to at least one HR competency of this study. This study reports on a study of the effects of the implementation of two competency based human resource practices (career development and performance management) on service quality in 300 Malaysian public organizations. Results provide clear evidence of significant and positive relationship between competency based career development practice and all service quality dimensions found in Malaysian public organizations.

However, there is no relationship at all between competency based performance management practices with all service quality dimensions. Thus, competency based career development is the best practice that should be adopted by any public organizations in Malaysia in a way to increase quality in the services provided to the external customers.

Distinguishing Features of the Study from the Literature Review.

After reading and through examining previous studies that related to the subject of this study, which can be achieved by the researchers, the researchers found that the most important characteristics, which distinguish our study from the other previous studies, can be stated as follows:

-The other previous studies were concentrating on two variables, which are human resource and professionals competencies. -In this study the researchers will concentrate on three variables: human resource, professionals competencies and emotional intelligence. -In this study the researchers to examine the correlations among human recourse roles, professional competencies and emotional intelligence in the five stars hotels in Amman.

6. III. Aims and Objectives of The Study

The main purpose of the study is to examine the correlations among human recourse roles, professional competencies and emotional intelligence in the five stars hotels in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.

The study also mentions the previous studies and literature review that is related to the study topic to enrich the current study with new recourses.

At the end, the study we concluded many results and suggest a number of recommendations that will guide the managers to activated the roles of HR Roles in the Hotel Industry in Amman.

IV.

7. Questions of The Study

The study should answer the following questions : 1. What is the impact of the human recourse roles on developing professional competencies in the senior management in five Stars Hotels in Amman?

2. What is the impact of the HR roles in improving emotional intelligence in the senior management in five Stars Hotels in Amman? 3. What is the impact of the Emotional Intelligence in improving emotional intelligence in the senior management in five Stars Hotels in Amman? These questions have motivated the researchers to examine the correlations among human recourse roles, professional competencies and emotional intelligence in the five stars hotels in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.

V.

8. Hypotheses of The Study

In the light of the results of the previous studies and the objectives of our study a number of basic hypotheses will be tested regarding the cause and effect between the independent and dependent variables. These hypotheses are: Ho1 : There is a significant positive statistical impact of the HR roles on professional competencies.

Ho2 : There is a significant positive statistical impact of the HR roles on Emotional Intelligence.

Ho3 : There is a significant positive statistical impact of Emotional Intelligence on professional competencies.

9. Model of the Study(*)

(*)According to the literature review and the previous studies.

10. Conceptual Framework

Human recourse : Is a framework for helping employees, develop there personal and organizational skills, knowledge and abilities. It includes such opportunities as employees training, employee carrier development, coaching, succession planning, key employee identification, tuition assistance and organizational development (Chiangmai, 2004).

Professional competencies : a personnel related concept referring to a set of behavioral dimensions of one's effective performance at work. Some authors suggest more precise definitions that describe competencies as the work-related personal attributes; knowledge, skills and values that individuals draw upon to do their.

Emotional intelligence: is the ability to identify, assess, and control the emotions of oneself, of others, and of groups (Harms & Credé, 2010).

VII.

11. Methodology of The Study a) Population and Sample

The study population consist all mangers in the senior management in five Stars Hotels in Amman, whom manage the five stars hotels in Amman. The following table shows the names of five stars hotels in Amman. The convenient sample of the study consist of (122) mangers in the senior management in five Stars Hotels in Amman, as illustrated in table (1). The percentage of sample consist (73.5%) of population, (166) managers.

12. b) Data Collection

The study adopts two sources of data: secondary and primary. Secondary data are obtained from literature published in this subject including previous studies. The primary data are collected from field study conducted through a questionnaire that was developed for such purpose. The questionnaire consisted of three parts (14 dimensions):

The first part includes independent variables, (HR Roles); Strategic Partner, Change Agent, Administrator Expert and Employee Champion. The second part includes dependent variables, (Professional Competencies); Business Knowledge, Strategic Contribution, Human Resource Technology, Human Resource Delivery and Personal Credibility.

The third part includes intermediate variable, (Emotional Intelligence); Motivation, Self-regulation, Self-consciousness, Empathy and Social Skills.

13. VIII.

14. Limitations of The Study

As it is expected to contribute to theoretical and practical areas, this study is limited to the following : 1. It is based only on questionnaire that was especially developed to fulfill the objectives of the study. Therefore, the results are confined to its validity and reliability. 2. It is restricted to the managers manage the hotel industry in Amman. 3. It has been conducted within a short period of time which may not reflect an accurate and valid profile about HR Roles and professional competencies in five star hotels in Amman.

15. IX. Analysis of Empirical Results

16. a) Statistical Results

Table (2) as the scale variable of the concept and further to avail the linear structure hypothetical model as illustrated in figure 1. LISREL analysis is used in this study to examine the correlations among HR Roles, Professional Competencies and Emotional Intelligence (with empirical results illustrated in figure 2) of international hotels in Amman. The degree of positive fitness of the hypothetical model and the test of results of each hypothesis is listed in table 3. Statistical results indicate that the degree of fitness achieves a moderate level (GFI= 0.78, it means need (0.22) to achieve 1). Three hypotheses have been positively verified (reaching the statistical significant level).

17. d) Conclusion and Recommendations

Empirical results from our study strongly support all the hypotheses, namely that HR roles has positive impact on professional competencies, and emotional intelligence. There was correlation among all the concepts defined in the hypothetical mode of the study, and that correlation attained a significant level and acceptable of fitness. Therefore, hotel managements should be aggressively engaged in HR roles to achieve at a synergy of emotional intelligence and professional competencies.

Figure 1.
Zainuddin &Azmi(2009) "The Effects of Competency Based Career development and Performance Management Practices on Service Quality: Some Evidence from Malaysian Public Organizations".
Figure 2.
increase the level of service quality. In Malaysian public
service, out of six competency-based human resource
practices, only five practices were implemented.
They were recruitment and selection, training
and development, career development, performance
management and reward. From 300 copies of
questionnaire distributed using simple random
technique, 140 were useable. The data was analyzed
further using factor analysis and it was found out that
training and development items had combined with a
reward practice. This new dimension was labeled as
organizational development. Others remain the same
2012 dimensions. It was also found out that competency-based
ear Y performance management, organizational development and career development were practiced to a high extent.
Meanwhile, competency-based reward and recruitment
2 and selection were practiced to a moderate extent.
and Business Research Volume XII Issue XXIII Version I Ram ayah (2012) "Validity and Reliability of the Human Resource Competencies Scale". The study is focusing in adapting and analyzing the validity and reliability of the HR Competencies Scale among HR professionals in the Malaysian context. A questionnaire survey was carried out to acquire data from 154 HR professionals.
Global Journal of Management
Figure 3.
VI.
2012
ear Y
2 4
and Business Research Volume XII Issue XXIII Version I Administrator Expert Strategic Partner Change Agent Employee Champion HR ROLES Ho1 Emotional Intelligence Strategic Contribution Human Resource Technology Human Resource Delivery Personal Credibility Business Knowledge Professional Competences
Global Journal of Management Ho2 Self-consciousness Motivation Empathy Self-regulation Ho3
Social Skills
©2012 Global Journals Inc. (US)
Figure 4. Table 1 :
1
N No. Hotel Name No. of managers in Distributed Received
the hotels (**) questionnaires Questionnaires
1 0 B InterContinental Jordan 1 B 15 2 B 15 3 B 12
2 4 B Regency Palace 5 B 12 6 B 12 7 B 8
3 Marriott 15 15 12
4 CrownePlaza 13 13 7
5 Le Meridien 15 15 13
6 Grand Hyatt Amman 15 15 8
7 Holiday Inn 13 13 12
8 8 B Sheraton Amman Al Nabil 9 B 12 1 0 B 12 1 1 B 9
9 Le Royal 15 15 11
10 Four Seasons 15 15 12
11 Kempinski 14 14 10
12 Land Mark 12 12 8
Total 166 166 122
(*)Resource: Ministry of Tourism and Antiquates (2012).
Note: (**) General Manager, Assistant Manager, Night Manager and Major Departments in the Hotel.
Figure 5. Table 2 :
2
Standard Dv. Mean Importance
HR Roles
Note: ©2012 Global Journals Inc. (US)
Figure 6. Table 3 :
3
Hypothesis Hypothetical model
HR Roles Professional Competencies 0.72 * *
HR Roles Emotional Intelligence 0.63* *
Emotional Intelligence Professional Competencies 0.32* *
*: P<0.05; * *:P<0.01
Good of fitness X2 1112.13
GFI 0.78
CFI 0.87
PNFI 0.71
RMSEA 0.31
RMR 0.088
Figure 2 : Empirical Model of the Hypothetical Model.
1
2
8

Appendix A

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  7. Human Resource Competencies: An Empirical Study on the HR Professionals in the Manufacturing Sector in, Choi Long , Sang . 2009.
  8. The Effect of the Demographic Factors on the Competency of HR Practitioners in Malaysia. C Long , W Ismail . European Journal of Social Sciences 2009. 2009. 12 (1) .
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  15. Ministry of Tourism and Antiquates/ Jordan, 2010.
  16. Human resource function competencies in European Companies, P Boselie , J Paauwe . 2004.
  17. Remaining Issues in Emotional Intelligence Research: Construct Overlap, Method Artifacts, and Lack of Incremental Validity. P D Harms , M Credé . Industrial and Organizational Psychology: Perspectives on Science and Practice 2010. 3 (2) p. .
  18. Clustering competence in emotional intelligence: Insights from the Emotional Competence Inventory (ECI)s, R E Boyatzis , D Goleman , K Rhee . R. Bar-On and J.D.A. Parker (ed.) 2000. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. p. . (Handbook of emotional intelligence)
  19. Effectiveness of a corporate HR department in an Australian public sector entity during commercialization and corporatization. S T T Teo . The International Journal of Human Resource Management 2002. 13 (1) p. .
  20. Validity and Reliability of the Human Resource Competencies Scale. Yusliza Mohd Ramayah , Yusoff . World Applied Sciences Journal 2012. 2012. 16 (1) p. .
Notes
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©2012 Global Journals Inc. (US)
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© 2012 Global Journals Inc. (US)
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©2012 Global Journals Inc. (US)
Date: 2012-03-15