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> A good deal of research has shown HRM’s importance to business performance (Gunter, 2006. P.49) but the influence of the HR department within the organization has been less evident. A number of scholars have argued that a shift towards greater strategic presence has emerged, however, with an emphasis away from traditional auditing and back-office record keeping, to embrace work on the management teams of businesses, involvement in change and organizational design (Ulrich, 1997). However, as ‘most assessments of HR roles are wanna be statements made by HR people who “wanna-be” involved, respected and admired by their client’ (Conor & Ulrich, 2000).

Though evidence has been collected to show that HR departments are becoming more strategic around the world, research remains patchy. HR has been perceived by top line executives as ‘advocates’ and by shop floor workers as ‘Managements stooge’ (Ulrich, 1997). According to Ulrich (1997), the old myth is that HR is HR’s job, but in order for an HR to think strategically and be strategic it needs to delegate work to the line managers.

At first sight this appears reasonably good, but on further reflection there are few implications in this approach, for example there may be resistance from the line managers because line managers are more concerned to get the ‘product out of the doors’ and might not have time to think about this HR issues. Other implication is that line managers may fail to understand the benefits of delegating these new responsibilities to them, they might think it is an extra burden to them and might not perform effectively.

Lack of interest and time, inconsistent in making decisions and lack of integration might be some of the issues in devolving HR responsibilities to line manager (Torrington and Hall, 2008). It is not easy to implement an HR strategy, its time consuming and hard to implement an HR strategy so again this is one of the problem in devolving HR responsibilities to line manager.

There might also be some sort of resistance from HR from delegating their work to line managers (Ulrich, 1997). The HR might think that the line managers may not have the knowledge and capability to deal with these complicated issues. There may be a practical solution for this problem like giving some sort of training to the line managers and making them understand the importance of delegating these responsibilities to them, but again this in turn will might lead to increase of and usage of time and money.

The line manager might think that this not my job and might also think that if I do his job who will do my job and what will the HR do? It is also notable that line managers have a limited knowledge of organizations goals and strategy and thus it is not acceptable for HR to delegate his work to them. But on the other hand there are few advantages in this approach, line managers have a very good understanding of the job requirements and they are in a better position to execute some of the HR responsibilities. It will also improve the relationship between employee and line manager (Torrington and Hall, 2008).

Many organizations do say that employees are their greatest asset; however, when coming to HR, he is viewed as a cost centre and is often not invited to have a seat on board where senior executives discuss budgeting, planning and strategic goals. So, in order to gain a seat on the board where