The Human Resource Competencies and HR Effectiveness: The Moderating Effects of Challenge and Hindrance Stressors in The Private Sector in Mongolia

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(1)The Human Resource Competencies and HR Effectiveness: The Moderating Effects of Challenge and Hindrance Stressors in The Private Sector in Mongolia by. Tumentsetseg Enkhjav. A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate Faculty in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of. MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION. Major: International Human Resource Development. Advisor: Wei-Wen Chang, Ph.D. National Taiwan Normal University Taipei, Taiwan. June 2018.

(2) ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Studying at IHRD for last two years was one of the most challenging and self-achieved journeys in my life. It brought new challenges to overcome and new opportunities to pursue afterward. At every stage of my journey at IHRD, I have received huge support from people around me. Without their generous supports and encouragements, I would not have traveled this far until today. First and foremost, I would like to express my sincere thankful to my dear advisor, Dr.Vera Chang, without her I would have never completed my thesis. I always consider myself lucky to be her advisee because she has admitted my weaknesses and selected me as her student. At each challenging moment when I felt discouraged, she has been there for me to encourage and inspire me to go forward. There may be no word which can describe how much I am grateful for her trust in me. I am truly thankful to my committee members, Dr.Lu and Dr.Chen who gave me the valuable and constructive advises in order to improve the quality of my paper. Without their instructive and precious guidance and supports, I would not have had this better quality paper. I am very grateful to my dear friend, Avidarmaa Erdene who helped me collect more data back in Mongolia. Without her tremendous assistance and support, I would not have reached the number of data I needed to have in my thesis. I also owe much appreciation to Taiwan ICDF for providing this life-changing opportunity to widen my eyes. Without its financial support, I would not have fulfilled my dream to pursue a master degree in Taiwan. Finally, I sincerely want to thank my parents and siblings as well as my friends (Tysha Ramos, Cindy Chan Janel and Alejandra Del Pilar Campos Alfaro) who always gave me the strength to stand up and keep moving forward at each stage of my studies at NTNU..

(3) ABSTRACT In this study, all six HR competencies of Human Resource Competency Survey (HRCS) 2012 model – Strategic positioner, Credible Activist, Capability Builder, Change champion, HR innovator and Technology proponent were chosen to test how they can predict the effectiveness of an HR professional in the private sector in Mongolia. Moderating effects of Challenge and Hindrance stressor on the relationship between overall self-evaluated HR competencies and overall employees' perceived HR Effectiveness were also examined. A pair research design was applied, and a total of 360 validated questionnaires from 90 different private companies in Mongolia were received and analyzed. Confirmatory factor analysis and Cronbach's alpha analysis were performed to test the construct validity as well as the reliability of the chosen scales which were previously validated measurements in the existing literature. The pearson correlation, simple linear regression, and hierarchical regression were carried out to test the purposed hypotheses. The result showed that all six competencies of HRCS model 2012 significantly and positively contribute overall HR Effectiveness. However, all sub-dimensions of HR Effectiveness- HR service, HR Role, and HR contribution were not found to have a significant relationship with the six competencies. Also, the moderating effects of Challenge and Hindrance stressors were not verified. Implications for top management as well as HR managers were discussed.. Keywords: HRCS model 2012, HR competencies, HR effectiveness, Challenge stressors, Hindrance stressors, Mongolia. I.

(4) TABLE OF CONTENTS. ABSTRACT ...........................................................................................................I TABLE OF CONTENTS ..................................................................................... II LIST OF TABLES .............................................................................................. IV LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................ VI CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION .......................................................................... 1 Background of the Study ........................................................................................................... 1 Statement of the Problem ........................................................................................................... 3 Purpose of the Study .................................................................................................................. 5 The Scope of the Study .............................................................................................................. 5 Research Questions .................................................................................................................... 5 Significance of the Study ........................................................................................................... 6 Definition of Terms.................................................................................................................... 7. CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW ............................................................. 9 Mongolian Labor Market ........................................................................................................... 9 The Human Resource Competency ......................................................................................... 11 The Human Resource Effectiveness ........................................................................................ 22 Challenge and Hindrance Stressors ......................................................................................... 23 Hypotheses Building and Relationship between the Variables ............................................... 29. CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY .................................................................... 34 Research Framework ............................................................................................................... 34 Research Approach .................................................................................................................. 35 Research Procedure .................................................................................................................. 36 Data Collection ........................................................................................................................ 38 Data Analysis ........................................................................................................................... 45. CHAPTER IV RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS ............................................. 46 Demographic Statistics ............................................................................................................ 46 Validity and Reliability ............................................................................................................ 49 Confirmatory Factor Analysis.................................................................................................. 49 Reliability Analysis .................................................................................................................. 57 Common Method Variance ...................................................................................................... 57 II.

(5) Intraclass Correlation Coefficient Analysis ............................................................................. 58 Correlation Analysis ................................................................................................................ 59 Hypothesis Tests ...................................................................................................................... 62 Hierarchical Regression Analysis ............................................................................................ 66 Summary of the Analysis Results ............................................................................................ 68 Discussions of the Results ....................................................................................................... 70. CHAPTER V CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS.................................... 75 Conclusions .............................................................................................................................. 75 Implications.............................................................................................................................. 76 Limitations ............................................................................................................................... 78 Suggestions for Future Research ............................................................................................. 79. REFERENCES.................................................................................................... 80 APPENDIX A: ENGLISH QUESTIONNAIRES ............................................. 87 HR Professional’s Questionnaire ............................................................................................. 87 Employee’s Questionnaire ....................................................................................................... 93. APPENDIX B: MONGOLIAN QUESTIONNAIRES ...................................... 99 Хүний Нөөцийн Мэргэжилтний Судалгаа .......................................................................... 99 Ажилтны Судалгаа .............................................................................................................. 107. APPENDIX C: HRCS MODEL 2012 ............................................................. 113 APPENDIX D: LIST OF COMPANIES ......................................................... 114. III.

(6) LIST OF TABLES Table 2.1. Overview of the Seven HRCS Model (1988-2016) and SHRM Competency Model (2011)...........................................................................................................................14 Table 2.2. Summary of Selected Studies of Challenge and Hindrance Stressors....................25 Table 2.3. Impact of HR Competencies on Perception of HR Effectiveness and Business Performance.................................................................................................................30 Table 3.1. The Review of Survey Scales.................................................................................42 Table 3.2. The Review of Research Methodology..................................................................46 Table 4.1. Demographics for HR Managers............................................................................47 Table 4.2. Demographics for Employees.................................................................................48 Table 4.3. Summary of Good-Fit Criteria................................................................................50 Table 4.4. Model-Fit Indices for Alternative Factor Models of HR Competencies, Challenge Stressors, Hindrance Stressors and HR Effectiveness.................................................51 Table 4.5. CFA Results for HR Competencies....................................................................... 52 Table 4.6. Modified CFA Result for HR Effectiveness.......................................................... 54 Table 4.7. Modified CFA Results for Challenge and Hindrance Stressors........................... 55 Table 4.8. The Result of the Discriminant Validity.................................................................56 Table 4.9. Cronbach’s Alpha Analysis................................................................................... 57 Table 4.10. The Results of Harman’s Single Factor Score......................................................58 Table 4.11. Intraclass Correlation Coefficient Analysis..........................................................59 Table 4.12. Pearson Correlation Analysis................................................................................61 Table 4.13. The Linear Regression Result for the Relationship between Overall HR Competencies and Overall HR Effectiveness..............................................................62 Table 4.14. The Linear Regression Results for the Relationship between Sub-dimensions of HR Competencies and Overall HR Effectiveness........................................................64 Table 4.15. The Linear Regression Results for the Relationship between Sub-dimensions of HR Effectiveness and Overall HR Competencies........................................................65 Table 4.16. Summary of Hierarchical Regression for Moderating Effect of Challenge Stressors on the Relationship between Overall HR Competencies and Overall HR Effectiveness................................................................................................................67 Table 4.17. Summary of Hierarchical Regression for Moderating Effect of Hindrance Stressors on The relationship between Overall HR Competencies and Overall HR Effectiveness................................................................................................................68 IV.

(7) Table 4.18. Results of the Study..............................................................................................69. V.

(8) LIST OF FIGURES Figure 3.1. Research framework..............................................................................................35 Figure 3.2. Research procedure................................................................................................38 Figure 8.1. HRCS model 2012……………….……………………………………..……....117. VI.

(9) CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION This first chapter of this study presents the background, problem statement, the purpose of the research, research questions, delimitation and the significance of the study. Finally, this chapter demonstrates the definition of terms in order to give a comprehensive and coherent understanding of this research to readers.. Background of the Study Organizations have been looking for ways to assess the effectiveness of their HR departments. Not only CEOs but also internal customers such as line managers and employees are eager to measure how effective the services and activities of HR departments and HR professionals are in their organizations in order to determine what level of commitment HR deserves to receive from the organization. According to Ulrich (1997), HR audits can evaluate HR practices, professionals or the department itself. In practice, continually providing monthly or annual reports about HR departments/HR professionals to their internal and external clients should be an essential part of a human resource department's function. Reporting their functional outcomes regularly to the internal and external customer and the market in general increases not only an HR department's reputation but also reflects on the status of the whole organization. In the context of the recruitment process, human resource philosophies are salient and important to job seekers (Bretz & Judge, 1994). In previous studies, the majority of researchers has focussed on HR performance, productivity and effectiveness as an appropriate measurement to evaluate the outcome of HR departments/HR professionals. In general HR effectiveness had been measured by looking at the contribution which HR has made to a firm's competitive position, its core competencies, its human capital and its bottom line. These aspects of HRM effectiveness have been used and validated in some past studies (Han, Chou, Chao & Wright, 2006; Wright, McMahan, Snell, & Gerhart, 2001). Being supported by CEOs and Line managers is crucial to HR professionals when they intend to implement new projects in an organization. Holley (2014) stated that CEOs’ major concern is not the detailed process of how the HR department works, but they care more about whether the HR function runs efficiently. Also, the author claimed that line executives think that HR department provides rather simple services to their clients, and those line managers do not feel that 1.

(10) HR professionals contribute much to the business outcomes in organizations. This view is contested by one unknown HR executive who said "when Line executives do not understand the importance of what we provide, I want to suggest that our function just stops working on anything for one day and see how the organization runs" (Wright et al., 2001, p.14). Competencies as work-related personal attributes like knowledge, skills, and values that each individual brings to do their work well (Roberts, 1997). In the last two decades, substantial studies have conducted to examine what knowledge, skills, behaviors and other personal characteristics are required for HR professionals to be efficient and productive in their organizational roles. Generally, this kind of research began in the late 1970s and was led by such contributed scholars named as Borman, Tornow, Heineman, Black, Pinto, Skjervheim and Wallace (Tornow, 1984). In the 1980s Ulrich began a continuous study of HR competencies, which has been updated and introduced its seventh round in 2016, is formally considered as the world’s most comprehensive and largest HR competency model named Human Resource Competency Survey (HRCS) in the HR field today. In this study, HRCS model 2012 is used to examine whether the following subdomains as the strategic positioner, HR innovator and Integrator, technology proponent, change champion, capability and credible activist have been held by HR professionals in the private sector of Mongolia. This model has been developed based on data from the USA and European countries. The most interesting point is that how this HRCS model 2012 applies and adapts to Mongolian HR professionals, and if Mongolian HR professionals have already possessed these kinds of HR competencies, how would be their effectiveness and contribution to the business today in Mongolia. Furthermore, even though those HR professionals are capable of doing their tasks, how the work-related negative and positive stressors affect their outcomes and performance. Those two directions of the moderating effects on the relationship independent and dependent variables are also the central concern of the researcher to explore with this study.. 2.

(11) Statement of the Problem Mongolia became a socialist country in 1924, and when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1990, Mongolia made a significant transformation in its political and economic system into a democratic system. Even though this transformation has brought many positive changes, such as multi-party elections, democracy, land privatization, a market economy and international cooperation (Munkhtsetseg, 2016). The history of HRM as a major profession in Mongolia does not last long. In this stage of HRM development, Mongolian enterprises have recently come to realize that they cannot compete and succeed in the markets without retaining competitive human capital. In order to support the above statement, the researcher browsed the using the keyword as a Human Resource manager on the exclusive job searching website in Mongolia named “biz network mn”, the result has displayed the total number of 30 different organizations looking for an HR manager the time period between the 17th of October and 14th November in Mongolia. Furthermore, two leading Mongolian universities, the University of Humanities and the Mongolian University of Technology and Science (MUST), established HRM programs in the late 1990s. Approximately more than 20 institutions and colleges offer a short and long-term training program in order to prepare future HR practitioners and to enhance competencies of professional practitioners. However, these programs have been providing a stable supply of HRM professionals to Mongolian firms; there are no actual measurements to evaluate HR professional competencies in the county. Also, a total of 84,142 companies in Mongolia has been counted as officially operating in May 2016 by the National Statistic Office of Mongolia. In order to help these organizations achieve high performance, each employee, as well as an HR professional, should have necessary general knowledge, skills, and abilities (McMahan, Mohrman, & Lawler, 1996) to accomplish their jobs entirely. In accordance with Selmer and Chiu (2004), HR professionals are supposed to possess a set of competencies to deal with human resource issues and to lead human capital to the next stage of efficiency. Thus, it is necessary to determine the existing competencies of HR professionals and measure their outcomes at this stage of the economic fluctuations occurred in Mongolia. There have been many previous researchers discussing HR competencies and competency models, but most of them are designed and developed in Western context. Even though very few researchers investigated and broached some concepts of HRM such as recruiting and selection, 3.

(12) knowledge transfer, career plateau, employees’ performance and motivation in Mongolia, they have neglected to study the relationship between HR competencies and HR effectiveness: primarily, how HR competencies affect their work outcome and efficiency at a workplace. None of the published studies discussed HR competencies found in the result of the search on the Google scholar. Additionally, this study aims to investigate the influence of the Challenge and Hindrance stressors on the relationship between HR competencies and HR effectiveness as a moderator. In fact, the negative effects of stress on employees generally influence their work outcomes. In the last few decades, there have shown some specific changes in the functions of HR Professionals that has been bringing more stress on their shoulders such as social media, HR software solution, computerized recruiting, Headhunter recruiting approach, Talent management, employees’ data analysis and so on. Psychologists who study stress claimed that any kind of change– either negative or positive – could be stressful. Lately, two types of stressors: challenge stressors and hindrance stressors have been begun to differentiate by researchers in the stress field (Cavanaugh, Boswell, Roehling, & Boudreau, 2000). Challenge stressors are defined as job demands that are recognized by employees as rewarding work experiences create an opportunity for personal growth (Cavanaugh et al., 2000), whereas hindrance stressors are defined as job demands that are perceived as obstacles to personal growth or demands that limit or hinder one's ability to achieve valued goals (Cavanaugh et al., 2000). Since these two kinds of stressors have different impacts on the work outcome, getting the more comprehensive understanding of the relationships between the stressors and work outcomes can be worthwhile to further in the literature and practice of HR effectiveness in the HR field of Mongolia. In the previous literature, the majority of researchers has considered the challenge and hindrance stressors as their independent variables in their studies. However, this research emphasizes to investigate those two different types of stressors (Challenge and Hindrance) as moderators on its framework.. 4.

(13) Purpose of the Study The purpose of this study is to explore what kind of HR competencies Mongolian HR professionals have obtained, examining based on HRCS model 2012, and also discovers the relationship between those examined HR competencies and HR effectiveness perceived by employees. A secondary core aim of the current research is to ascertain how the Challenge and Hindrance stressors affect the relationship between HR competencies and HR effectiveness.. The Scope of the Study The scope of this study has delimited the data collected from only these random organizations in the private sector in Mongolia. Also, the researcher only focused on the six competencies of HRCS model 2012 and three individual HR Effectiveness: HR service, HR Role, and HR contribution. Generally, HR managers in Mongolia have the broader job scope and endless job responsibilities to carry in order to be recognized as an effective HR in their organizations. Hence, the theoretically verified two different stressors: Challenge and Hindrance stressors were chosen to test how these stressors impact on the individual effectiveness of HR professionals. Overall, the analysis of this study was focused at the individual level of HR competencies and HR effectiveness under the moderating effects of Challenge and Hindrance stressors.. Research Questions To reach the purpose of this study, the following research questions have been settled in order to follow the core track of this research. 1. What are the most significant HR competencies for HR effectiveness in the private sector in Mongolia? 2. Whether HR competencies are significantly related to HR effectiveness? 3. How Challenge and Hindrance stressors affect HR people in Mongolia?. 5.

(14) Significance of the Study This research aims to contribute to the development of HRM in Mongolia, especially for HR professionals who lead Mongolian HRM level to the next stage in today’s extremely competitive market. Apparently, that lack of HR competence is a serious issue (Cohen, 2015) in any organizations. Generally, HR professionals must possess and master various kinds of competencies in order to make valuable contributions to the firms' performance. Many previous pieces of research focused on the overall competencies of HR professionals in the European context, but very few studies concentrated on the HR competencies in the Asian context. Mainly, there is the insufficient number of studies paid attention to HR competencies and effectiveness related to Mongolia. Therefore, this research initially aims to examine the levels of HR competencies in Mongolia, using HRCS model (2012). When HR professionals identify the levels of HR competencies by using an HR questionnaire to evaluate themselves the researcher will examine how those competencies affect HR effectiveness perceived by employees. It is very crucial to investigate the above aspects because of the result of this study that will provide an opportunity for Mongolian HR professionals to analyze their work outcome, and introspect their contribution to firms. Additionally, this study seeks to explore how the Challenge and Hindrance stressors affect the relationship between HR competencies and their effectiveness. Regarding the result of the influence of those stressors on the relationship between Independent variables and Dependent variables, the implication of this study partly could be useful to employers to control the stressors on HR professionals in order to increase HR effectiveness in organizations. Generally, this study can be one of the precursor studies designed for the contribution to the HR field of Mongolia. Also, the result of this research expectantly can be beneficial either literature review or HR practice in Mongolia.. A Prospective Contribution to HR Research Field in Mongolia What has explicitly motivated the researcher to do this study is that currently there are lots of studies used different HR competency models that have been tested not only in USA/UK or other European countries but also in the most of the Asian countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Taiwan. The HRCS model is a globally known and latest updated competency model 6.

(15) that hasn’t been conducted in Mongolia context yet. Therefore, the result of this research will be likely to bring Mongolian researchers’ attention to the competencies of HR and to stimulate the researchers to do more investigations on HR competencies of the key economic industries such as mining, agriculture, and construction in Mongolia.. A Prospective Contribution to HR Professionals In order to give the respondent's opportunity to get acknowledged the main pattern of HR competencies and contribution in Mongolia, a brief conclusion, and the practical implication will be sent to all HR survey's participants who have provided voluntarily to their contact addresses on their investigation. Equipped with this demanding evidence-based study results, probably HR managers will be expected to take some steps in order to strengthen or catch up the most general lacked competencies if they feel deficient in some of the elements of the HRCS model 2012.. A Prospective Contribution to HRM Students A concise conclusion of this study will be delivered to two leading state universities in Mongolia. Officially, they are considered as the universities that specialize in HR programs to prepare the future generation of HR practitioners in Mongolia. It is highly anticipated that this paper will help the HR students understand, the better idea about what kind of HR skill and ability sets they need to develop in order to be considered as a more qualified and capable HR candidate after they finish their studies. Being unqualified and lacking in the educational background of new graduates are the second biggest barrier they encounter in recruiting fresh graduates was claimed by 23.5% of the Mongolian employers who participated in one of the flagship studies of the Research Institute of Mongolian labor and social protection in 2016 (The Research Insitute of Mongolian Labour and Social Protection, 2017).. Definition of Terms HR Effectiveness HRM effectiveness has been identified in different ways, including the organizational and individual level. However, in this study, the researcher only focuses on the individual level. 7.

(16) effectiveness of an HR professional. Therefore, it can be defined as “How HR professionals perform as internal service providers to employees and Line managers” (Han et al., 2006, p. 393).. HR Competency Someone’s knowledge, skills, abilities, or other personality characteristics that are used to get someone’s job done (Becker, Huselid & Ulrich, 2001). In this study, Human Resource Competency Study (HRCS) will be used to test HR competencies in Mongolia– an initiative of the University of Michigan - Ulrich and Brockbank began to study Human Resource Competency Study (HRCS) since 1988. Until now, seven rounds (1988, 1992, 1997, 2002, 2007, 2012 and 2016) have been conducted. The data of these seven models can provide plenty of information on key competencies for the HR professionals. The HRCS in 2012 was their third global study about HR competencies (Boselie & Paauwe, 2005). Based on the sampling country’s circumstance in HR field, a version of HRCS 2012 model has been chosen in order to examine the levels of Mongolian HR professional competencies, including six domains that will be tested in this study are strategic positioner, credible activist, capability builder, change champion, HR innovator, and Integrator and technology proponent... Challenge Stressors Work-related pressures that create an opportunity for employees to make personal growth (Cavanaugh et al., 2000). The most famous examples of challenge stressors are time urgency, workload, job responsibility and job complexity found in the existing literature.. Hindrance Stressors Work-related pressures that create obstacles for employees to make personal growth or demands that restrict or interfere one’s ability to achieve valued goals in an organization(Cavanaugh et al., 2000). The most common examples of hindrance stressors are hassles, red tape, role ambiguity and role conflict found in the existing literature.. 8.

(17) CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter discusses the reviews of the relevant literature of HR competencies and HR effectiveness, including moderating effects of Challenge and Hindrance stressors. The first part of this chapter explains a review of previous studies about HR competencies, and HRCS model 2012. The second part of this chapter presents the earlier investigations about HR effectiveness. Finally, the last section of this chapter reviews the previous findings and the literature of Challenge and Hindrance stressors.. Mongolian Labor Market Mongolia is located in the north of central Asia with a total size of the territory of about 1.6 million sq. Km, and a population of approximately 3.1 million (National Statistical Office of Mongolia [NSOM], 2016). The country is landlocked between the Russian Federation and the People’s Republic of China. Mongolia has shown steady growth in the recent years (UNDP in Mongolia, 2016). However, there were times that Mongolia has encountered a sudden economic growth and declining poverty in the past due to the fluctuation in price of coal in the world market, but today Mongolia is facing severe financial challenges caused by years of highly expansionary macroeconomic policies, a sharp drop in foreign direct investment, and plummeting commodity prices (Asian Development Bank [ADB], 2016). Despite the current economic challenges, the labor market is the most stable factor for Mongolia (Tudev, & Damba, 2015). There is a total of nearly 1.2 million people in the labor market, forming 63.7 percent of the total labor force (Tudev, & Damba, 2015). As for the unemployment rate in Mongolia has increased slightly compared to the previous year in April from 8.6 percent growth to 9.1 percent in the third quarter of 2017 (NSOM, 2016). Mongolia’s educational sector shows positive trends. Mongolia has a total number of 95 universities, institutes and colleges estimated from Mongolian national statistic of 2016. Although, the educational level of the workforce and school enrollments are rising in Mongolia, the labor market study done by Shatz et al., (2015) found that about more than one-fifth of youth expressed that their biggest obstacle was to get a job related to their education. Also, the majority of them reported that the current Mongolian educational system could not help them accumulate work 9.

(18) experience, for instance, through an internship or any other programs. On the other hand, the labor market in Mongolia is characterized by a shortage of skills in specific sectors and a more general mismatch between demand and supply of skills, dependence on seasonal and temporary employment, gender inequalities and particular labor market challenges for certain age groups (both the very young and the generation aged 40 and above) (ADB, 2016; Gassmann, François, & Trindade, 2015; Shatz et al., 2015). More generally, one gap on the labor demand side is that employers need some certain kind of skills and abilities from employees, but they still can't find enough of employees who hold this type of skills which the Mongolian labor market has not been able to provide so far. In accordance to the interviews with employers by Gassmann et al. (2015) revealed that there is certain kind of gaps in soft skills, critical thinking, and other general skills that are essential for workplace success and are not being taught as well as they could be. In fact, for employees above the age of 40 to find a new job is very hard, especially if they have never been able to update their general or professional KSAOs because a self-development is counted as one of the fundamental abilities that each applicant has to demonstrate in the current labor market in Mongolia. This phenomenon occurs not only amongst middle-aged employees but also between the graduates of secondary schools, Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) colleges or higher education institutions that have significant troubles to find employment nowadays. In recent years, it has been observed commonly that employers usually seek for applicants who have necessary work experience. Besides this fact, they also prefer to employ candidates who have certain life skills in order to reduce the high job turnover rate in the labor market. Generally speaking, HR professionals play an essential role in the labor market. They are influential participants who are involved in making company' policies and regulations in order to solve general problems and labor-related issues that firms encounter today. At this point, HR professionals' involvement and investment can be crucial contribution to resolve these labor market problems in Mongolia because they are two-side players between employers and employees. Also, they are active participants in the labor market who know what kind of KSAOs shortages and gaps exist in the field where they run the business. In order to close gaps in employees expected performance and organizational outcomes, HR professionals have to take actions such as doing the needs assessment, designing expedient and effective training programs and initiating additional programs that support employees' training needs. Thus, it is clear that HR 10.

(19) professional is one of the guiding forces in the Mongolian labor market where specific problems have already reported and needed to be solved in the previous studies mentioned above. Whereas, there is no research telling that HR professionals who are capable of making the required contribution that needs to be done in the Mongolian labor market, so it is necessary to investigate HR professional competency and their effectiveness including some stress factors which impact on their work outcome.. The Human Resource Competency In this part, a literature review is collected to obtain insight into HR competency’s research, including the historical perspective of HR competency and Human Resource Competency Study (HRCS) will be discussed. In order to be confident in accomplishing tasks and generating efficient outcomes in a workplace typically depends on ones’ own KSAO and passion. Therefore, evaluating ones' professional competencies and updating them frequently is a base of not only being successful in their career path but also having a good personal life. Consequently, this study will focus on the general competencies of HR professionals, and also will take into account that all HR professionals have to possess general HR competencies despite sector and industry in order to perform their tasks efficiently in organizations.. Definition of Competency The term “competency” has been familiarized through the book by Boyatzis (1982) and also has brought broadly the concept of competence closer to the HR practitioner’s domain, instead of being exclusively academic (Sun & Shi, 2008). By the investigation of Ulrich, Brockbank, Yeung, and Lake (1995), the competency is described as an individual's demonstrated knowledge, skills, or abilities. Their main view was that if HR professional demonstrate three competencies (1) knowledge of business, (2) delivery of HR and (3) management of change processes when they have to add value to their firms by providing ideas, programs and initiatives which assist the organization compete successfully in the market. In the broadly-cited book by Becker et al., (2001), the competency is defined as someone's knowledge, skills, abilities, or other personality characteristics that affect her or his job 11.

(20) performance. Also, the authors have emphasized that three difference assessment tools to measure HR performance by using HR competencies (1) the Michigan University study of sixty behaviorally anchored questions, (2) to create a visible guide to the competencies which HR professionals have to demonstrate and assess the extent to which they do (3) to tie rewards or incentives to demonstrate competence in order to evaluate HR competencies. Their central concept was to determine HR competencies in behavioral terms, and an organization can utilize any number of assessment tools such as 360-degree feedback technique to evaluate the extent to which an individual demonstrates the competency. According to Dubois (1993), competency can be defined as the employees' capacity to meet job requirements by producing job outputs at an expected level of quality within the constraints of the organization's internal and external environments. Dubois (1993) also explains that there must be a match between what the employees can do and what business obliges from them. Swanson and Holton (2001) identified that competency is about displayed behavior within a specialized domain in the form of consistently demonstrated actions of an individual which are both minimally efficient in their execution and effective in their result. Previously being mentioned in another definition above, Ulrich et al., (1995) stated that demonstrated action is not only about effectiveness and efficiency, but it is about helping firms: HR professionals demonstrate competence when they help their businesses to compete. In contrast, competency was defined as one's characteristics that can differ significantly between effective and ineffective performance (McClelland, Spencer, & Spencer, 1990). On the other hand, recently, some researchers proposed more accurate definitions that determine competencies as work-related personal attributes: knowledge, skills, and values that individuals draw upon to do their work well (Roberts, 1997). However, this study jumps to a deeper level, into the competencies as someone’s knowledge, skills, abilities, or other personality characteristics that are used to get someone’s job done (Becker et al., 2001). HR professionals must have specific essential competencies in order to perform their functions consistently, with efficiency and effectiveness, within various circumstances in organizations.. The Human Resource Competency Models There is a rich literature on managerial competencies, and the interest towards the concept is increasing every day (Boyatzis, 1982). Nevertheless, there are a few major studies on HR 12.

(21) competencies (Khatri & Budhwar, 2002), and HR models that are about the information, skills, abilities and individual characteristics required for high performance. The groups composed of competencies are defined as competency models (Özdemir, Akatay & Eroglu, 2015). The competency approach can be dated back to early studies by the Ontario Society for Training and Development (1976) and the American Society of Training and Development in 1967, 1983, 1987 (Storey, Wright, & Ulrich, 2009). After these studies, Ulrich and Brockbank initiated and conducted the Human Resource Competency Study (HRCS) since 1988 (Storey et al., 2009). Until now, seven rounds (1988, 1992, 1997, 2002, 2007, 2012 and 2016) have been investigated so far. Last year in 2016, they have revealed their seventh updated version, for introducing nine severe domains, including strategic positioner, human capital curator, total reward steward, analytics designer and interpreter, compliance manager, technology and media Integrator, paradox navigator, culture and change champion and credible activist. Before HRCS model 2016 was presented to the public, an SHRM's competency model 2011 had been considered as the world's largest and most comprehensive competency model for HR (Cohen, 2015) should not be ignored in this study. Furthermore, there are other competency models existing. The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) has joined in the data collection for Ulrich’s model (Ulrich, Younger, Brockbank & Ulrich, 2012) as well as in the development of other models, such as Lawson and Limbrick (1996) and Schoonover (2003). Even though these models should be critical to our knowledge in the field, HRCS model can be the most ongoing, massive and comprehensive study nowadays. In order to demonstrate the difference between each HRCS competency model’s scope and transitions, the summarized table (Table 1.1) below has been built. The table is partly adapted from the comparison tables by (Bondarouk, Marsman, & Rekers 2014; Rekers, 2013), and modified by adding three more columns namely dimensions, total study respondents and participants’ region.. 13.

(22) Table 2.1. Overview of the Seven HRCS Model (1988-2016) and SHRM Competency Model (2011) Total study Study. Relative importance. Dimen. dimensions. sions. Main findings. respondents. Participants. (HRCS. region. project team) HRCS 1988. - Knowledge of. 3. business. - HR professionals had a unique set of competencies that. 10.291. USA. 4.556. USA. 3.229. USA. could be tracked around the world.. - HR delivery - Change management HRCS. - Change management. 1992. - Personal credibility. 4. - Personal credibility was added. - Businesses that experienced low rates of change and. - Knowledge of. that investigated in HR saw that HR had a significant. business. impact on business performance.. - HR delivery HRCS. - Change management. 1997. - Personal credibility - Knowledge of business - HR delivery. 5. - The ability to manage culture was an essential factor in the overall view of HR. - Business knowledge and HR delivery had the lower impact on HR professional individual competency, and it was not differentiators.. - Culture management (continued) 14.

(23) Table 2.1. (continued) Total study Study. Relative importance. Dimen. dimensions. sions. Main findings. respondents. Participants. (HRCS. region. project team) HRCS 2002. - Strategic. 5. contribution. - It was essential to create responsive and market-driven. 7.082. UK, USA,. organizations. - The impact of culture on business. some. - Personal credibility. performance. - Peace of change fastened. - In high-. European. - HR delivery. performing firms, HR professionals were essential.. countries. - Business. Staffing and organizational design were essential. knowledge. competencies. Business knowledge was not distinctive. - HR technology. HRCS. - Credible Activist. 2007. - Culture & Change Steward - Talent manager/ organizational designer. anymore for high or low- performing HR professionals. 6. - Business Ally and Operational Executor roles were supportive of the other roles.. UK, USA, some European. - Differences in traditional vs. emerging markets.. countries. - Organization design has become equally important as talent management. - Culture management as the unique dimension.. - Operational. - Business impact 20%.. - Business Ally. 10.063. - Differences in perception of HR and non-HR.. - Strategy Architect. Executor. -. - Alignment of HR organization to HR strategy leads to better business results.. (continued) 15.

(24) Table 2.1. (continued) Total study Study. Relative importance. Dimen. dimensions. sions. Main findings. respondents. Participants. (HRCS. region. project team) HRCS 2012. - Credible Activist - Strategic Positioner - HR Integrator/innovator. 6. - There were opportunities for HR to make a difference. - Change has become so critical that it has to become a separate element in the model. - These dimensions not only showed what a capable HR. - Capability builder. professional should do but also how an HR professional. - Change champion. should be effective for business.. - Technology proponent. - Strategic positioner and capacity builder was necessary for business.. 20.023. Australia, China, India, Latin America, Middle East, Turkey, Northern Europe, South Africa, North America and Central Europe (continued). 16.

(25) Table 2.1. (continued) Study. Relative importance. Dimen. dimensions. sions. Main findings. Total study. Participants region. respondents (HRCS project team). HRCS. Strategic positioner,. 9. Two central questions have been raised to be. 30.227. North American. 2016. Human capital curator,. answered by their survey: How do individual. (US & Canada),. Total reward steward,. HR professionals deliver value? How do HR. Latin America,. Analytics designer and. departments drive value? (The RBL group,. Australia & New. interpreter,. 2016). Zealand, Europe,. Compliance manager,. To be included not only the competencies of. Turkey, Middle. Technology and media. individual HR professionals but also HR. Integrator. departments’ competencies as well. Paradox Navigator,. HR professionals should have more impact on. Culture and change. key stakeholders when they work as an. champion an. effective HR department (The RBL group,. Credible Activist. 2016). East, Africa, China, Japan, India and Other Countries in Asia (HRCS project team, 2016). Paradox navigators, Strategic positioners, and credible activists are emphasized more in the seventh round in order to help organizations to differentiate from their competitors. (continued) 17.

(26) Table 2.1. (continued) Study. Relative importance. Dimens. dimensions. ions. Main findings. Total study. Participants. respondents. region. (HRCS project team) SHRM 2011. - HR technical expertise and practice - Relationship. 9. - These. nine. key. competencies. are. identified to be linked to the successful job performance of an HR professional.. management. - The research and the model provides the. - Consultation. detailed set of 94 subcompetencies along. - Leadership and. with nine critical competencies (Cohen,. navigation. 32.000. 29 cities in 8 countries, from 33 nations. 2015). - Communication - Global and cultural effectiveness - Critical evaluation - Ethical practice - Business acumen Note. Adapted from “HR competencies: A contingency approach,” by M. H. T Rekers, 2013. Master’s thesis. Copyright 2013 by the Unversity of Twente.. 18.

(27) In short, a summary of Table 2.1, it can be seen that the survey of HRCS model regularly conducted five years for each period, for introducing the updated versions and new domains, starting from three main competencies of HR professionals (HRCS 1988) to nine core competencies (HRCS project team, 2016). On the other hand, it can be concluded that from time to time HR professionals have been required for HR professionals to have a new set of competencies regarding the time frame of the HRCS study. Hence, HR professionals must expand their knowledge and experience beyond where it is today, and it must be competency base (Cohen, 2015). The competencies have changed in the past; we can expect they will change in the future too (Rekers, 2013). Also, even if the number of HR competency researchers has been increased, they have neglected Asian countries in their competency study. The 2012 HRCS was the third version of the global HR competency study done by RBL group and Michigan University, which included the Asian context for the first time instead of focusing on only USA or UK participants. Even though the scholars have included some Asian countries such as China and India, it is still not clear to say whether the Asian developing countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, and Mongolia got involved in their study. After reviewing the literature on the HR competency models, in this study, the HRCS model 2012 fits to examine the competencies of HR professionals in Mongolia. There are six categories of competencies the scholars have identified in the sixth round of HRCS model. The subdimensions are strategic positioner, credible activist, capability builder, change champion, HR Integrator/innovator, and technology proponent.. Competencies of HR Professionals Strategic positioner. HR competencies have been discussed to be a set of characteristics contributing to effective HR performance, enabling an organization to accomplish its business strategies in a competitive marketplace. Nevertheless, many HR executives and professionals have not accepted them to be one of the members at the strategic planning table in an organization because they do not display the required competencies (Barney & Wright, 1998; Selmer & Chiu, 2004) in which executives and top management team expect HR executives/professionals to demonstrate in their workplace. In the 2012 HRCS model, the strategic positioner refers to an HR professional who can understand evolving business contexts, shareholder expectations, and today’s competitive business requirements, and transform them into talent, culture and leadership 19.

(28) activities in their workplace. Behind this factor, three dimensions must be demonstrated by a high performing HR professional: “Interpreting global business context," “decoding customer expectations” and “co-crafting a strategic agenda" (The RBL group, 2012). This competency requires HR professionals to be highly sensitive to the business environment and conditions, including technological, economic, environmental and political because these factors will affect today’s business strongly. It also obliges HR professionals to serve and deepen their knowledge of not only their internal customers but also the external core customers in order to align organization’ actions to meet customer needs and expectations. They are expected to co-design their organizations' strategic responses to business conditions and customer expectations by helping build and make strategic and system choices (Ulrich et al., 2012). Credible activist. The credible activist means taking care of the internal organization, building and developing a relationship of trust between internal clients, and performing what they have promised to do. Being a trusted advisor and activists, HR professionals must know not only about HR activities but business demands and performances. In addition, there is also one more hidden meaning beyond the credible activist is to influence others positively through clear and consistent communications. The sub-factors belong to this dimension are "Earning trust through results," "Influencing and relating to others," "Improving through self-awareness," and "Shaping the HR profession" (Ulrich et al., 2012). Capability builder. The capability builder who helps an organization to succeed in defining and creating the organization capabilities. It implies that successful HR professionals can determine and build essential organization capabilities by melding individual abilities into an efficient and robust organization. In this context, skills refer to as a company’s strategy, culture, practices, process, practices or identities. This dimension also includes one important capability of the successful organizations must create a meaningful work environment where employees find purpose and value to work. The sub-domains for the capability builder consists of three factors, namely: "Capitalizing organizational capability," "Aligning strategy, culture, practices, and behavior" and " Creating a meaningful work environment" (Ulrich et al., 2012). Change champion. Primarily, this dimension consists of two core factors named "Initiating change" and "Sustaining change." Therefore, the authors decided to break up those elements into small sub-levels. To put them all together, HR professionals need to initiate and sustain change in the individual, initiative, and institutional levels. As change champions, one of HR professionals' 20.

(29) roles is helping the organization make change happen at institutional (changing patterns), initiative (making things happen), and individual (enabling personal change) levels. First, HR professionals initiate change, which means they bring the visible statements to make employees understand why change should be crucial to happen and what benefits come in afterward, overcome resistance to change from different parties, tightly cooperate with key stakeholders in the process of change, and highly articulate the decisions to start happing change in an organization. Second, HR professionals sustain change by organizing change through organizational resources, structure, communication, and continual learning. As change champions, HR professional partner to build systems that are nimble, flexible and responsive and make the transformation take place in ways that produce sustainable value (Ulrich et al., 2012). Human resource innovator and integrator. This is one of the most critical competencies of HR professionals because it is composed of five fundamental factors in HR field: "Building leadership brand," Optimizing human capital through workforce planning and analytics," "Developing talent," "Shaping organization and communication practices" and " Driving performance." Potential and effective HR professionals can innovate and integrate all successful HR practices into combined solutions that address business problems. In other words, HR innovators and integrators who always have to seek for new ways and methods to implement the best HR practices. When taken together, HR professionals are required to know the latest insights into the research and practice of human capital (talent sourcing, talent development,), performance accountability (appraisal, rewards), organization design (teamwork, organization development) and communication (Ulrich et al., 2012). Technology proponent. Technology proponents who make use of it for the efficiency of their work, to connect employees to each other in order to facilitate their tasks and to leverage new communication channels such as social media, teleconference, etc. There can be two major trends in this field. Firstly, in recent days HR professionals are required to use technology to more efficiently deliver HR administrative services such as payroll, healthcare costs, and other administrative functions. Today, technology plays an increasingly significant role in improving communications, performing administrative work more efficiently, and linking employees to clients. Secondly, using social media has become the most influential tool to build the relationship with the customers and other parties. It means that technology will help organizations for future growth. Thus, HR professionals have to be aware of technological innovation in every step of their 21.

(30) work. The corresponding sub-factors of this dimension are “Improving the utility of HR operations," "Connecting people through technology" and "Leveraging social media tools." (Ulrich et al., 2012).. The Human Resource Effectiveness The concept of managerial effectiveness has been of interest to researchers since the 1960s (Morse & Wagner, 1978). HRM effectiveness has been defined in different ways, including the organizational and individual levels. In general, HRM effectiveness may be used to indicate the effectiveness of the HRM function, including employee selection, development, and retention (Guest & Peccei, 1994); our staffing, human resource development, compensation, safety and health management and lastly employee and labor relations. Hence, it can be stated that if HR professionals successfully and efficiently operate HRM functions, the effectiveness of both the HR Professionals and the organizations will be heightened. In this study, three aspects of individual HR effectiveness will be evaluated by their internal customers as a dependent variable: services, roles, and contribution of HR professionals. HR services refer to the delivery of HR services that should be provided and appropriately demonstrated by HR professionals such as staffing, replacement and succession planning systems, compensation systems, retaining planning systems and training and development systems. In order to build a highly motivated and committed workforce in organizations (Wright et al., 2001), the combination of all those HR practices has to work appropriately. Thus, it is indeed worth to explore how efficiently, HR professionals deliver their services to their internal clients. HR roles refer to how HR professional create, implement, manage and administer not only HR policies and regulations, but also the labor law of a country, company rules, and principles as well. In today's very competitive market requires HR professionals to be a business partner and a change agent in organizations. Therefore, in this study, five key roles, adapted by Ulrich (1998) used to capture the roles of HR professionals in Mongolia, are as follows: -. Being a strategic partner: whether HR professionals work tightly with an organization’s top management team in order to develop an HR planning that supports and influence the overall aims of the organization (Wright et al., 2001).. 22.

(31) -. Providing HR services: Whether HR professionals provide the essential and necessary services to their internal clients in an organization (Wright et al., 2001).. -. Providing Change Consulting services: whether HR professionals assist Line managers to accomplish organizational and cultural change in an organization (Wright et al., 2001).. -. Developing Organization skills and capabilities: Whether HR professionals designate and establish critical organizational key competencies or capabilities (Wright et al., 2001).. -. Tailoring practices to fit business needs: whether HR professionals support business strategy through the tailoring HR practices organization (Wright et al., 2001). HR contribution: This dimension represents to access overall evaluation of the HR function in. an organization. In particular, how internal clients of the HR department feel HR function is being operated, and how it is contributing to the organization’s overall performance by HR professionals. In the previous literature, HRM effectiveness has been discussed as HRM’s contribution to a firm’s performance (Ruel, Bondarouk, & Van der Velde, 2007).. Challenge and Hindrance Stressors As a general trend, HR professional should be expected, her or his position in an organization as a role model. In order to be heard and considered as valuable to their internal customers, HR professionals have to accomplish not only the assigned roles and responsibilities but also to be required to play substantial roles such as strategic partner and change agent in this rapidly changing market. However, at times, the organizational environment and system themselves create obstacles and barriers for its members as well as HR professionals to perform their assigned tasks and goals. Today at the workplace, employees are experienced in facing higher level of stress due to the increased job demands such as broadened job scopes, heavy workloads, situational constraints, and time pressure (Jex, 1998). In previous literature, stresses and stressors themselves broadly studied, “Job-related stress and performance” and “Job and stress” have been an eternal and significant topic for the academic researchers and practicing managers. To prove and support this statement, a Google scholar using the keywords as " stress" and "performance" generated approximately 4,520 million articles written on this subject. Comparing this result with search did use two more combination keywords regarding stress and stressors (“Job” and “Stress” and "Challenge and Hindrance stressors" 23.

(32) produced a listing of 3,910 million and 16,7 thousand academic articles respectively). This result indicates that work stress and stressors cannot be omitted from the framework of this study mainly discussing manager’s contribution and performance. Recently, Cavanaugh et al., (2000) found that those job-related stressors could be separated into two major categories; Challenge stressors and Hindrance stressors. Specifically, challenge stressors can be perceived as job demands which promote employees’ personal growth and development such as workload, time pressures, job complexity, and job responsibility so on, whereas those hindrance stressors can be perceived as job demands which obstruct and interfere with task accomplishment and employees' personal growth such as role ambiguity, role conflict, hassles, organizational politics, and red tape, etc. There are field studies (Boswell, Olson-Buchanan, & LePine, 2004; Cavanaugh et al., 2000) and meta-analytic reviews (LePine, Possakoff, & LePine, 2005; Podsakoff, LePine, & LePine, 2007) have revealed the primary concept of original framework of these two stressors can be used to explain relationship between stressors and employee motivation, satisfaction, retention, organizational commitment and task performance (Podsakoff, 2007). More specifically, LePine et al., (2005) found that measures of challenge stressors have the positive relationship between employees strains, motivation, and performance. Conversely, rules of hindrance stressors have the negative correlation between motivation and performance, but positive effect on employee strains. During the last years, researchers have discussed these two types of stressors with various individual-level outcomes (Table 2.2) provided for further information. However, the moderating effect of these two different stressors on the relationship between HR competency and HR effectiveness has not been investigated yet. So, there is a lack of understanding of how these stressors affect the relationship between these variables in the HR field.. 24.

(33) Table 2.2. Summary of Selected Studies of Challenge and Hindrance Stressors Researcher(s). Sample. Conceptual definition of stressor (s). Operationalization. Findings. Cavanaugh et al.,. 1886 high-. "We define challenge-related self-. 6-items challenge. Challenge-related stressors. (2000). level. reported stress as self-reported work. stressors scale. were positively related to job. managers. stress associated with challenging job. developed by the. satisfaction, negatively. demand" (p. 66). authors.. associated with job search,. "In contrast to challenge-related self-. 5-items hindrance. and unrelated to voluntary. reported stress, stress associated with job. stressor scale. turnover. Hindrance –related. demands or work circumstances that. developed by the. stress was negatively. involve excessive or undesirable. authors.. associated with job. constraints that interfere with or hinder. satisfaction, positively. an individual's ability to achieve desired. associated with job search. goals (demands that produce distress) is. and voluntary turnover.. called hindrance-related self-reported stress" (p. 67) (continued). 25.

(34) Table 2.2. (continued) Researcher. Sample. Conceptual definition of stressor(s). Operatinalization. Findings. Boswell et. 461 university. "This pattern of findings is consistent with. Used the six –items. Challenge-related job. al., (2004). employees. research suggesting that stress may be. challenge stressor. demands were. holding clerical,. distinguished as to whether it is appraised as. developed by. negatively related to. computer. hindering or promoting mastery, personal. Cavanaugh et al.,. job search in both. support,. growth, or future gains (Folken & Lazarus,. (2000).. samples and positively. maintenance. 1985; Lazarus &Folkman, 1984). Scholars. associated with job. and. have differentiated the…the latter type of. satisfaction in the. administrative. stress(henceforth, challenge stress). European sample.. positions. concerning important attitudes and. Hindrance stressors. behavior…" (p. 884).. were positively. "This pattern of findings is consistent with. Used the five –items. associated with job. research suggesting that stress may be. challenge stressor. search and negatively. distinguished as to whether it is appraised as. developed by. associated with job. hindering or promoting mastery, personal. Cavanaugh et al., (2000). satisfaction in both. growth or future gains (Folken & Lazarus,. samples. 1985; Lazarus &Folkman, 1984). Scholars have differentiated the former type of stress (henceforth, hindrance stress.” (p. 884). (continued). 26.

(35) Table 2.2. (continued) Researcher(s) Sample. Conceptual definition of stressor(s). Operatinalization. Findings. LePine et al.,. 82 articles. “One factor …. was labeled. Stressors categorized as. A measure of. (2005). reporting. “challenge stressors” because it. challenges:. challenge stressors was. primary data. included stressful demands viewed by. - Job/role demands. positively related to. from 101. managers as obstacles to be overcome. - Pressure. employee strains,. independent. in order to learn and achieve.” (pp.. - Time urgency. motivation, and. samples. 764-766).. - Workload. performance. Measures. “This factor was labeled “hindrance. Stressors categorized as. of hindrance stressors. stressors” because it included stressful. hindrances:. were positively. demands viewed by managers as. - Constraints. associated with. unnecessarily thwarting personal. - Hassles. employee strains but. growth and goal attainment.” (pp. 765- - Resource inadequacies. negatively associated. 766).. - Role ambiguity. with motivation and. - Role/interpersonal conflict. performance.. - Role dissensus - Role interference - Role clarity (reverse coded) - Role overload - Supervisor-related stress - Organizational politics (continued) 27.

(36) Table 2.2. (continued) Researcher. Sample. Conceptual definition of stressor(s). Operatinalization. Findings. Podsakoff et 157. "The first stressor factor was comprised of. Challenge stressors:. Challenge stressors were. al., (2007). articles. items reflecting high levels of workload,. - Job or role demands. positively related to. reporting. time pressure, job scope, and. - Pressure to complete tasks. strains, job satisfaction,. primary. responsibility and was labeled "challenge-. - Time urgency. and organizational. data from. related stressors" because employees. - Quantitative and subjective. commitment, and. 183. tended to view these demands as creating. workload. negatively related to. independe. challenge and the opportunity for personal. intentions to leave and. nt samples. development and achievement" (p. 4).. turnover. Hindrance. "This second stressor factor was. Hindrance stressors:. stressors were positively. comprised of items measuring role. - Situational constraints. related to strains,. ambiguity, role conflict, organizational. - Hassles. intentions to leave. politics, and concerns about job security,. - Organizational politics. turnover, and withdrawal. and was labeled "hindrance-related. - Resource inadequacies. behavior, but were. stressors" because employees tended to. - Role ambiguity. negatively related to job. view these job demands as obstacles to. - Role conflict. satisfaction and. personal growth and task. - Role overload. organizational. accomplishment" (p. 4).. commitment.. Note. “Challenge and hindrance stressors in the workplace: Tests of linear, curvilinear, and moderated relationships with employee strains, satisfaction, and performance” by N. P. Podsakoff, 2007. Doctoral dissertation, University of Florida, p. 73-75, 78.. 28.

(37) Hypotheses Building and Relationship between the Variables The primary objective of this research has been stated earlier, is to test the relationships between the HR competencies using the HRCS model 2012 and HR effectiveness perceived by employees. The secondary focus of this research is to explore if there is a moderating effect of the challenge and Hindrance stressors on the relationship between HR competencies and HR effectiveness, then how these stressors have an impact on the relationship between independent and dependent variables. Based on the conceptual and practical model discussed in chapter two, there is three key, and nine sub-hypotheses are proposed to address research questions in this study.. The Relationship between HR Competencies and HR Effectiveness It can be noticed that HRM is a comparatively new and growing management field throughout Asian nations as compared to the western countries. In accordance with the recent studies done by Ahmad, Kausar, & Azhar, (2015) and Han et al., (2006) who noted that the knowledge, skills, and other individual capabilities of HR Professionals help managers make a contribution throughout implementing HRM practices have not been studied in Asian countries. In the studies, the authors also pointed out that the relationship between HR competencies and HR effectiveness is highly concern to HR professionals as well as executives because the underlying reason why HR Professionals are not able to perform efficiently is their lack of competence. Han et al. (2006) stated that in order to maximize HR effectiveness, organizations have to hire HR professionals who possess field expertise and business competencies that allow them to provide the most excellent services to internal customers through designing and applying HR policies and practices. They also claimed that HR professionals should consist of a body of KSAO by which the profession is defined as any other professions in another field. In the study of HRCS model 2012, Ulrich et al., (2012) collected the data from over 20,000 respondents to determine what kind of competencies effective HR professionals must have, and how these competencies impacts on their effectiveness and business performance. The results, in Table 2.3, demonstrated that specific sub-factors within each of the six competency domains and how each sub-factors affect both perceived effectiveness of HR professionals and business success.. 29.

(38) Table 2.3. Impact of HR Competencies on Perception of HR Effectiveness and Business Performance Impact on Perception of. Impact on Business. Mean. HR Effectiveness. Performance. (1 to 5). (Beta weights scaled to. (Beta weights scaled to. 100%). 100%). HR competency domain. Strategic positioner. 3.89. 17%. 15%. Credible Activist. 4.23. 22%. 14%. Capability builder. 3.97. 16%. 18%. Change champion. 3.93. 16%. 16%. 3.90. 17%. 19%. 3.74. 12%. 18%. 42.5%. 8.4%. HR innovator and integrator Technology proponent Overall R2. Note. “The new HR competencies: Business partnering from the outside-in,” by D. Ulrich, J. Younger,. W.. Brockbank. and. M.. Ulrich,. 2011.. Retrieved. from. https://rbl-. net.s3.amazonaws.com/hrcs/2012/New%20HR%20Competencies%C2%8BBusiness%20Partneri ng%20from%20the%20Outside-In.pdf.. In general, Table 2.3 illustrates how many percentages of individual effectiveness and business success are equal to each sub-factors of HR professionals. Regarding this reporting table, it can be summarized that succeed in doing business and being considered as an effective HR in an organization are interdependent of the competencies of an HR professional. As it was mentioned before, the 2012 HRCS model contains six different HR competencies namely: strategic positioner, credible activist, capability builder, change champion, HR innovator and Integrator and technology proponent that applied in this study to identify how those six competencies influence HR effectiveness perceived by HR internal clients in Mongolia. Taken all together, regarding the supported literature along with the objectives of this study, the following hypotheses on the relationship between HR competencies and HR effectiveness were built to examine. More specifically, based on the strong desire of the researcher, each competency of HRCS model 2012 was tested regarding overall HR effectiveness to reveal whether there exists 30.