An investigation on reasons for the underdevelopment of the HR function in Lebanon, and the development of an indigenous HR competency model -

Abstract

The purpose of this research study is to investigate the reasons for the underdevelopment of the HR function in Lebanon. In addition, this paper aims to identify the competencies that are required by HR professionals in order to successfully operate in Lebanon; hence it aims to create an indigenous HR competency model. In addition to a comprehensive literature review that will tackle the central issue, this field project draws data from 15 structured interviews conducted with HR professionals who hold professional HR qualifications. We believe that the 15 respondents will provide enough insights that will allow for saturation of information since the project is exploratory in nature. Our results show that there are several reasons for the underdevelopment of the HR function in Lebanon which are a result of certain macro characteristics of the country and meso characteristics of organizations. Furthermore, the competency model that was developed appeared to be very-context specific, with a major focus on specific intrapersonal and interpersonal competencies.