ABSTRACT
Some organizations have read the textbooks and rather uncritically adopted the new operating model of HR, its structures and roles. They have accepted the logic of the argument but not thought through the consequences for their own organization's circumstances. Whilst the new model has an apparent logic to it, there is a downside to its rationality, and that is the segmentation of the service into discrete operating parts. Mischievous managers can exploit the division in HR responsibilities by using it as an opportunity to try different parts of the function to get an answer that suits them. The role difficulties in shared services centres relate to the nature of their construction. By comparison with traditional administrative jobs, staffs now find their jobs de-skilled and depersonalized. At a government department the head of the business partner team tends to end up the strategic part of the role for the whole team because the individual business partners find themselves doing operational work.
