Revisiting Human Resource Roles in Malaysian Public Hospitals

Abstract

It is common knowledge that skilled labour is the cornerstone of a high-income and technologically advanced society. As a point of evidence, high-income countries like Singapore and Finland typically have a workforce that possesses a higher level of education. Considering that this has been one of Malaysia's primary goals over the course of the last few years, it is of the utmost significance for the country to enhance the skills of its labour force in order to be ready for a world that is undergoing rapid transformation. Line managers play a significant role in the development of their subordinates. In regard to this matter, it is essential for nursing line managers (NLMs) to play pertinent roles as human resource (HR) in Malaysian healthcare services due to the critical nursing shortage. Therefore, this study aims to identify the level of HR roles namely strategic partner, change agent, administrative expert, and employee champion among NLMs. Data for this study was collected using a self-administered questionnaire involving 225 NLMs at six public hospitals located in the Klang Valley. Later, descriptive analysis performed to analyse the data obtained from the questionnaire. The results of this study revealed that there is a high level of HR roles within NLMs. On a more important note, the findings revealed a significant empirical evidence on the importance of HR roles among NLMs. Therefore, future paper on HR roles of line managers needs to be carried out further in the future, especially through different perspectives.