Employee advocacy in Africa: the role of HR practitioners in Malawi

Abstract

Purpose In recognising the weakness of trade unions and the lack of an institutional framework designed to enforce employee rights in an African context, the purpose of this paper is to examine the extent to which human resource (HR) practitioners are perceived to play the role of employee advocate. Design/methodology/approach The quantitative data set is derived from a sample of 305 respondents (95 HR practitioners, 121 line managers and 89 employees) from Malawi. Findings Despite the challenges of the context, HR practitioners are perceived by key stakeholders (including line managers and employees) to be playing the role of employee advocate. Standard multiple regression results indicate that the main factor contributing to the perception that HR practitioners are playing this role is their contribution to “motivating employees”. Research limitations/implications The study was conducted in Malawi. Further research is necessary to explore the generalisability of the findings to other contexts. Originality/value The findings provide an empirical base for future studies which explore perceptions of the employee advocacy role undertaken by HR practitioners in Africa.

International business and Africa: Theoretical and applied challenges, and future directions

“…Researchers often begin with the debatable generalization: ‘we know very little about Africa’, a claim which does not stand up to scrutiny from even a broad reading of the literature. Yet, extant research spans a wide spectrum, including technology and knowledge transfer (e.g., Osabutey, Williams, & Debrah, 2014; Kamoche & Newenham-Kahindi, 2012 ), and business ethics (e.g., Adeleye, Luiz, Muthuri, & Amaeshi, 2020 ), leadership (e.g., Nkomo, 2011 ), the HR dimensions of internationalization (e.g., International Journal of Human Resource Management special issue edited by Cooke, Wang, Yao, Li, Zhang, & Li, 2015 ; Cooke, Wood, & Horwitz, 2015 ; Ibeh, Wilson, & Chizema, 2012 ; Thunderbird International Business Review special issue edited by Boso, Adeleye, Ibeh, & Chizema, 2019 ); international human resource development and management (e.g., Debra & Ofori, 2006; Journal of World Business special issue edited by Kamoche, 2011 ; Mamman, Rees, Bakuwa, Branine, & Kamoche, 2019 ). The bigger challenge is that IB scholars might not have engaged with Africa as a research domain as much as scholars in related management disciplines and cognate fields.…”

Industry 4.0: The role of human resource professionals

“…There are various roles HR professionals perform, namely, employee advocate, human capital developer, functional expert, strategic partner and leader (Ulrich & Brockbank, 2005). The role of HR professionals as employee advocates involves addressing the current needs of employees by listening and empathising with them (Bakuwa, 2013;Mamman, Rees, Bakuwa, Branine, & Kamoche, 2019). The employee advocacy role requires HR professionals to serve the interests of employees, as well as execute other roles towards stakeholders of the business that recruited the employee (Mamman et al, 2019).…”

“…The role of HR professionals as employee advocates involves addressing the current needs of employees by listening and empathising with them (Bakuwa, 2013;Mamman, Rees, Bakuwa, Branine, & Kamoche, 2019). The employee advocacy role requires HR professionals to serve the interests of employees, as well as execute other roles towards stakeholders of the business that recruited the employee (Mamman et al, 2019). This role can be used to mitigate the negative effects of anxiety and career doubt (Rizvi, 2011), which is vital in industry 4.0 as the introduction of new of technology results in job collapse, deskilling, job insecurity and increasing inequities (De Ruyter, Brown, & Burgess, 2019).…”

Employee advocacy in Malawi: The degree to which HR practitioners are considered as employee advocates within an African context

“…The review is based on "Employee advocacy in Africa: the role of HR practitioners in Malawi" by Mamman et al (2019) published in Employee Relations This research paper concentrates on the degree that HR practitioners are considered as employee advocates within an African context. Data was gathered from a questionnaire survey given to 305 respondents (95 HR practitioners, 121 line managers and 89 employees) working in private sector companies Malawi.…”

“…A research paper by Mamman et al (2019) focuses on the degree to which HR practitioners are considered as employee advocates within an African context where trade union support and institutional structures for protecting employee rights are weak. Data was gathered from a questionnaire survey given to 305 respondents (95 HR practitioners, 121 line managers and 89 employees) working in private sector companies Malawi.…”