Empowerment of the line managers in HR activities: HRM issue in Malaysia

Within the general human resource management (HRM literature, the central role of line managers in implementing HRM, is widely acknowledged. The responsibility for effectively managing human resources (HR) does not rest with those in the HR department, but, all managers (including line managers) are responsible for leading people. Indeed, line managers have an unquestioned crucial role in implementing HRM, because they are responsible for executing HR practices However, there are various reasons,constraints, reactions, and problems have been identified to effective line involvement in HR activities. It reviews and discusses the impact of such empowerment practice to the HR managers as well as to the line managers. Since Malaysia emphasis on the value of its human capital, an examination of empowerment of the line issue in Malaysia is undertaken. Specifically, this paper attempts to highlight the needs to study empowerment of line managers in human resources in Malaysia