An Exploratory Study on the Personal Qualities/Characteristics expected by the Organisations for Key HRM jobs in Sri Lanka

This study explores a gap in the empirical knowledge with regard to the personalqualities/characteristics expected by the organisations for key HRM jobs in the field of HRMin Sri Lanka. The research questions of this exploratory study were: What are the personalqualities/characteristics needed or expected by the organizations which are operating in SriLanka for key HRM jobs? And is it possible to develop a sort of illustration to understandpersonal qualities/characteristics expected for key HRM jobs in Sri Lanka? In order toanswer the research questions systematically, an exploratory study was conducted by usingeight key HRM job related employment advertisements appeared in the Sunday Observernewspaper for the period of 5 years (2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010). Time horizon of the study was longitudinal and HRM related job advertisement was the unit of analysis of thestudy.Comprehensive and systematic content analysis along with descriptive statistics was appliedto generate results and findings. The results of the study revealed that the personalqualities/characteristics are one of the very important requirements in selecting people forkey HRM jobs in Sri Lanka. At the same time it differs from key job to another key job. Whenconsidering the personal qualities for the selected key HRM jobs, the findings revealed thatthere are 39 personal qualities related to the post of HR Director, 29 personal qualitiesrelated to the Group HR Manager, 41 personal qualities related to Head of HRM, 98 personalqualities related to the HR Manager, 81 personal qualities related to the HR Executive, 50personal qualities related to the HR Officer, 32 personal qualities related to the TrainingManager, and 15 personal qualities related to the post of Recruitment Manager.With regard to the personal qualities eleven (11) key dimensions of personal qualities wereidentified in addition to the number of personal qualities including attitude related,personality related, good character related, team related, professional related, businessrelated, people related, performance related, physical appearance related, leadership traitsrelated and HR/HRM related aspects. The implications of these findings are useful to all stakeholders and professionals of HRM especially in developing good professionalism amongcurrent HR professionals in Sri Lanka and prospective personnel who wish to establish acareer in HRM.Key Words: Human Resource Management, Key HRM jobs, Personal Qualitie