HR som mellanhand - En kvalitativ studie om hur HR-personal upplever och hanterar sin mellanhandsroll
(2026) SOCK20 20252Department of Sociology
- Abstract
- Human Resource (HR) professionals are often positioned between organizational management and employees, a role that involves balancing competing expectations, responsibilities, and values. While previous research has highlighted HR’s strategic and administrative functions, less attention has been paid to how HR persons themselves experience and manage this intermediary position in everyday practice. The aim of this study is therefore to explore how HR professionals perceive their role as intermediaries, which challenges and ethical dilemmas they encounter and how they work to create trust and legitimacy in relation to both management and employees.
The study is based on a qualitative research design and draws on eight semistructured... (More) - Human Resource (HR) professionals are often positioned between organizational management and employees, a role that involves balancing competing expectations, responsibilities, and values. While previous research has highlighted HR’s strategic and administrative functions, less attention has been paid to how HR persons themselves experience and manage this intermediary position in everyday practice. The aim of this study is therefore to explore how HR professionals perceive their role as intermediaries, which challenges and ethical dilemmas they encounter and how they work to create trust and legitimacy in relation to both management and employees.
The study is based on a qualitative research design and draws on eight semistructured interviews with HR professionals working in different organizations and sectors. A hermeneutic approach was used to analyze the material, allowing the analysis to move between individual experiences and broader theoretical perspectives. The analysis is informed by theories on loyalty, trust, emotional labour and organizational legitimacy.
The results show that the HR intermediary role is experienced as complex, relational and often difficult to delimit. HR professionals describe how they continuously navigate between management’s demands for efficiency and control, and employees’ needs for support, fairness, and understanding. This position gives HR a central role in maintaining organizational trust, but also exposes them to ethical and emotional strain. Ethical dilemmas frequently arise when formally correct decisions are perceived as morally challenging, particularly in relation to employees’ health and wellbeing. The study also highlights that HR performs extensive emotional labour, which often remains invisible but can have consequences for HR’s own work environment.
Furthermore, the results suggest that trust and legitimacy are not automatically attached to the HR role itself. Instead, they need to be continuously developed through transparency, clear communication, and consistent actions over time. This work is, however, not without challenges. Limited mandate and unclear boundaries can make it difficult for HR to fully influence outcomes, even when responsibility is placed on the function. As a result, a gap may appear between what HR is expected to handle and what they are actually able to affect. Overall, the study contributes to a deeper understanding of HR as a relational role that is also ethically demanding. It highlights how HR work is shaped not only by individual competence, but equally by organizational conditions and underlying power structures. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9220257
- author
- Kostic, Laura LU and El-Khalayli, Malek
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- SOCK20 20252
- year
- 2026
- type
- M2 - Bachelor Degree
- subject
- language
- Swedish
- id
- 9220257
- date added to LUP
- 2026-01-28 12:06:40
- date last changed
- 2026-01-28 12:06:40
@misc{9220257,
abstract = {{Human Resource (HR) professionals are often positioned between organizational management and employees, a role that involves balancing competing expectations, responsibilities, and values. While previous research has highlighted HR’s strategic and administrative functions, less attention has been paid to how HR persons themselves experience and manage this intermediary position in everyday practice. The aim of this study is therefore to explore how HR professionals perceive their role as intermediaries, which challenges and ethical dilemmas they encounter and how they work to create trust and legitimacy in relation to both management and employees.
The study is based on a qualitative research design and draws on eight semistructured interviews with HR professionals working in different organizations and sectors. A hermeneutic approach was used to analyze the material, allowing the analysis to move between individual experiences and broader theoretical perspectives. The analysis is informed by theories on loyalty, trust, emotional labour and organizational legitimacy.
The results show that the HR intermediary role is experienced as complex, relational and often difficult to delimit. HR professionals describe how they continuously navigate between management’s demands for efficiency and control, and employees’ needs for support, fairness, and understanding. This position gives HR a central role in maintaining organizational trust, but also exposes them to ethical and emotional strain. Ethical dilemmas frequently arise when formally correct decisions are perceived as morally challenging, particularly in relation to employees’ health and wellbeing. The study also highlights that HR performs extensive emotional labour, which often remains invisible but can have consequences for HR’s own work environment.
Furthermore, the results suggest that trust and legitimacy are not automatically attached to the HR role itself. Instead, they need to be continuously developed through transparency, clear communication, and consistent actions over time. This work is, however, not without challenges. Limited mandate and unclear boundaries can make it difficult for HR to fully influence outcomes, even when responsibility is placed on the function. As a result, a gap may appear between what HR is expected to handle and what they are actually able to affect. Overall, the study contributes to a deeper understanding of HR as a relational role that is also ethically demanding. It highlights how HR work is shaped not only by individual competence, but equally by organizational conditions and underlying power structures.}},
author = {{Kostic, Laura and El-Khalayli, Malek}},
language = {{swe}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{HR som mellanhand - En kvalitativ studie om hur HR-personal upplever och hanterar sin mellanhandsroll}},
year = {{2026}},
}