Lost in Translation: The Human Resource Business Partner in a Scandinavian Context

Business partnerships and human resource transformation (HRT), marketed since the late 1990s as solutions for human resource management (HRM), have spread widely, mainly in US, Europe, and Scandinavian organizations. This paper problematizes the contextualization of the human resource business partner (HRBP) model, the key component of the HRT concept, in a global cor- porate group’s Swedish HR function, based on an in-depth empirical case. The paper shows that the HRBP model created tensions and ambiguities for HR practitioners working as HRBPs in their daily work due to the mismatch between the objectives of this work role and the actual requested work, complicating their relationship with line managers. Broadly, this means that this management model does not fit the Scandinavian work context. A modified HRBP role is proposed to incorporate closer cooperation within the HR function.