The main stream of research on HR competencies has focused on identifying generic and universal skills.

This trend has attracted many followers, and numerous HR competence models have been created during

the past twenty years. New ideals and roles for HR, such as being a ‘business partner’ and ‘strategic partner’,

have been developed. However, instead of focusing on these, we concentrated on contextual factors and

their significance in realising new HR roles. In our case study of one large corporation operating in the

service and retail sector, we found that cultural and contextual factors greatly affected the realization

of the strategic potential of HR practitioners. These practitioners performed well in their traditional

‘administrative role’, but this could be seen as a barrier to forming or taking up a new strategic position.