The perceived importance of HR duties to Danish line managers Julia Brandl, Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration Mona Toft Madsen and Henning Madsen, Aarhus School of Business Human Resource Management Journal, Vol 19, no 2, 2009, pages 194–210 Today, HR scholars widely acknowledge that realising HRM requires the involvement of all managers and that the personal motivation of line managers plays an important role in their successful involvement. Yet, previous research has neglected to study how line managers rate the importance of particular HR duties and how the importance assigned to HR duties varies across managers. Based on a survey of 1,500 Danish managers, we find that ‘motivating others’ is considered the most important HR duty whereas ‘team building’, ‘handling conflicts’ and ‘coaching’ are considered the least important HR duties. Female top managers in the public sector exhibit the greatest interest in HR whereas men at lower managerial levels in the private sector give lowest priority to HR work. We conclude with possible explanations for the observed differences in a Danish context and beyond and provide suggestions for facilitating managerial involvement in HRM. In doing so we are well aware that the Scandinavian model of HRM in general and the Danish implementation in particular may represent a unique frame for the results. Contact: Julia Brandl, Austrian Science Fund Senior Researcher, Institute of Organization Studies and Organizational Behaviour, Department of Management, Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration, Althanstrasse 51, 1090 Vienna, Austria. Email: julia.brandl@wu-wien.ac.at INTRODUCTION S cholars widely acknowledge that responsibility for HRM cannot be restricted to HR specialists, but is an integral part of the work of all managers. ‘While some HR policies may impact on employees directly, most rely on line manager action or support’ (Purcell and Hutchinson, 2007: 5). As an example, Storey (1992) argues that many change initiatives in the 1990s were actually communicated to the staff directly by line managers, who were thereby implicitly taking part in HR duties. He sees them as the ‘main managerial representatives in human resource management’ (Storey, 1992: 239). The successful involvement of line managers is considered valuable for several reasons. For HR specialists, high quality managerial involvement can liberate them from operative routine work (Cunningham and Hyman, 1999) and is a prerequisite in order to focus on strategic HR work. Managerial responsibility for HR duties means that responses to HR challenges can be more immediate and can reflect local conditions (Whittaker and Marchington, 2003). Finally, line managers’ skills at HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT JOURNAL, VOL 19 NO 2, 2009 194 © 2009 The Authors. Journal compilation © 2009 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.