Surveys and interviews on the capabilities, activities and organisational status of Human Resource (HR) practitioners in the UK and Hong Kong in order to identify the attributes that could be considered professional. The data collection consists of interviews with national-level stakeholders representing those who may interact with HR practitioners, two paired questionnaire surveys amongst members of the professional HR bodies in each country/economy, the UK Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) and the Hong Kong Institute of Human Resource management (IHRM), and a series of organisational case studies in each country/economy. This project aims to analyse the activities, values and organisational influence of human resource (HR) practitioners, at different career stages and in different organisational contexts, in the UK and Hong Kong in order to compare those experiences: (1) to the recent moves to enhance the professional status of HR by the respective professional bodies in each country; (2) to each other in order to identify what aspects of HR practice are context specific. The empirical research will be conducted in four distinct stages using mixed methodology: (1)Comparative documentary analysis of policy statements, professional standards and ethical codes of the IHRM and CIPD; (2) Elite interviews with senior representatives of the CIPD and IHRM ascertaining the role that the professional bodies play in shaping the field of HRM, how the new standards came into being, the role of ethics codes and future prospects; (3)Two paired electronic questionnaire surveys of HR practitioners to gauge (a) the levels and range of activities HR practitioners are involved with and (b) attitudes and interactions with others to assess their level of influence; (4)Case study interviews examining the explanations behind participants’ activities, experiences of HR practice.

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