He proposes four elements to the HR activity being a strategic partner' to the business, administering HR procedures and processes, being an 'employee champion', and being a change agent'. Figure 9.3 illustrates these roles, and Table 9.1 explains each role and suggests how operations managers can be associated with each role It is important to recognize the interdependence of all the activities in Table 9.1. Managers may focus only on whatever of these activities currently demands attention. But, just as in the operations function generally, people issues are inter-reliant. There is little point in attempting, for example, to develop a more egalitarian team-based structure and then fail to change the organization's training or reward procedures. This is why a strategic perspective aimed at identifying the relationship between all four roles is necessary, and why the first step in developing an HR strategy is to understand the organization's overall strategy. In particular. kev questions are: What are the implications of the strategy for human resources? And how can the people in the organization contribute to successfully achieving the strategy?