Support or Startegic partner ??

There has been a recent question on the role of HR ? is it a strategic partner or a support function and the case for strategic partner is gaining ground and during a recent event i saw this question was put to senior Hr practitioner who gave a wry smile and instead of the long swirling answer he gave a short one saying "Support". This surprised me for a minute as i was long awaiting an answer of a strategic partner and when i asked him why he gave his view point

He said that being considered a strategic partner is not something which should worry about but it is implied we should be support staff and support to the management and to the employees in his organization he pointed out to examples where the people of other departments were not able to connect with their functional heads and approached HR for the support. This support was in terms of praising their work and understanding their problems and ideas which their line manager was not ready to listen and this caused a rift but that where hr steps and gives the support for an employee to do well

And I think anyone who takes up HR does this to act as the face of the organization to the employees

Cheers

Arvind