There are few empirical studies which examined the roles of the HR department in an Asian emerging economy context like Vietnam. The present study adopts the repertory grid approach to investigate the roles of HR departments through perceptions of key stakeholders in Vietnamese organisations. The findings found that the framework of HR roles developed in Western economies was significantly present in foreign investment enterprises, but not found in privately owned enterprises in Vietnam. There were some dissimilarities between the perceptions of HR and non-HR specialists about the strategic and value added role of HR divisions in their organisations.