Which side should the HR manager be, a representative of the employees or a representative of higher management?

On the basis of morals and then ethics, keeping morality first. The HR managers are not necessarily representatives on a generic basis. An employee of a company deserves the right to be justified by the HR department if not directly or indirectly by the management.

thanks for the invitation, but i will only read the answers, good question.

Thank you for the invitation

The manager must be a real leader and therefore there must be a certain distance between him and the staff

Of course they should be next to the employees and give them their rights, but unfortunately in the working life they are next to the senior management and the company and thus lost the rights of employees.

the best answer I can give is that, the HR is the thick link between the employees and higher management, so HR has to balance his/her role.

Thanks for invitation,

Formally, HR manager represents of the institution or the organization point of view, and the employees representatives or the work associations are represent the employees, but informally, the HR. manager can conveys the employees' point of view in some cases.