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Talent management: Progress and prospects

Authors:
David G. Collings at Trinity College Dublin
David G. Collings
Hugh Scullion at Ollscoil na Gaillimhe – University of Galway
Hugh Scullion
Vlad Vaiman at California Lutheran University
Vlad Vaiman
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Abstract

This paper serves as an introduction to this special issue on talent management. The articles featured here are inspired by the second EIASM workshop on talent management. Following a summary review of the current state of the talent management literature the paper introduces the four articles in the issue.
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Talent Management: progress and progress
Please cite as:
Collings, D.G., Scullion, H. and Vaiman, H. (2015). Talent management:
Progress and Prospects. Human Resource Management Review.
doi:10.1016/j.hrmr.2015.04.005
David G Collings*
DCU Business School,
Dublin City University,
Glasnevin,
Dublin 9
Ireland
David.collings@dcu.ie
Tel +35317006937
Hugh Scullion
Department of Management,
J.E. CAirnes School of Business & Economics,
NUI Galway,
Galway,
Ireland
Hugh.scullion@nuigalway.ie
Vlad Vaiman
School of Management
California Lutheran University
60 West Olsen Rd., #3550
Thousand Oaks, CA 91360, USA
Tel: 1-805-493-3892
vvaiman@callutheran.edu
*Corresponding author
Talent Management: progress and prospects
Abstract
This paper serves as an introduction to this special issue on talent management. The
papers are inspirsed by the second EIASM workshop on talent management.
Following a summary review of the current state of the talent management literature
the paper introduces the four papers in the issue.
Key words: Talent management; Global talent management; value;
Introduction
There is little doubt that the area of talent management has become one of fastest
growing areas of academic work in the management field over recent decades. One of
the first academic reviews of the area of talent management published almost a
decade ago (Lewis and Heckman, 2006: 139) concluded, ‘if the volume of literature
in the popular and practitioner press is any guide, practitioners in the field of human
resources are now primarily in the business of talent management’. However, the
same paper lamented the lack of academic work underpinning the development of
talent management. The intervening period has represented a period of catch up in
the conceptual and intellectual development of the area. This special issue draws
inspiration from the second workshop on Talent Management organised by the
European Institute for Advanced Studies in Management held in Brussels, Belgium in
2013. This workshop has emerged as an important forum for the discussion of
emerging insights in the area. The workshop and special issue also build on a number
of recent special issues on the theme of talent management over the past five years or
so (see Al Ariss, Cascio and Paauwe, 2014; Collings, Scullion and Vaiman, 2011;
Dries, 2013; McDonnell, Collings, and Burgess, 2012; Scullion, Collings and
Caligiuri, 2010; Vaiman and Collings, 2013).
While there has been significant development of our understanding of the area, many
questions remain. Dries (2013) has argued that the research agenda has developed
based largely on a phenomenon-driven agenda as opposed to a theory driven one.
Arguably this is reflective of the emergence of talent management in practice and the
on-going challenges which organisations face around effectively managing talent
(BCG, 2013). This has also been reflected in a largely managerialist and performative
agenda in much of the earlier work in the field (Collings, 2014a). However more
recently a more pluralist understanding of the contribution of talent management has
emerged (Collings, 2014b; Thunnissen, Boselie, and Fruytier, 2013). Additionally, the
employee perspective has received greater attention in recent years. This represents a
shift from the managerialist orientation of the earlier work (c.f. Björkman, Ehrnroot,
Mäkelä, Smale, and Sumelius, 2013; Farndale, Pa, Sparrow, and Scullion, 2014;
Gelens, Hofmans, Dries, and Pepermans, 2014; Sonnenberg, van Zijderveld, and
Brinks, 2014). Indeed the phenomenon-based emergence of academic work helps to
explain the thematic (Collings and Mellahi, 2009; Lewis and Heckma, 2006) and
theoretical fragmentation of the field (Cappelli and Keller, 2014; Dries, 2013;
Sparrow, Scullion and Tarique, 2014).
We believe that the four papers which comprise this special issue provide a further
step in the development of the conceptual and intellectual development of talent
management. As a collection they help to evaluate the current state of the art within
the area (Gallardo-Gallardo, Nijs, Dries and Gallo, this issue). Furthermore the global
context of talent management is brought to the fore in two of the papers (Khilji,
Tarique, and Schuler this issue; Vaiman, Haslberger and Vance, this issue). Finally
the theme of value is explicated in Sparrow and Makram (this issue). The following
section introduces these papers.
The papers in the special issue
The opening paper in the issue by Shaista Khilji, Ibraiz Tariq and Randall Schuler
broadens the scope of thinking on global talent management (GTM) to consider
macro, country level effects. They argue that our understanding of GTM has been
limited by its focus upon individuals and organizations, with country level effects and
influences underexplored. They point to the import of talent mobility, and respective
governments’ direct involvement in attracting and developing national talent as
central questions at the macro level of analysis. The paper develops a conceptual
framework for macro global talent management (MGTM), which incorporates a
macro view and supports and recognises the requirement for interdisciplinary
research. Their framework foregrounds the macro context in which GTM while
illuminating its multiple consequences traversing levels of analysis. It also captures
the essence of complexities associated with managing talent globally. The paper
concludes with a consideration of directions for future research and the implications
for managers and policy makers.
Our second paper by Paul Sparrow and Heba Makram draws on the concepts of talent
philosophies and a theory of value to bring some coherence and organisation to the talent
management literature. Drawing insights on talent management architectures, the paper first
analyses four talent management philosophies and the different underlying claims they make
about the value of individual talent and talent management architectures to demonstrate the
limitations of human capital theory in capturing current developments. Having demonstrated
the complexity of issues being researched, the paper goes on to syntheses these into a theory
of value, and develops a framework based on four separate value-generating processes (value
creation, value capture, value leverage and value protection). A strength of the paper is the
insights drawn from cognate areas of non-HR literatures, such as those on value creation, the
RBV perspective, dynamic capabilities, and global knowledge management. These insights
are used to understand the nature of value and how this might inform the design of any talent
management system or architecture. The paper concludes with a clear research agenda and
the development of research propositions.
The third paper in the special issue by Eva Gallardo-Gallardo, Sanne Nijs, Nicky Dries
and Pedro Gallo adopts methods derived from bibliometrics and content analysis to
evaluate the state of the field of talent management and to derive implications for
research and practice unbiased towards a-priori assumptions of which frameworks or
methods are most adequate. Based on their analyses of publication volume, journals
and their impact factors, most cited articles and authors, preferred methods, and
represented countries, the authors assess whether TM should be approached as an
embryonic, growth, or mature phenomenon, and examine dominant (i.e., resource-
based view, international human resource management, employee assessment, and
institutionalism) versus ‘alternative’ (i.e., knowledge management, career
management, strength-based approach, and social exchange theory) theoretical
frameworks. The paper will be of value to TM researchers in positioning their work
more explicitly vis-à-vis current debates in the existing literature and encourage them
to think about which approach best fits their research aims, questions, and designs.
In the final paper of the issue by Vlad Vaiman, Arno Haslberger and Charles Vance
return to the global theme by exploring the theme of self-initiated expatriation. As
organisations continue to look beyond traditional company-assigned expatriates in
staffing global organisations, this paper provides a valuable examination of global
talent management issues involving self-initiated expatriates. Vaiman and his
colleagues identify self-initated expatriates as an important employee group and argue
that they have been under-researched in the literature on global talent management.
The paper goes on to discuss how central elements of talent management (i.e.,
identifying, recruiting, and selecting talent from the external labour market;
developing employees; managing talent flows; ensuring retention of talented
employees) can apply to the effective utilization of self-initiated expatriates, with
direct implications for guiding the future work of practitioners and researchers alike.
Conclusions
As illustrated by the four papers in this special issue our conceptual understanding of
the area of talent management continues to evolve at a high pace. It is hard to disagree
with Gallardo-Gallardo et als’ (this issue) assessment that the area remains far short of
maturity. However we do see increasing legitimacy for talent management as an area
of study. For example, the EIASM workshop upon which the current issue is based
represents an important forum for the dissemination of research on talent
management. Furthermore, the Journal of World Business which has a strong
tradition in publishing talent management research (Gallardo-Gallardo et al, this
issue) has as of January 2015 appointed a Senior Editor for Talent Management and
International HRM, reflecting the recognition of the importance of talent management
as an area of study.
However it is equally clear that the scepticism that surrounds the concept of talent
management owing to the lack of a boilerplate to bound the area conceptually,
combined with the relatively mixed quality of empirical work in the area means that
research explicitly in talent management has yet to gain credibility in the top tier of
academic outlets. While there is much work that broadly speaks to a talent
management perspective the discourse of talent management is rarely used in these
top-level outlets (see for example Bidwell, 2011; Bidwell and Keller, 2014).
However organisational talent are regularly conceptualised as stars in top level
publications (see Aguinis and O’Boyle, 2014; Aguinis, O’Boyle, Gonzalez_Mule and
Joo, 2014; Groysberg, & Lee, 2009; Groysberg, Lee and Nanda, 2008; Oldroyd, and
Morris, 2012). The fact that this work is not framed in the language of talent
management has two implications. First it is often excluded in reviews of research on
talent management. This means that the extent of empirical and theoretical work in
the area may be underestimated. Second, it may be more difficult for reflective
practitioners who aim to access academic work to access it as they may be searching
with inappropriate key words. As the field moves towards maturity establishing the
legitimacy of talent management as an intellectual area of study remains a key
challenge.
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Al Ariss, A., Cascio, W. F., & Paauwe, J. (2014). Talent management: Current
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  • May 2015
  • Hum Resource Manag Rev
This review adopts a phenomenon-driven approach in reviewing the talent management (TM) literature, applying methods derived from bibliometrics and content analysis to evaluate the state of the field and derive implications for research and practice unbiased towards a-priori assumptions of which frameworks or methods are most adequate. Based on analyses of publication volume, journals and their impact factors, most cited articles and authors, preferred methods, and represented countries, we assess whether TM should be approached as an embryonic, growth, or mature phenomenon, and examine dominant (i.e., resource-based view, international human resource management, employee assessment, and institutionalism) versus ‘alternative’ (i.e., knowledge management, career management, strength-based approach, and social exchange theory) theoretical frameworks. Our goal is to assist TM researchers in positioning their work more explicitly vis-à-vis current debates in the existing literature and encourage them to think about which approach best fits their research aims, questions, and designs.
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What is the value of talent management? Building value-driven processes within a talent management architecture
Article
Full-text available
  • Apr 2015
  • Hum Resource Manag Rev
The paper uses two concepts to organize the talent management literature: talent philosophies and a theory of value. It introduces the notion of talent management architectures and first analyses four talent management philosophies and the different claims they make about the value of individual talent and talent management architectures to demonstrate the limitations of human capital theory in capturing current developments. Having demonstrated the complexity of issues being researched, it then synthesises these back down into a theory of value, and develops a framework based on four separate value-generating processes (value creation, value capture, value leverage and value protection). This framework draws upon a number of non-HR literatures, such as those on value creation, the RBV perspective, dynamic capabilities, and global knowledge management, and its use to understand the nature of value and how this might inform the design of any talent management system or architecture. The paper articulates 14 research propositions that the field now needs to prove and suggests how research might now address these.
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Talent Management: Conceptual Approaches and Practical Challenges
Article
Full-text available
  • Mar 2014
The challenges associated with managing talent in modern labor markets are a constant source of discussion among academics and practitioners, but the literature on the subject is sparse and has grown somewhat haphazardly. We provide an overview of the literature on talent management-a body of work that spans multiple disciplines-as well as a clear statement as to what defines talent management. The new themes in contemporary talent management focus on (a) the challenge of open labor markets, including issues of retention as well as the general challenge of managing uncertainty, (b) new models for moving employees across jobs within the same organization, and (c) strategic jobs for which investments in talent likely show the greatest return. We review the conceptual and practical literature on these topics, outline the evolution of talent management over time, and present new topics for future research.
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Paying More to Get Less: The Effects of External Hiring Versus Internal Mobility
Article
  • Sep 2011
Individuals often enter similar jobs via two different routes: internal mobility and external hiring. I examine how the differences between these routes affect subsequent outcomes in those jobs. Drawing on theories of specific skills and incomplete information, I propose that external hires will initially perform worse than workers entering the job from inside the firm and have higher exit rates, yet they will be paid more and have stronger observable indicators of ability as measured by experience and education. I use the same theories to argue that the exact nature of internal mobility (promotions, lateral transfers, or combined promotions and transfers) will also affect workers’ outcomes. Analyses of personnel data from the U.S. investment banking arm of a financial services company from 2003 to 2009 confirm strong effects on pay, performance, and mobility of how workers enter jobs. I find that workers promoted into jobs have significantly better performance for the first two years than workers hired into similar jobs and lower rates of voluntary and involuntary exit. Nonetheless, the external hires are initially paid around 18 percent more than the promoted workers and have higher levels of experience and education. The hires are also promoted faster. I further find that workers who are promoted and transferred at the same time have worse performance than other internal movers.
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Multiple lenses on talent management: Definitions and contours of the field
Article
  • Jan 2013
As noted in the previous chapter, there have been a number of different philosophies that have come to dominate the field of talent management. Collings and Mellahi (2009) helpfully outlined these different philosophies as follows. People approach: talent management as a categorization of people. Practices approach: talent management as the presence of key HRM practices. Position approach: talent management as the identification of pivotal positions. Strategic-pools approach: talent management as internal talent pools and succession planning. These are often presented as competing approaches to talent management, or definitions of it, alternative conceptualizations, and better or worse ways of doing it. In this chapter we: use this way of categorizing approaches to talent management to organize our discussion about the nature of strategic talent management build on the categorization by showing how each philosophy has come about and evolved, its essence, and some of the assumptions it is based on lay out the different assumptions they make about organizational effectiveness, how they have shaped mainstream thinking, and the different strategies they argue are necessary to achieve it put the four philosophies into a framework to help think about, and position, the design of different organizational talent-management systems and determine when each should become most dominant. provide a range of critiques of talent practice, notably the people philosophy. Put the four philosophies into a framework to help think about, and position, the design of different organizational talent-management systems and determine when each should become most dominant.
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Incorporating the macro view in global talent management
Article
  • May 2015
  • Hum Resource Manag Rev
We argue that the present scope of global talent management (GTM) is limited by its focus upon individuals and organizations, that leaves country effects and influences, as witnessed in the form of talent mobility, and respective governments' direct involvement in attracting and developing national talent, unaddressed. We present a conceptual framework for macro global talent management (MGTM), which incorporates a macro view and supports interdisciplinary research. The framework draws our attention to the macro context in which GTM occurs as well as illuminates its multiple consequences traversing levels of analysis. It also captures the essence of complexities associated with managing talent globally. We offer directions for future research and discuss implications for managers and policy makers. We conclude with some contributions, limitations and conclusions.
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