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In this paper, I call for further contextualisation of the individual in international management research. In this 'opinion piece', my goal is to stimulate debate and elicit a thoughtful reaction. Accordingly, this paper aims to provoke and excite, rather than review and summarise. On the basis of my own work and the work of my colleagues, I critically reflect on arguments previously made in this line of research, and illustrate the nuances that become apparent when we (a) purposefully introduce individual heterogeneity into the research model and (b) use context heterogeneity as a source for theorising and avoid post hoc contextualisation.
The need for multinational firms to be as competitive in the global marketplace as possible has increased dramatically over the past twenty years. For international human resource management this has meant many strategic opportunities to international human resource management. An excellent example of such an opportunity is that which exists regarding the management of talent. This opportunity began to develop in the late 1990s with the advent of the challenge of “global talent management.” During the past few years this opportunity has expanded to include challenges dealing with talent shortages, talent surpluses, locating and relocating talent, and compensation levels of talent. Together, these conditions are all “global talent challenges”. In this article we describe these several global talent challenges and the strategic opportunities they present to firms and propose the implications of these for firms and for the field of international human resource management.
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify and explain what happens in practice in TM, in order to contribute to the building of a broader and more balanced theoretical framework for TM in which the impact of the organizational context and its interrelated actors are taken into account. Design/methodology/approach – The empirical data were collected in an explorative, longitudinal study on TM policies and practices in five Dutch university departments. Findings – The two crucial actors in TM – the organization and the talented employee – have a different perception of the intended and actual value of TM. The organization is capable of shaping and implementing a TM system that meets its needs, so from an organizational perspective TM is effective. Since the needs of the talented employees are insufficiently addressed in the intended and actual TM practices, TM has less value for them. Various influence factors at the institutional, organizational and individual level are identified. Research limitations/implications – The study was a first step in opening the “black box” in TM, but several questions on the TM process still remain unanswered. The author therefore encourages more research on the multiple levels in the TM process, and the factors that cause variability. Practical implications – Knowledge of the factors which influence the TM process from strategy to outcomes can help practitioners to build a more effective TM approach. Originality/value – Theoretical approaches from companion academic disciplines are linked to the dominant viewpoints in the TM literature. Moreover, to give counterbalance to the tendency to use universal models to explain TM, this study contextualizes TM. Finally, this study goes beyond a focus on management interests, and investigates to what extent other stakeholders (employees) benefit from TM.
Purpose: The paper aims to frame empirical literature on TM, and to provide a clear and comprehensive picture of the topics under investigation, the conceptualization of TM, and under-explored areas.
Design/methodology/approach: We adopted a systematic review that covers empirical research on TM which has been published between 2006 and 2014 in academic peer-reviewed journals. A total of 96 articles were included in the review. A bibliometric as well as a content analysis has been carried out.
Findings: The results reveal that the Anglo-Saxon context (in particular EU) has a great impact on empirical TM research. Also research foundations and designs are not very rigorous. A slight awareness of context and culture was found. Empirical TM research is predominantly built on an exclusive approach to TM. Yet, how TM works in practice and how well (from the perspective of multiple actors) as well as the role and perceptions of line managers are under-explored areas.
Practical implications: The paper gives vision and direction to practitioners in particular on the definition of talent and TM.
Originality/value: This study frames the extent and nature of empirical research on TM, and it is the first to specifically and objectively examine the advances made in the field and to identify under-explored areas. By doing so, it helps to avoid departing from presumptions and misguided beliefs, to advance our knowledge of TM issues in organizations and regions, and to better channel future research.
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.
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.
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.
This paper aims to contribute to the development of a broader, more balanced approach to talent management that will help in studying and implementing talent management across different contexts. The paper starts with an overview of the advances made in previous reviews and studies with respect to three central themes: the definition of talent, intended outcomes of talent management, and talent management practices. We identify the one-dimensional and narrow approach to the topic as a main limitation of the existing talent management literature. Through the use of theories from the organizational theory and the strategic HRM domain, we add new perspectives and develop a multilevel, multi-value approach to talent management. In so doing, we offer an in-depth discussion of the potential economic and non-economic value created by talent management at the individual, organizational, and societal level.
In this article, the authors focus on the challenges and opportunities associated with integrating the macro and macro domains of the strategic human resource (HR) management literature. Their specific focus is on the development of a differentiated HR architecture in support of strategy execution as a key organizing theme. A focus on strategic capabilities and strategic jobs as the focal point of workforce management system design represents a significant potential source of value creation for most firms. But, also, differentiation by strategic capability instead of hierarchical organizational level represents potential implementation challenges for managers, and theoretical and empirical challenges for academics.
Purpose
The paper sets out to understand the key issues that emerge in the context of decision making.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper is a literature review.
Findings
First, the authors review debates around talent management decision making. Second, they examine some of the main factors currently influencing decision making in talent management. Third, they seek to identify some future research areas that will inform future decision making in talent management.
Practical implications
The paper will be of interest to practitioners in designing and developing talent management decision systems.
Originality/value
The paper presents a state of the art review of talent management decision marking.
Despite a significant degree of academic and practitioner interest the topic of talent management remains underdeveloped. A key limitation is the fact that talent management lacks a consistent definition and clear conceptual boundaries. The specific contribution of the current paper is in developing a clear and concise definition of strategic talent management. We also develop a theoretical model of strategic talent management. In so doing we draw insights from a number of discreet literature bases. Thus, the paper should aid future research in the area of talent management through (1) helping researchers to clarify the conceptual boundaries of talent management and (2) providing a theoretical framework that could help researchers in framing their research efforts in the area. Additionally, it aids managers in engaging with some of the issues they face with regard to talent management.
This paper focuses on talent management failure by multinational enterprises (MNEs). It examines barriers to corporate advancement of talents located in subsidiaries and more specifically on promotion of talent already employed by the MNE to be part of the upper echelon management team at its centre. Drawing on agency and bounded rationality theories, we discuss the underlying causes of talent management failure in MNEs. At the subsidiary level, we draw on agency theory to delineate self-serving mechanisms displayed by subsidiary managers that might hinder effective talent management systems throughout the MNE. At the headquarter level, we use bounded rationality to explain how decision-making processes, and information top management teams use to make decisions about talent management results in overlooking talents at subsidiary level.
The environment for most organizations today is global, complex, dynamic, highly competitive, and extremely volatile, and is likely to remain so for years to come. In addition to these external conditions, most organizations are also facing several global challenges including those related to: talent flow; the managing of two generations of employees, viz., older or mature workers and younger workers; and a shortage of needed competencies. One major result of these challenges for organizations is that they have to be global and that they have to be systematic in managing their human capital if they wish to have any hope of gaining and sustaining a competitive advantage in the years ahead. Many human resource practitioners and consultants (HR professionals) are now recognizing this, especially those that operate globally, the multinational enterprises. Academics are also showing a strong interest as evidenced by their work in the new area referred to as “global talent management”. In this article we review that academic work and attempt to organize that literature by creating an integrative framework for understanding and advancing further research in global talent management. To guide this research our framework highlights several selected challenges in global talent management, and several drivers of those challenges. It also highlights the potential role of IHRM activities in addressing those selected challenges. A discussion of possible criteria of global talent management effectiveness completes the framework. Hopefully this integrative framework may guide further academic research on global talent management and might also inform the work of HR professionals.
The resource-based view (RBV) of the firm has influenced the field of strategic human resource management (SHRM) in a number of ways. This paper explores the impact of the RBV on the theoretical and empirical development of SHRM. It explores how the fields of strategy and SHRM are beginning to converge around a number of issues, and proposes a number of implications of this convergence.
Most firms have no formal programs for anticipating and fulfilling talent needs, relying on an increasingly expensive pool of outside candidates that has been shrinking since it was created from the white-collar layoffs of the 1980s. But the advice these companies are getting to solve the problem--institute large-scale internal development programs--is equally ineffective. Internal development was the norm back in the 1950s, and every management-development practice that seems novel today was routine in those years--from executive coaching to 360-degree feedback to job rotation to high-potential programs. However, the stable business environment and captive talent pipelines in which such practices were born no longer exist. It's time for a fundamentally new approach to talent management. Fortunately, companies already have such a model, one that has been well honed over decades to anticipate and meet demand in uncertain environments: supply chain management. Cappelli, a professor at the Wharton School, focuses on four practices in particular. First, companies should balance make-versus-buy decisions by using internal development programs to produce most--but not all--of the needed talent, filling in with outside hiring. Second, firms can reduce the risks in forecasting the demand for talent by sending smaller batches of candidates through more modularized training systems in much the same way manufacturers now employ components in just-in-time production lines. Third, companies can improve their returns on investment in development efforts by adopting novel cost-sharing programs. Fourth, they should seek to protect their investments by generating internal opportunities to encourage newly trained managers to stick with the firm. Taken together, these principles form the foundation for a new paradigm in talent management: a talent-on-demand system.
Over the past decade, knowledge and learning have emerged as the keys to economic success and as a focus for thinking about organizational effectiveness and innovation. An overwhelming majority of large organizations now engage in a wide range of knowledge and learning activities and nearly all have programs and personnel explicitly dedicated to these tasks. The volume is targeted at those new to knowledge and learning, and is filled with practical examples and focuses on the most critical issues, featuring seminal contributions from leading authorities including: * Thomas Davenport, * Dorothy Leonard, * John Seely Brown, * Sidney Winter, * W. Chan Kim, * Peter Druckard. The book is organized around the three key steps in managing knowledge: development, retention, and transfer. These sections are preceded by a section creating the strategic context for knowledge and followed by a section on the social dimensions that are often overlooked. Finally, the book looks to the future of knowledge and learning. This Reader is an accessible way for executives and students taking advanced Management Studies and executive courses to learn from the latest examples on this topic.
Is it a sign or just a coincidence that several talented employees have recently left Sambian Partners? The architecture and engineering firm's latest defector refuses to tell the head of human resources, Mary Donillo, why he was unhappy. And the self-administered employee surveys don't reveal much. When CEO Helen Gasbarian gets word of the next possible flight risk, she promotes the employee on the spot. How can Sambian stop the talent drain? Four experts comment on this fictional case study. Anna Pringle, the head of international people and organization capability for Microsoft, thinks that Helen should take a hard look at Mary, who is not safeguarding the firm's talent. Helen must also become an attentive listener. F. Leigh Branham, the CEO of human resources consultancy Keeping the People, thinks that Sambian's employees need a forum in which they can speak openly about their discontent. The candid discussions can expose the "triggering events" that impel people to leave, such as a disconnect between the firm's longstanding focus on innovative design and a more recent concern with profitability. Jim Cornelius, the chairman and CEO of Bristol-Myers Squibb, once faced a potential employee exodus as interim CEO of the pharmaceutical company. He advises Helen to meet face-to-face with her most talented employees and assure them that she understands their concerns and desires. Jean Martin, the executive director of the Corporate Executive Board's leadership council, urges Helen to support a mission and culture to which employees will feel connected. She explains that although people join companies for rational motives, they stay for emotional ones. By the time unhappy workers tell their managers what's going on, it's often too late.
Purpose: Despite the widely acknowledged relevance of global talent management (GTM) to business strategy, its activity and scope are not well understood. The purpose of this paper is to propose a conceptual framework for GTM and specifies the main components: strategy, practices, experiences and systems. Complementing the framework, a multiple-actors model is introduced identifying actors participant in the talent system. Specification of the GTM system frames future research of components and outcomes, informs management practice and is of particular relevance to management of global mobility (GM) by multiple actors.
Design/methodology/approach: This paper introduces a strategic framework for GTM and corresponding multiple-actors model extending the GTM, strategic human resource management (SHRM) and GM literatures. A systems view of GTM is presented, founded on social exchange amongst actors. System components and actor roles are specified.
Findings: GTM is articulated as a coherent set of activities within an integrated system. Actors centrally involved in co-creation of the talent system are identified.
Research limitations/implications: Presenting an internal view, the framework excludes external influences such as talent markets. Empirical study is required. An approach is outlined.
Practical implications: The framework and model provide management with a strategic approach to GTM and a tool for management enquiry in their challenge to operationalise GTM.
Originality/value: The framework deepens the understanding of GTM, extends the GM literature debate of managing expatriate talent to a wider system perspective and sheds light on the intended-actual gap noted in SHRM literature. The multiple-actors model re-positions the employee at the centre of talent management.
Complex organizations exhibit surprising, nonlinear behavior. Although organization scientists have studied complex organizations for many years, a developing set of conceptual and computational tools makes possible new approaches to modeling nonlinear interactions within and between organizations. Complex adaptive system models represent a genuinely new way of simplifying the complex. They are characterized by four key elements: agents with schemata, self-organizing networks sustained by importing energy, coevolution to the edge of chaos, and system evolution based on recombination. New types of models that incorporate these elements will push organization science forward by merging empirical observation with computational agent-based simulation. Applying complex adaptive systems models to strategic management leads to an emphasis on building systems that can rapidly evolve effective adaptive solutions. Strategic direction of complex organizations consists of establishing and modifying environments within which effective, improvised, self-organized solutions can evolve. Managers influence strategic behavior by altering the fitness landscape for local agents and reconfiguring the organizational architecture within which agents adapt. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
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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.
In order to evaluate the modern "systems approach," it is advisable to look at the systems idea not as an ephemeral fashion or recent technique, but in the context of the history of ideas. (For an introduction and a survey of the field see [15], with an extensive bibliography and Suggestions for Further Reading in the various topics of general systems theory.) In a certain sense it can be said that the notion of system is as old as European philosophy. If we try to define the central motif in the birth of philosophical-scientific thinking with the Ionian pre-Socratics of the sixth century B.C., one way to spell it out would be as follows. Man in early cul-ture, and even primitives of today, experience themselves as being "thrown" into a hostile world, governed by chaotic and incomprehensible demonic forces which, at best, may be propitiated or influenced by way of magical practices. Philosophy and its descendant, science, was born when the early Greeks learned to consider or find, in the experienced world, an order or kosmos which was intelligible and, hence, controllable by thought and rational action. One formulation of this cosmic order was the Aristotelian world view with its holistic and telelogical notions. Aristotle's statement, "The whole is more than the sum of its parts," is a definition of the basic system problem which is still valid. Aristotelian teleology was eliminated in the later develop-ment of Western science, but the problems contained in it, such as the order and goal-directedness of living systems, were negated and by-passed rather than solved. Hence, the basic system is still not obsolete.
Talent management has become one of the most prevalent topics in the field of people management and development for practitioners and academics alike. However, while managers do appear to appreciate the importance of talent management, they often fail to manage it effectively, and the linkages between talent management and organizational performance remain unclear. In this invited feature article, I argue that the failure to effectively manage and develop talent can be traced, in part, to a narrow conceptualization of performance in much thinking on talent management. At an organizational level, this means that performance is generally considered solely in terms of shareholder returns while ignoring other stakeholders. This translates into HR systems that fail to effectively align individuals and organizations in the generation of value. This article foregrounds employees as stakeholders and argues that organizations that are defined by a sense of purpose and that prioritize employees as stakeholders generally have higher levels of alignment between organizational and employee goals with more highly motivated employees and ultimately more sustainable performance. Some implications for research on talent management are developed.
Research on Talent Management (TM) has been lagging behind businesses in offering vision and leadership in this field. After sketching a comprehensive outline of knowledge about TM, theoretical as well as practical, we introduce the papers in this special issue and their important contributions. This introductory article contributes to filling the knowledge gap by offering a research agenda at multiple levels and in multiple contexts. We also discuss methodological issues in the study of TM, and conclude by identifying several key trends that are now, and will continue to influence the practice and study of TM in the future.
Recent formal recognition of situational influences on the management of complex organizations has led to an increasing number of contingency models, but a comprehensive and integrative theoretical framework for contingency management has been lacking. A General Contingency Theory (GCT) of Management is introduced as an overall framework that integrates the diverse process, quantitative and behavioral approaches to management; incorporates the environment; and begins to bridge the gap between management theory and practice.
Top talent is an invaluable asset: In highly specialized or creative work, for instance, "A" players are likely to be six times as productive as "B" players. So when your company has a crucial strategic project, why not multiply all that firepower and have a team of your best performers tackle it? Yet many companies hesitate to do this, believing that all-star teams don't work: Big egos will get in the way. The stars won't be able to work with one another. They'll drive the team Leader crazy. Mankins, Bird, and Root of Bain & Company believe it's time to set aside that thinking. They have seen all-star teams do extraordinary work. But there is a right way and a wrong way to organize them. Before you can even begin to assemble such a team, you need to have the right talent management practices, so you hire and develop the best people and know what they're capable of. You have to give the team appropriate incentives and leaders and support staffers who are stars in their own right. And projects that are ill-defined or small scale are not for all-star teams. Use them only for critical missions, and make sure their objectives are clear. Even with the right setup, things can still go wrong. The wise executive will take steps to manage egos, prune non-team-players, and prevent average coworkers from feeling completely undervalued. She will also invest a lot of time in choosing the right team Leader and will ask members for lots of feedback to monitor how that leader is doing.
We clarify that management scholars do not have a shared conceptualization of what the terms micro and macro mean. Therefore, there is not one, but rather there are multiple micro—macro divides within management. Specifically, there are three micro—macro divides that separate scholarship at three levels of the social and economic systems that management scholars study. These system levels include individuals and groups, organizations, and the broader social and economic systems (which contain individuals and organizations—such as industries, labor markets, and societies). Scholarship at these three system levels is often based in different disciplines. For example, scholarship on individuals and groups is often based in psychology whereas scholarship regarding organizations and social and economic systems is often based in economics or sociology. Yet there are fundamental differences in the theoretical assumptions and methodological traditions underlying these disciplines. We call these differences disciplinary divides and argue that because disciplinary divides oftentimes coexist with system-level divides, scholars bridging system levels need to be cognizant of disciplinary divides. The purpose of this article is to help scholars bridge these divides. To this end, we first identify the nature and specific types of divides. We then present a content analysis of 300 articles as a snapshot of the extent to which bridging scholarship is conducted. Finally, we provide a road-map that details the specific intellectual steps required to bridge system-level and disciplinary divides and make one’s scholarship more accessible to scholars from other disciplines and management subdomains.
In recent years increasing need has been felt for a body of systematic theoretical constructs which will discuss the general relationships of the empirical world. This is the quest of General Systems Theory. It does not seek, of course, to establish a single, self-contained "general theory of practically everything" which will replace all the special theories of particular disciplines. Such a theory would be almost without content, for we always pay for generality by sacrificing content, and all we can say about practically everything is almost nothing. Somewhere however between the specific that has no meaning and the general that has no content there must be, for each purpose and at each level of abstraction, an optimum degree of generality. It is the contention of the General Systems Theorists that this optimum degree of generality in theory is not always reached by the particular sciences.
Ludwig von Bertalanffy, in 1951, and Kenneth Boulding, in 1956, wrote articles which have provided a modern foundation for general systems theory [Bertalanffy, L. von. 1951. General system theory: A new approach to unity of science. Human Biol. (December) 303–361; Boulding, K. 1956. General systems theory: The skeleton of science. Management Sci. (April) 197–208.]. We build on that foundation in applying general systems theory to management.
The general theory is reviewed for the reader. Next, it is applied as a theory for business, and an illustrative model of the systems concept is developed to show the business application. Finally, the systems concept is related to the traditional functions of a business, i.e., planning, organizing, control, and communications.
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Skill Gaps, Skill Shortages, and Skill Mismatches: Evidence and Arguments for the United States
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