Talent management: a systematic review and future prospects · Talent management: a systematic...

86 European J. International Management, Vol. 11, No. 1, 2017

Copyright © 2017 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

Talent management: a systematic review and future prospects

Anthony McDonnell* Queen’s Management School, Queen’s University Belfast, 185 Stranmillis Road, Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK Email: [email protected] *Corresponding author

David G. Collings Dublin City University Business School, Dublin City University, Dublin 9, Ireland Email: [email protected]

Kamel Mellahi Warwick Business School, The University of Warwick, Coventry, UK Email: [email protected]

Randall Schuler School of Management and Labor Relations, Rutgers University, Piscataway, New Jersey, USA Email: [email protected]

Abstract: This paper employs a systematic and comprehensive review to trace the evolution of talent management scholarship and propose a research agenda to move the field forward. Two primary streams of literature dominate: the management of high performers and high potentials, and the identification of strategic positions and talent management systems. The topic of global talent management has received significant attention; however, much of this literature tends to incorporate the two streams heretofore identified but on a global scale. The review also demonstrates that there has been limited attention placed on individual talents as the unit of analysis. Early criticisms of the disjointed nature of the field remain and we call for greater clarity around the conceptual boundaries of talent management. Our analysis highlights that most papers draw, to some extent, on primary research. There is however considerable need and scope for more comprehensive and nuanced methodological approaches.

Talent management 87

Keywords: talent management; literature review; high potential; global; HRM; stars.

Reference to this paper should be made as follows: McDonnell, A., Collings, D.G., Mellahi, K. and Schuler, R. (2017) ‘Talent management: a systematic review and future prospects’, European J. International Management, Vol. 11, No. 1, pp.86–128.

Biographical notes: Anthony McDonnell is Reader in Management at Queen’s Management School, Queen’s University Belfast, and Adjunct Senior Research Fellow, University of South Australia. He is (Joint) Editor-in-Chief of Human Resource Management Journal. His primary research interest is on the HRM and employment relations practices of multinational companies across different host contexts, and talent management.

David G. Collings is Professor of Human Resource Management at Dublin City University. He is also a Visiting Professor of HRM at King’s College London. He is the Editor (joint) of the Human Resource Management Journal and permanent Chair of the EIASM workshop on talent management. His research focuses on the management of human resources with a particular focus on talent management and global mobility issues.

Kamel Mellahi is Professor of Strategic Management at Warwick Business School. His current primary research interests lie in the areas of corporate political strategy, strategic talent management, and business strategies in emerging markets. He has published over 70 scholarly articles on these, and other, topics in leading journals including Academy of Management Perspectives, Journal of Management Studies, Journal of International Business Studies, Strategic Management Journal, and many others.

Randall Schuler is Distinguished Professor of Strategic International Human Resource Management and Human Resource Management Strategy and Past Director of the Masters in HRM Program. He is also a Visiting Fellow at Lancaster University Management School. He has authored or edited over 50 books and published over 150 articles in professional journals and academic proceedings.

1 Introduction

Almost two decades have elapsed since studies specifically focused on talent management (TM) first appeared in management literature. During this time, TM has become a topic of considerable debate in the academic literature and a central element of managerial discourse and organisational practice (Boudreau and Ramstad, 2007; Collings and Mellahi, 2009; Groysberg, 2010; Lewis and Heckman, 2006; McDonnell, 2011). Special issues have been commissioned by a range of journals on European (Collings et al., 2011), Asia-Pacific (McDonnell et al., 2012) and Global Talent Management (GTM) (Scullion et al., 2010) topics. Its growing significance appears premised on the assumption that superior TM is a key source of competitive advantage. This coupled with changes in worldwide demographics that have reportedly led to talent supply issues, have been key driving forces of interest in TM (Tarique and Schuler, 2010).

88 A. McDonnell et al.

In view of the escalating interest in the topic, a comprehensive and systematic critical review of scholarship is timely and appropriate in order to allow us to analyse the state of the field. A systematic review retrieves, appraises and summarises all the available evidence on a specific topic of enquiry. If a review is not systematic there is an increased danger of bias whereby the author(s) have greater scope to select papers that are more supportive of his/her viewpoint. While there have been reviews that have significantly assisted researchers, these have been strongly focused on practitioner-oriented journals (Lewis and Heckman, 2006) or on a specific segment of the literature (e.g. Tarique and Schuler’s [2010] GTM review). These papers were, however, neither systematic nor comprehensive in reviewing the wider field. While finalising this paper, we became aware of a welcome and useful piece by Thunnissen et al. (2013). This appears to be the most encompassing review thus far but the paper excluded at least one significant area in that they ‘limited the number of publications on global talent management’ (p.1746). We did not seek to delimit or pre-empt the potential scope of what could emerge in the review so as to allow us discern the current state of scholarship in more acute detail than previously undertaken. In other words, our endeavour allows us to grasp more comprehensively the state of the field. Of particular interest is exploring how far this field has developed and whether suggestions of it being overly US-based and non-empirically derived stand tall post a systematic analysis (Collings et al., 2011).

The objective of this paper is to conduct a systematic review of peer refereed, published research investigating TM issues. In so doing, the paper captures the breadth of research that has been published on the topic of TM, identifies the key themes and debates in this literature, and highlights impediments to progress in the field. Furthermore, we identify some of the most critical directions for future research enquiry. The paper provides insights into those approaches that have been used to date in exploring TM and further those theories and methods that present the best opportunities for building the theoretical and empirical foundations of the field. Consequently, this paper represents a valuable addition in synthesising this important, and quickly expanding, literature base and providing a more coordinated, coherent roadmap for researchers in developing TM research agendas.

Drawing from high quality, refereed journals the review provided for a total of 88 papers all of which were published between 1998 (the year in which the ‘war for talent’ term was coined) and May 2013 (the search date). This incorporates a larger range of published works than other reviews although it is important to note that different search criteria were used. For example, Thunnissen et al.’s (2013) review drew on 62 papers, of which 43 were refereed journal articles with 19 conference papers, dissertations, books or book chapters. Therefore, our review doubled the number of refereed articles. Our analysis was initially focused on obtaining an understanding of the range of publications in terms of where research is published, the focus or themes of papers, the methods used (empirical or conceptual), the contexts that have been covered and the key findings that emanated. After summarising the literature, we move to discussing some key gaps that we feel are significant and seek to kick-start research-informed discussion and debate in these areas. The papers encompassed in our review are marked by an asterisk in the references list and a summary of the aims, literature, underlying theories methodology and key findings of the papers are provided in Tables 2–4. A detailed exposition of the methodological procedures adopted in the systematic review can be found in the Appendix.


2 The growing importance of talent management

The emergence of TM is a relatively well-trodden discussion in the literature with many ascribing its rise to the McKinsey Group tabling the war for talent agenda (Chambers et al., 1998). McKinsey expressed great concern about the supply of human talent, the most valuable corporate resource, with pressing issues faced by organisations in the attraction and retention of key staff. Since then, there has been a wave of consultancy reports that talk up talent shortages and which place strong emphasis on the role of talent management in organisational success. For example, a survey of 418 international executives found that eight in ten viewed an effective talent management strategy as key to competitive success, with more than half of these reporting that it would become more strategically important in future years (KPMG, 2012).

The supply concerns are strongly premised around the changing nature of demographics which includes an ageing workforce and falling birth rates in many developed economies. These reasons coupled with the continued onset of globalisation and rise of the ‘knowledge worker’ (Guthridge et al., 2008) are all central factors in the emergence of talent management. The increasing internationalisation of small to medium-sized enterprises further increases the competition for talent, particularly for individuals with global business acumen (Tarique and Schuler, 2010). With global mobility seemingly at levels not previously witnessed the working populations tend to be increasingly diverse which raises many opportunities, alongside challenges in being able to effectively attract, manage and retain individuals. When this is combined with the range of generations that now exist in the workforce, doubts are very much evident around whether traditional people management approaches will prove effective in the long run.

In summary, there are a range of macro- and micro-factors that have led to the emergence of, and which are likely to remain for some time, TM as an area of interest and importance to both practitioners and the academic community. We now turn to the findings of the systematic review performed.

3 Findings

3.1 A publication explosion

Figure 1 vividly illustrates how TM scholarship has exploded over the past six years. Our analysis clearly demonstrates that 82 papers (93%) were published post 2008. In other words, there were a mere six refereed journal articles on the topic of TM between 1998 and 2008. This impressive growth trajectory does not appear to be slowing down as there were 14 papers published on the topic in the first five months of 2013. The field is therefore best characterised as one of recent vintage. In time we will learn if this is a sustainable level of scholarship. It is likely that a time will come as the field becomes more advanced that a plateau will be reached in terms of the development of new insights.

The overwhelming majority of papers were multiple authored pieces with the mean being 2.38 authors. Overall, 69 papers had more than one author meaning that 22% were sole-authored. The mean value for the number of authors in 2008 was 1.86, increasing to 2.8 in 2010 but then fell to 1.59 in 2011 before rising to 2.61 in 2012.


Figure 1 Number of published articles per year (see online version for colours)

Note: N = 87.

2013 figure to the end of May 2013.

The International Journal of Human Resource Management (15 papers), Journal of World Business (nine papers) and International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management (eight papers) were the three most popular publishing outlets. The prevalence of journal special issues is noteworthy. In the review period, there have been special issues of the Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources (McDonnell et al., 2012), International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management (D’Annunzio-Green et al., 2008), International Journal of Human Resource Management (Vaiman and Collings, 2013), and the Journal of World Business (Scullion et al., 2010). We are also aware, at the time of writing this paper, of three additional special journal issue call for papers in circulation or which have just been published. The use of special issues can therefore be argued as having a disproportionate impact on TM scholarship in that if the special issues are removed, the quantity of papers is significantly reduced. Specifically, we found that 31 out of the 88 papers (35%) were accounted for by the four special issues identified earlier. These papers are highly cited with eight of the nine papers in the Journal of World Business 2010 special issue in the top 25 most cited papers of that journal (based on Scopus data since 2009). In some of these issues, the guest editors authored more than one paper. The impact of special issues in the long run may be something worthy of consideration and debate among scholars in the field.

The review illustrated that a wide array of academic outlets have been used for dissemination. 41 (or 47%) of the papers were published in what can be described as HRM-focused journals. International business (primarily the Journal of World Business) appears as an especially important area in terms of publication outputs in the area (see Table 1). The variety of journals that have published articles demonstrates the widespread interest and applicability of the concept and points towards the evolution of the field of TM at the intersection of HRM, strategy, international business and other related fields.


Table 1 List of journals with number of published talent management papers

Journal Name Number of TM papers

The International Journal of Human Resource Management 15

Journal of World Business 9

International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management 8

Harvard Business Review 6

Human Resource Development International 6

Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources 5

Human Resource Management 4

MIT Sloan Management Review 4

Advances in Developing Human Resources 3

Personnel Review 3

Journals published two TM papers: Human Resource Management Review, Journal of Business Strategy, Journal of Knowledge Management, Organizational Dynamics

Journals published one TM paper: Business Ethics: A European Review, Business Strategy Review, Employee Relations, European Management Journal, Health Care Management Review, Human Resource Management Journal, International Business Review, International Journal of Logistics: Research and Applications, Journal of Business and Psychology, Journal of International Management, Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management, Journal of Service Management, Journal of Vocational Behavior, Leadership and Organization Development Journal, Public Money and Management, Scandinavian Journal of Management, Thunderbird International Business Review

3.2 Empirically light or heavy?

The majority of papers draw on some form of empirical evidence. In other words, it is not conceptual/theoretical/review type papers which are the most prevalent. This finding is noteworthy because it is in contrast to suggestions made by scholars that empirical enquiry on TM is particularly uncommon (e.g. Collings and Mellahi, 2009; Lewis and Heckman, 2006). Such conclusions may relate to the fact that most of the papers have been published since 2007/2008 meaning they were published after earlier conclusions had been drawn on the level of empirical work. However, the recent review article by Thunnissen et al. (2013, p.1748) also suggested that empirical papers were in the minority: ‘one-third of the articles in our literature study presents the results of empirical research’. The finding that close on six in every ten papers possess some empirical component may demonstrate the benefit and need for systematic and comprehensive reviews to more accurately depict the state of fields of research.

The percentage of works classified as empirical would have been higher if we had included many of the Harvard Business Review and Sloan Management Review papers which tend to draw on examples from industry but fail to provide any details on the methodology behind the paper (e.g. Cappelli, 2000; Cappelli, 2008; Erickson and Gratton, 2007). Consequently, papers were excluded that pointed to practise or some level of data but which did not provide some information on the methods used.

Methodologically, approximately 20% of empirical papers were found to utilise a mixed methods approach, consisting of both quantitative and qualitative techniques. Moreover, 42% of empirical papers drew solely on quantitative data and if we combine


the mixed method papers that had a quantitative element we find that 56% of all empirically based papers drew upon quantitative data. There was, therefore, a slightly higher proportional use of quantitative data. Given the recent nature of the field, it may be somewhat surprising that there wasn’t a greater use of qualitative data. The reported response rates in the quantitative papers ranged from 5.6% to 100%, while 11 papers did not report a response rate. Thus, there is a significant variation in response rates and the number of papers that fail to report this figure could be viewed as disappointing and concerning. There was significant use of case study investigations which tended to be based on single cases (nine papers). There also appeared to be papers where TM is used as a framing exercise post data collection rather than being a study set up to specifically explore particular aspects of TM. This is particularly the case where papers adopt a perspective that TM is a collection of typical HRM practices.

The evidence supports the conclusion of Thunnissen et al. (2013) that TM scholarship is overly unitarist and managerialist in orientation. Study participants are most commonly from the management (typically senior HR personnel or the top management team) viewpoint. There are few studies which have incorporated the actual ‘talents’, i.e. those individuals whom are classified by the organisation as talent or the ‘untalented’.

The increasing influence of the Asian context was apparent as it was the region most commonly focused in current empirical efforts. Of the 50 empirical papers, 14 are based on Asian countries, with a particular focus on China and India. Perhaps surprisingly, only six were based on the US context although there were papers that focused on US multinational corporations (MNCs) but which were not necessarily based on the home context. In some of these cases it was difficult to determine a very accurate picture of where the research was undertaken. Our analysis on the context in which primary research was undertaken stands in contrast to the posited dominance of North American scholarship in the evolution of TM. Yes, there is a strong body of US affiliated scholars publishing in the field but again they do not appear in the majority as there appears to be a strong network of scholars operating, in particular, across a range of European countries.1 It is also very evident that the overwhelming focus has been on larger, private sector organisations with MNCs being a central focus. Little consideration has been given to the small to medium-sized enterprise sector, while the public sector is almost non-existent in the reviewed papers.

Overall, our review of the methods used and the empirical papers suggest that the empirical settings and data collection methods and analysis are in need of significant improvement. While not seeking to downplay the value of the rich and informative research undertaken, it is quite apparent that small scale studies based on convenience sampling dominate. Thus, there is considerable scope for more comprehensive research designs to be adopted.

4 Themes and intellectual origins of talent management

A particularly disconcerting observation emerging from the review was the high number of papers that lack a clearly specified theoretical foundation to frame their empirical efforts. Less than 30% of papers used, most of them superficially, a theoretical framework to tackle their research question. In addition to lack of sound theoretical underpinnings, it is also clear that the field of TM is highly fragmented. Theoretical framing of TM ranged from Resource-Based View (RBV) (five papers), social exchange


and dependency theory (two papers), institutional theory (three papers), learning theory (two papers), and brand equity and signalling theory (one paper). Like other business and management concepts/practices that have evolved along a similar path, TM continues to search for sound theoretical underpinnings. The lack of theoretical cohesion in the TM literature makes it extremely difficult to discern an overarching grand theory to guide research in the area. It is very apparent that there is considerable scope for greater theorisation and conceptualisation in the field. A key constraint on the development of such a grand theory appears to be a lack of conceptual boundaries as to what TM actually encompasses (and does not). The lack of a unifying theoretical paradigm is therefore understandable given the different fundamental questions examined by scholars. For instance, papers that examine the association between TM and competitive advantage tend to draw on RBV, while papers that look at recruitment and retention of talented individuals draw on social exchange and dependency theory.

In line with Thunnissen et al. (2013) and Lewis and Heckman (2006) we find that one of the most dominant themes of publications is around how TM is defined. This has been the subject of review articles and conceptual papers, and some empirical work (e.g. Jones et al., 2012). Although there was strong evidence to suggest that the field is hampered by the lack of an agreed definition of TM, owing to a lack of space we do not engage in a case-by-case analysis of each definition that has been proposed by researchers. Rather, we focus more on the classification of the literature approaches. It remains apparent almost a decade on from the pioneering paper of Lewis and Heckman (2006) that the TM literature can be broadly classified into two categories: management of talent focusing on how organisations attract, recruit, retain and reward high performers, and the talented individuals focusing on what constitutes talent and behaviour of talented individuals. In the following section we discuss the papers that are subsumed under these two categories. We also separate articles that encompass GTM (see Table 4) which overwhelmingly focuses on how MNCs attract, recruit, retain and reward high performing and high potential employees. Thus, there is very much a crossover with the aforementioned themes but given that there appears to be a distinct body of scholars working under the umbrella of GTM we felt it was appropriate to separate these papers. While the focus was typically on the management of talent from the managerial perspective there have been a select few, more recent, papers that consider the individual talents within the MNC context (e.g. Bjorkman et al., 2013).

Before we proceed to this discussion in detail it is important to note that a small, yet growing number of papers, or part therein, challenge the distinctiveness of the concept of TM from earlier conceptualisations of HRM. This body of literature views TM as essentially the same as HRM. Thus, TM amounts to little more than rebranding. The repackaging view argues that TM engages in the same activities as HRM – recruitment, selection, development, retention and ensuring the supply and demand for people is managed effectively – and it does not embody any novel ideas for HRM scholars (see Iles et al. [2010a] and Preece et al. [2011] for a discussion). This line of argument often draws on Abrahamson’s (1996) thesis of fads and fashions to explain why and how TM has caught on in recent years. Iles et al. (2010b) based on a small number of case studies of MNCs in China found examples of TM being essentially similar to HRM with key similarities being that both involved the same functional areas of people management, both emphasised integration with corporate strategy and the recognition of how important role allocation was. The differences were essentially that HRM had a somewhat broader scope and that HRM promoted egalitarianism, whereas TM emphasised segmentation


because of its focus on a specific, i.e. talented, pool of the workforce. Similarly, Macfarlane et al.’s (2012) study of a public sector organisation equated TM to ‘leadership’. Jones et al. (2012), drawing on a convenience sample representing a range of sectors, found different spectrums of thought on TM varying from where it was little more than traditional HRM to where there was a more strategic, systems-level approach. Even where seemingly more strategic, TM in practice, they argued, tended to be ‘ad hoc, unstructured and fragmented’ (Jones et al., 2012, p.399).

Several papers have discussed the gaps between rhetoric and practice of TM (e.g. Cappelli, 2008). The idea of TM being merely rhetorical can be linked to the initial perspective highlighted by Lewis and Heckman (2006) in that there may be lots of discussion about TM but it is not necessarily something particularly different. Iles et al. (2010b) found that rhetorical obfuscation was a vital strategy in hiding the limited legitimacy of TM, in addition to institutionalising it within organisations. The key ingredients of this obfuscation were using credible language to selectively set out the company’s agenda so as to gain the right sort of commitment and behaviour from key stakeholders. We now turn to the main categories of TM scholarship which emerged from the review.

5 Management of talent

The majority of the reviewed scholarship focuses on the management of talent and its implication for the identification, management, development and retention of talented individuals and organisational outcomes. In line with earlier work we classify this literature as considering three distinct approaches.

5.1 Managing high performers and high potentials

The first approach focuses on the management of high performing staff regardless of their position in the organisation. This view promotes the classification of individuals by their performance and advocates, sometimes implicitly, that all roles should be filled with ‘A performers/players’ and that ‘C players’, or consistently poor performers, should be managed out of the organisation (Michaels et al., 2001). This perspective views talent as an unqualified positive resource that should be managed according to performance levels, hence the emphasis on forced performance distribution. This approach was premised on differentiating performance among employees and was popularised by Jack Welch at GE (Michaels et al., 2001). This approach prioritises the recruitment, retention and differential compensation of top performers regardless of the particular role or on occasion specific organisational requirements (Lewis and Heckman, 2006). Schuler et al. (2011, p.507) surmise that the major focus of this work was on ‘corporations obtaining and managing a sufficient number of highly talented individuals (… including high level executives, those with high managerial potential, and those with rare technical skills) to deal with the challenge of the global talent shortage’. A key focus of this literature is on defining and effectively measuring high performance.


Table 2 Summary of articles focusing on the management of talent

Aut

hors

P

aper

aim

/TM

focu

s T

heor

etic

al/li

tera

ture

fr

amin

g M

etho

ds

Key

find

ings

Bar

nett

and

D

avis

(20

08)

C

onsi

ders

how

suc

cess

ion

plan

ning

ca

n be

mad

e m

ore

succ

essf

ul in

as

sist

ing

orga

nisa

tion

s in

crea

se

perf

orm

ance

out

com

es

– N

o em

piri

cal d

ata

Pro

pose

s a

five

-ste

p pr

oces

s to

fac

ilit

ate

impr

oved

suc

cess

ion

plan

ning

con

sist

ing

of

prel

imin

ary

plan

ning

, pre

pari

ng f

or s

ucce

ssio

n pl

anni

ng &

tale

nt r

evie

w, t

he ta

lent

rev

iew

m

eeti

ng, p

rovi

ding

fee

dbac

k &

fac

ilita

ting

de

velo

pmen

tal a

ctio

n pl

anni

ng, &

mea

suri

ng

effe

ctiv

enes

s

Bar

ron

(200

8)

Exa

min

es h

ow b

est t

o at

trac

t & r

etai

n ta

lent

ed p

eopl

e in

hos

pita

lity

educ

atio

n &

hos

pita

lity

indu

stry

– N

o em

piri

cal d

ata

Arg

ues

that

edu

cati

on p

rovi

ders

nee

d to

be

m

ore

cogn

isan

t of

redu

cing

the

prac

tical

&

voca

tion

al e

lem

ents

of

hosp

ital

ity

prog

ram

s.

The

indu

stry

nee

ds to

look

at i

mpr

ovin

g it

s im

age

as v

iew

ed b

y th

e po

tent

ial j

ob s

eeke

r

Bau

m (

2008

)

Dis

cuss

es th

e ke

y fe

atur

es &

de

velo

pmen

ts o

f to

uris

m &

hos

pita

lity

la

bour

mar

kets

& th

eir

impa

ct o

n T

M

– N

o em

piri

cal d

ata

Pro

pose

s th

ree

scen

ario

s fo

r T

M w

hich

are

in

clus

ive,

dev

elop

men

tal &

ali

gned

wit

h

a fi

rm’s

ext

erna

l env

iron

men

t: (1

) bl

ue

envi

ronm

ent:

str

ongl

y al

igne

d w

ith

exec

utiv

e ta

lent

, whe

re te

chni

cal &

lead

ersh

ip ta

lent

are

re

adil

y id

enti

fiab

le; (

2) g

reen

env

iron

men

t: re

late

d to

the

wel

fare

sta

te w

here

the

firm

see

ks

to m

eet i

ndiv

idua

l nee

ds; a

nd (

3) o

rang

e en

viro

nmen

t: a

pt to

hos

pita

lity

& to

uris

m

whe

re T

M is

incl

usiv

e w

ith

staf

f en

gage

d at

al

l lev

els

& f

unct

ions

Bha

tnag

ar (

2007

) In

vest

igat

es h

ow T

M is

rel

ated

to

empl

oyee

eng

agem

ent

Res

ourc

e-ba

sed

view

27

2 em

ploy

ee q

uest

ionn

aire

s fr

om f

our

busi

ness

pro

cess

out

sour

cing

fir

ms

in

Indi

a (7

8% r

espo

nse

rate

), a

long

with

fo

cus

grou

ps o

f 30

mal

e te

am m

anag

ers,

pr

ojec

t hea

ds, t

echn

ical

hea

ds f

ollo

wed

up

wit

h 72

exi

t int

ervi

ews

wit

hin

one

of

the

four

org

anis

atio

ns

Low

eng

agem

ent f

ound

at t

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ning

of

an

em

ploy

ee’s

car

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& a

fter

16

mon

ths

w

ith

the

orga

nisa

tion

whi

ch w

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linke

d to

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gh a

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tion.

Hig

h en

gage

men

t fou

nd a

t in

term

edia

te e

mpl

oym

ent l

evel

s w

hich

re

flec

ted

in h

ighe

r lo

yalt

y fo

r a

limit

ed ti

me.

D

issa

tisf

acti

on w

ith

care

er p

aths

& in

cent

ive

sche

mes

wer

e lin

ked

to

hig

her

attr

itio

n


Table 2 Summary of articles focusing on the management of talent (continued)

Aut

hors

P

aper

aim

/TM

focu

s T

heor

etic

al/l

iter

atur

e fr

amin

g M

etho

ds

Key

fin

ding

s

Bha

ttac

hary

a

et a

l. (2

008)

D

iscu

sses

the

role

of

corp

orat

e so

cial

re

spon

sibi

lity

(C

SR

) in

eff

ecti

ve T

M

– In

-dep

th in

terv

iew

s &

eig

ht f

ocus

gro

ups

(fiv

e to

eig

ht p

eopl

e) w

ith

staf

f of

a

maj

or c

onsu

mer

goo

ds f

irm

. The

foc

us

grou

ps in

volv

ed p

arti

cipa

nts

at th

e U

S

HQ

, man

ufac

turi

ng o

pera

tion

, sal

es

offi

ce &

a n

on-U

S o

pera

tion

. Tw

p on

line

su

rvey

s ga

inin

g 48

1 em

ploy

ee r

espo

nses

fr

om te

n m

anuf

actu

ring

, ret

ail &

ser

vice

se

ctor

org

anis

atio

ns a

lso

took

pla

ce (

no

resp

onse

rat

e pr

ovid

ed)

CS

R c

an b

e a

usef

ul in

tern

al m

arke

ting

leve

l

for

TM

but

CS

R s

trat

egie

s ne

ed to

be

set o

n a

clea

rly

arti

cula

ted

& c

onti

ngen

t inp

ut–o

utpu

t pe

rspe

ctiv

e. T

hese

str

ateg

ies

need

to b

e co

-cr

eate

d &

idea

lly

enac

ted

by e

mpl

oyee

s, in

ad

diti

on to

mee

ting

em

ploy

ee n

eeds

Bir

d et

al.

(201

0)

Exp

lain

s ho

w f

irm

s ca

n ta

ke

imm

edia

te s

teps

to b

uild

the

righ

t te

ams

& c

an la

y th

e fo

unda

tion

s fo

r a

long

-ter

m e

ffec

tive

TM

app

roac

h

– N

o em

piri

cal d

ata

Org

anis

atio

ns n

eed

to q

uant

ify

thei

r le

ader

ship

ga

p, d

eplo

y th

eir

exis

ting

tal

ent

mor

e ef

fect

ivel

y &

red

uce

thei

r ta

lent

dem

and

as th

e fi

rst t

hree

st

eps

to b

uild

ing

a ta

lent

-ric

h fi

rm

Cap

pell

i (20

00)

Arg

ues

that

fir

ms

need

to f

ocus

on

a m

ore

mar

ket-

orie

nted

app

roac

h to

ta

lent

ret

enti

on

– D

raw

s on

exa

mpl

es f

rom

com

pani

es b

ut

ther

e w

ere

no d

etai

ls p

rovi

ded

on th

e m

etho

dolo

gy

Tra

diti

onal

ret

enti

on s

trat

egie

s ar

e no

long

er

suit

able

. Ret

enti

on p

ract

ices

sho

uld

be

cust

omis

ed a

ccor

ding

to h

ow im

port

ant i

t is

to

reta

in p

arti

cula

r em

ploy

ees.

App

roac

hes

to

com

pens

atio

n, jo

b de

sign

, job

cus

tom

isat

ion,

so

cial

ties

, loc

atio

n an

d hi

ring

pra

ctic

es a

ll n

eed

to b

e co

nsid

ered

wit

h a

diff

eren

t em

phas

is

depe

ndin

g on

sup

ply

and

dem

and

Cap

pell

i (20

08)

Dis

cuss

es T

M in

the

cont

ext o

f be

ing

effe

ctiv

e in

the

21s

t cen

tury

–

Dra

ws

on e

xam

ples

fro

m c

ompa

nies

but

th

ere

wer

e no

det

ails

pro

vide

d on

the

met

hodo

logy

Arg

ues

that

fir

ms

can

borr

ow le

sson

s fr

om

oper

atio

ns a

nd s

uppl

y ch

ain

man

agem

ent

rese

arch

to d

evel

op a

mor

e ef

fect

ive

TM

mod

el

Cha

baul

t et a

l. (2

012)

Id

enti

fies

goo

d T

M p

ract

ices

that

are

be

ing

used

in F

renc

h cl

uste

rs &

hi

ghli

ght t

he b

enef

its

of in

ter-

orga

nisa

tion

TM

as

wel

l as

the

chal

leng

es in

doi

ng s

o

– N

o em

piri

cal d

ata

Arg

ues

that

man

agem

ent

of ta

lent

bet

wee

n or

gani

sati

ons

is f

unda

men

tal f

or s

ucce

ssfu

l cl

uste

rs. H

owev

er, a

s co

mpe

titi

on in

crea

ses

wit

hin

thes

e cl

uste

rs ta

lent

rem

ain

a re

sour

ce to

be

fou

ght

over

. Sug

gest

s th

at f

irm

s in

the

cl

uste

rs n

eed

to c

hang

e th

eir

cult

ure

to f

ocus

m

ore

on th

e re

tent

ion

of k

now

ledg

e ra

ther

th

an r

eten

tion

of

indi

vidu

al t

alen

ts

Cha

dee

and

Ram

an (

2012

) In

vest

igat

es t

he r

ole

of T

M o

n th

e pe

rfor

man

ce o

f kn

owle

dge-

inte

nsiv

e or

gani

sati

ons

– 68

onl

ine

ques

tion

nair

es (

8% r

espo

nse

rate

) fr

om e

xecu

tive

s in

Ind

ian-

base

d of

fsho

re I

T s

ervi

ce p

rovi

ders

(O

SP

s)

Ext

erna

l kno

wle

dge

& T

M h

ave

posi

tive

im

pact

s on

per

form

ance

of

OS

Ps.

TM

med

iate

s th

e ef

fect

s of

kno

wle

dge

on p

erfo

rman

ce b

y ac

ting

as

a m

echa

nism

thro

ugh

whi

ch k

now

ledg

e is

tran

sfor

med

into

per

form

ance



Aut

hors

P

aper

aim

/TM

foc

us

The

oret

ical

/lit

erat

ure

fram

ing

Met

hods

K

ey f

indi

ngs

Col

ling

s an

d M

ella

hi (

2009

) S

eeks

to

defi

ne T

M a

nd d

evel

op a

co

ncep

tual

mod

el o

f st

rate

gic

TM

A

MO

fra

mew

ork,

HR

ar

chit

ectu

re l

iter

atur

e N

o em

piri

cal

data

D

evel

ops

a co

ncep

tual

mod

el o

f st

rate

gic

T

M i

ncor

pora

ting

the

ide

ntif

icat

ion

of

pivo

tal

posi

tion

s, d

evel

opin

g ta

lent

poo

ls

& d

iffe

rent

iate

d H

R a

rchi

tect

ures

for

the

ta

lent

poo

ls

Dee

ry (

2008

) E

xam

ines

the

lit

erat

ure

on r

etai

ning

ta

lent

and

the

rol

e w

ork–

life

bal

ance

ha

s on

tur

nove

r in

tent

ions

and

the

impl

icat

ions

for

TM

– N

o em

piri

cal

data

T

he h

ospi

tali

ty m

anag

emen

t li

tera

ture

is

stro

ngly

foc

used

on

the

role

of

job

atti

tude

s (e

.g. j

ob s

atis

fact

ion

&co

mpa

ny c

omm

itm

ent)

, pe

rson

al a

ttri

bute

s su

ch a

s po

siti

ve a

nd

nega

tive

aff

ecti

vity

, and

the

rol

e of

wor

k–li

fe

bala

nce

in a

llev

iati

ng h

igh

turn

over

D’A

nnun

zio-

Gre

en (

2008

) E

xam

ines

man

ager

ial

view

s on

wha

t T

M i

s, h

ow i

t’s

oper

atio

nali

sed

& h

ow

it c

ontr

ibut

es t

o bu

sine

ss s

ucce

ss

– In

terv

iew

s w

ith

seni

or m

anag

ers

in t

he

tour

ism

& h

ospi

tali

ty i

ndus

try

Gre

at e

nthu

sias

m f

or T

M &

per

cept

ions

of

ho

w i

t’s

impo

rtan

t to

the

bus

ines

s. T

here

is

a co

mm

itm

ent

to T

M w

ith

part

icul

ar c

once

rn

expr

esse

d ov

er d

evel

opm

ent

& r

eten

tion

of

tale

nt r

athe

r th

an a

ttra

ctio

n

De

Vos

and

Dri

es

(201

3)

Exa

min

es h

ow t

he c

ompo

siti

on o

f th

e w

orkf

orce

in

term

s of

the

ir s

trat

egic

va

lue

& u

niqu

enes

s af

fect

how

car

eer

man

agem

ent

poli

cies

are

des

igne

d &

im

plem

ente

d

HR

arc

hite

ctur

e li

tera

ture

Q

uest

ionn

aire

s of

306

org

anis

atio

ns i

n B

elgi

um u

sing

a c

onve

nien

ce s

ampl

e

wit

h th

e m

ajor

ity

of r

espo

nden

ts b

eing

H

R m

anag

ers/

dire

ctor

s. N

o re

spon

se r

ate

prov

ided

Thr

eats

of

tale

nt s

hort

ages

wit

h re

spec

t to

va

lue

& u

niqu

enes

s w

ere

key

dete

rmin

ants

of

the

im

port

ance

org

anis

atio

ns p

lace

on

ca

reer

man

agem

ent

Dow

ns a

nd

Sw

aile

s (2

013)

P

ropo

ses

that

a m

ore

radi

cal

appr

oach

to

TM

is

requ

ired

tha

t in

corp

orat

es

key

soci

al a

nd e

thic

al d

imen

sion

s

Dut

y et

hics

, uti

lita

rian

et

hics

, dis

trib

ute

just

ice,

age

ncy

theo

ry,

virt

ue e

thic

s,

capa

bili

ty a

ppro

ach

No

empi

rica

l da

ta

Pro

pose

fiv

e pr

inci

ples

tha

t th

e au

thor

s

cont

end

add

soci

al &

eth

ical

con

side

rati

ons

to

the

conc

ept o

f T

M. I

t is

arg

ued

that

cu

rren

t vi

ews

repr

esen

t a

‘dar

k si

de’

of T

M

pote

ntia

lly

wil

l be

to

both

ind

ivid

uals

&

orga

nisa

tion

s

Eri

ckso

n an

d G

ratt

on (

2007

) C

onsi

ders

the

fac

tors

sep

arat

ing

the

good

com

pani

es t

o w

ork

for

and

the

not

so g

ood

– D

raw

s on

exa

mpl

es f

rom

co

mpa

nies

but

th

ere

wer

e no

det

ails

pro

vide

d on

the

met

hodo

logy

Org

anis

atio

ns s

houl

d no

t at

tem

pt to

be

all

thin

gs to

all

sta

ff. T

hey

shou

ld l

ook

to

com

mun

icat

e th

e fi

rm’s

dis

tinc

tive

pra

ctic

e

that

bes

t co

nvey

s w

hat

it i

s re

ally

lik

e to

wor

k th

ere

and

wha

t m

akes

the

com

pany

dif

fere

nt

to o

ther

s

Fes

ting

et

al.

(201

3)

Exa

min

es h

ow G

erm

an s

mal

l-m

ediu

m

firm

s ar

e ad

dres

sing

cha

ngin

g de

mog

raph

ics

& t

alen

t sh

orta

ges

thro

ugh

TM

– T

elep

hone

int

ervi

ews

usin

g se

lf-r

epor

t su

rvey

s w

ith

700

chie

f ex

ecut

ive

offi

cers

an

d ow

ners

/fou

nder

s of

Ger

man

sm

all-

med

ium

fir

ms.

No

resp

onse

rat

e pr

ovid

ed

Ger

man

sm

all-

med

ium

fir

ms

wer

e fo

und

to

pref

er a

n in

clus

ive

TM

app

roac

h w

here

by a

ll

empl

oyee

s ar

e ta

rget

ed t

o th

e el

itis

t or

ex

clus

ive

appr

oach



Aut

hors

P

aper

aim

/TM

focu

s T

heor

etic

al/li

tera

ture

fr

amin

g M

etho

ds

Key

find

ings

Gro

ves

(201

1)

Exa

min

es h

ow n

atio

nwid

e he

alth

care

sy

stem

s ad

dres

s th

e ch

alle

nges

of

man

agin

g ta

lent

due

to d

iffi

cult

econ

omic

con

ditio

ns &

cha

ngin

g w

orkf

orce

tren

ds

– Q

uali

tati

ve c

ase

stud

ies

of 1

5 na

tionw

ide

heal

thca

re s

yste

ms

in th

e U

SA

wit

h se

mi-

stru

ctur

ed in

terv

iew

s co

mpl

eted

wit

h 30

ex

ecut

ives

as

wel

l as

docu

men

t ana

lysi

s of

T

M m

ater

ials

fro

m e

ach

orga

nisa

tion

Pro

pose

s a

mod

el o

f T

M b

est p

ract

ices

bas

ed

on r

esul

ts s

ugge

stin

g ex

empl

ary

heal

thca

re

orga

nisa

tion

s op

erat

e a

mul

ti-p

hase

d T

M

syst

em th

at h

as s

ix s

eque

ntia

l pha

ses

alon

g w

ith

asso

ciat

ed s

ucce

ss f

acto

rs th

at a

ssis

t im

plem

enta

tion

Gue

rci a

nd

Sol

ari (

2012

) In

vest

igat

es th

e T

M s

yste

m

impl

emen

ted

in f

our

Ital

ian

com

pani

es–

Four

cas

e st

udie

s of

Ita

lian

com

pani

es

whe

re th

ere

was

one

sem

i-st

ruct

ured

in

terv

iew

hel

d w

ith

the

pers

on r

espo

nsib

le

for

TM

in e

ach

Sug

gest

s th

e T

M a

ppro

ach

was

con

sist

ent

wit

h th

e li

tera

ture

in th

at a

n ex

clus

ive

focu

s w

as a

dopt

ed w

here

by T

M w

as c

once

rned

w

ith

indi

vidu

als

wit

h th

e ab

ilit

y to

mak

e si

gnif

ican

t con

trib

utio

ns to

the

orga

nisa

tion

. A

dif

fere

ntia

ted

appr

oach

to tr

aini

ng w

as

prov

ided

for

thos

e id

entif

ied

as ‘

tale

nt’

Har

ris

et a

l. (2

011)

D

iscu

sses

the

role

of

hum

an c

apita

l an

alyt

ics

in im

prov

ing

the

role

of

the

HR

fun

ctio

n in

org

anis

atio

ns

– N

o em

piri

cal d

ata

A m

ore

anal

ytic

al H

R f

unct

ion

can

brin

g im

prov

ed b

usin

ess

outc

omes

. Thi

s re

quir

es

inte

grat

ing

data

, ana

lyse

s an

d pr

oces

ses

thro

ugho

ut th

e en

tire

org

anis

atio

n ra

ther

than

it

bei

ng lo

cali

sed

to a

par

ticu

lar

part

Hil

trop

19

99)

Exp

lore

s ho

w o

rgan

isat

ions

att

ract

and

re

tain

tale

nt, w

hich

pra

ctic

es a

re m

ost

effe

ctiv

e &

wha

t els

e co

uld

be d

one

– Q

uest

ionn

aire

of

HR

man

ager

s &

pe

rson

nel o

ffic

ers

from

115

MN

C a

nd 2

04

dom

esti

c co

mpa

nies

in W

este

rn E

urop

e.

No

resp

onse

rat

e pr

ovid

ed

The

res

ults

don

’t p

rovi

de r

esou

ndin

g ev

iden

ce

of th

e li

nk b

etw

een

HR

pra

ctic

es &

abi

lity

to

att

ract

& r

etai

n ta

lent

. Org

anis

atio

ns n

eed

to

und

erst

and

wha

t the

y ar

e ai

min

g fo

r in

at

trac

ting

tale

nt a

nd th

en ta

ilor

thei

r re

crui

tmen

t pro

cess

& H

R p

ract

ices

ac

cord

ingl

y to

mee

t the

nee

ds &

exp

ecta

tion

s of

that

gro

up

Hög

lund

(2

012)

A

naly

ses

the

dire

ct &

indi

rect

link

s be

twee

n H

RM

pra

ctic

es &

hum

an

capi

tal t

hrou

gh a

TM

fra

mew

ork

Res

ourc

e-ba

sed

view

, hu

man

cap

ital

theo

ry

17 in

terv

iew

s w

ith

the

head

of

HR

in

17 N

ordi

c M

NC

s al

ong

wit

h a

web

su

rvey

of

126

empl

oyee

s in

thes

e fi

rms

(5.6

% r

espo

nse

rate

)

Ski

ll-e

nhan

cing

HR

M p

ract

ices

are

pos

itiv

ely

rela

ted

to h

uman

cap

ital

. Tal

ent i

nduc

emen

ts

med

iate

the

skil

l-en

hanc

ing

HR

M &

hum

an

capi

tal r

elat

ions

hip.

Par

tial

sup

port

was

fo

und

that

em

ploy

ee o

blig

atio

ns to

dev

elop

sk

ills

med

iate

the

tale

nt in

duce

men

t–hu

man

ca

pita

l rel

atio

nshi

p



Aut

hors

P

aper

aim

/TM

focu

s T

heor

etic

al/li

tera

ture

fr

amin

g M

etho

ds

Key

find

ings

Hug

hes

and

R

og (

2008

) In

vest

igat

es th

e m

eani

ng o

f T

M &

w

hy it

’s im

port

ant f

or h

ospi

talit

y or

gani

satio

ns

– N

o em

piri

cal d

ata

TM

is v

iew

ed a

s a

mul

tifa

cete

d st

rate

gic

man

agem

ent a

ctiv

ity

cham

pion

ed b

y H

R

whi

ch if

eff

ecti

vely

don

e m

ay a

ssis

t in

de

alin

g w

ith th

e la

bour

mar

ket c

hall

enge

s

face

d by

the

indu

stry

Iles

et a

l.

(201

0b)

Con

side

rs w

heth

er T

M c

an b

e ar

gued

as

dis

play

ing

feat

ures

of

a m

anag

emen

t fas

hion

Inst

itutio

nal t

heor

y &

m

anag

emen

t fas

hion

B

iblio

met

ric

coun

t T

he li

tera

ture

sug

gest

s th

at T

M h

as m

any

feat

ures

that

are

aki

n to

man

agem

ent

fash

ion

whi

ch a

llow

s op

port

unit

ies

to e

xten

d th

e po

pula

rity

& d

iffu

sion

of

the

conc

ept

desp

ite a

mbi

guity

ove

r it

s m

eani

ng &

sco

pe

Jone

s et

al.

(2

012)

In

vest

igat

es th

e m

eani

ng a

scri

bed

to

‘tal

ent’

& T

M &

whe

ther

this

is m

ore

akin

to a

n in

divi

dual

ist ‘

star

’ ap

proa

ch

or a

sys

tem

s-le

vel s

trat

egic

app

roac

h

– 22

sem

i-st

ruct

ured

inte

rvie

ws,

usi

ng a

co

nven

ienc

e sa

mpl

e, w

ith

seni

or H

R

prac

titio

ners

& e

xecu

tive

s fr

om a

var

iety

of

indu

stri

es in

Aus

tral

ia

TM

was

typi

call

y de

fine

d as

the

iden

tifi

catio

n,

attr

acti

on, d

evel

opm

ent &

ret

enti

on o

f a

segm

ent o

f th

e w

orkf

orce

but

ther

e w

as c

lear

di

ffic

ulty

in a

rtic

ulat

ing

wha

t ‘ta

lent

’ m

eant

. E

xecu

tion

of T

M te

nded

to b

e un

stru

ctur

ed, a

d ho

c &

not

in li

ne w

ith

a st

rate

gic

pers

pect

ive

Law

ler

and

Wor

ley

(201

2)

Dis

cuss

es th

e ro

le o

f T

M in

de

velo

ping

sus

tain

able

, eff

ecti

ve

orga

nisa

tions

– N

o em

piri

cal d

ata

Arg

ues

that

eff

ecti

ve T

M is

cri

tica

l to

sust

aina

ble

man

agem

ent f

irm

s &

that

suc

h or

gani

sati

ons

need

to m

ove

beyo

nd tr

adit

iona

l T

M p

ract

ices

. In

such

org

anis

atio

ns, y

ou m

ay

not w

ant i

ndiv

idua

ls to

sta

y fo

r lo

ng p

erio

ds o

f ti

me,

you

wan

t tho

se th

at h

ave

the

righ

t ski

lls

and

capa

bilit

ies

at th

at p

arti

cula

r tim

e

Leh

man

n

(200

9)

Exa

min

es th

e co

nten

t & d

irec

tion

of

the

tale

nt d

evel

opm

ent p

roce

ss &

the

impa

ct o

f so

cial

, org

anis

atio

nal &

m

anag

eria

l pra

ctic

es o

n th

is

Hum

an c

apita

l, so

cial

ca

pita

l 15

inte

rvie

ws

wit

h in

divi

dual

s fr

om e

ight

fi

rms

in T

haila

nd &

11

inte

rvie

ws

from

se

ven

firm

s in

Mal

aysi

a re

pres

entin

g an

ar

ray

of in

dust

ries

New

HR

M p

ract

ices

hav

e be

en in

itia

ted

to

impr

ove

attr

acti

on, d

evel

opm

ent &

ret

enti

on

of ta

lent

s pa

rtic

ular

ly in

the

area

of

perf

orm

ance

man

agem

ent a

nd I

T s

yste

ms.

T

here

nee

ds to

be

grea

ter

adap

tatio

n of

soc

ial

and

firm

str

uctu

res

to f

it w

ith

the

new

HR

M

prac

tice

s th

at h

ave

been

impl

emen

ted

Lew

is a

nd

Hec

kman

(20

06)

Rev

iew

s th

e T

M p

ract

ition

er-o

rien

ted

lite

ratu

re to

est

ablis

h ho

w T

M is

de

fine

d, o

pera

tion

alis

ed &

sup

port

ed

Res

ourc

e-ba

sed

vi

ew &

HC

Bri

dge

Fra

mew

ork

No

empi

rica

l dat

a A

rgue

s th

at th

ere

is n

o cl

ear

mea

ning

to T

M

wit

h th

ree

appr

oach

es c

omm

on, r

angi

ng f

rom

a

rebr

andi

ng o

f H

R to

a m

ore

disc

rete

, st

rate

gic

man

ager

ial a

ctiv

ity.

The

y su

gges

t the

fi

eld

can

be d

evel

oped

thro

ugh

grea

ter

inte

grat

ion

wit

h st

rate

gic

HR

M



Aut

hors

P

aper

aim

/TM

focu

s T

heor

etic

al/li

tera

ture

fr

amin

g M

etho

ds

Key

find

ings

Mac

farl

ane

et a

l. (2

012)

In

vest

igat

es h

ow T

M p

roce

sses

hav

e ev

olve

d in

the

UK

Nat

iona

l Hea

lth

Ser

vice

(N

HS

)

Har

d &

sof

t HR

M

Sin

gle

case

stu

dy o

f th

e U

K’s

NH

S u

sing

a

docu

men

tati

on r

evie

w

The

re a

ppea

rs to

be

a m

ove

tow

ards

a

‘har

der’

mod

el o

f T

M in

the

last

fiv

e ye

ars.

T

M is

str

ongl

y fo

cuse

d on

‘le

ader

ship

’ an

d en

com

pass

es a

hig

hly

rati

onal

isti

c,

bure

aucr

atic

& c

entr

alis

ed p

roce

ss

Mar

tin

et a

l. (2

011)

D

iscu

sses

the

role

of

empl

oyer

br

andi

ng o

n in

nova

tion

, cor

pora

te

gove

rnan

ce &

rep

utat

ion

& H

R

prac

tice

Inte

llec

tual

cap

ital

, V

RIO

fra

mew

ork,

in

stit

utio

nal t

heor

y

No

empi

rica

l dat

a P

ropo

ses

a co

ncep

tual

mod

el o

f em

ploy

er

bran

ding

& h

ow it

may

art

icul

ate

wit

h co

rpor

ate

gove

rnan

ce, i

nnov

atio

n &

or

gani

sati

onal

rep

utat

ions

& h

ow th

is m

ay

cont

ribu

te to

HR

str

ateg

y in

act

ion

Max

wel

l and

M

acL

ean

(200

8)

Exp

lore

s th

e op

erat

iona

l im

plic

atio

ns

& s

trat

egic

act

ions

invo

lved

in T

M

– O

ne f

ocus

gro

up in

corp

orat

ing

boar

d m

embe

rs o

f th

e S

cott

ish

Tou

rism

For

um

TM

is p

erce

ived

as

offe

ring

sub

stan

tial

po

tent

ial t

o im

prov

e th

e em

ploy

men

t im

age

of

car

eers

in th

e ho

spit

alit

y &

tour

ism

indu

stry

McD

onne

ll (2

011)

Id

enti

fies

the

mai

n is

sues

fac

ed b

y or

gani

sati

onal

pra

ctit

ione

rs in

un

dert

akin

g T

M

– N

o em

piri

cal d

ata

Pro

pose

s a

seri

es o

f re

sear

ch q

uest

ions

that

sh

ould

be

used

to in

form

fut

ure

rese

arch

in

brea

king

dow

n th

e sc

ienc

e ve

rsus

pra

ctic

e

gap

in T

M

Olt

ra a

nd V

ivas

-L

opez

(20

13)

Ana

lyse

s w

heth

er T

M p

ract

ices

link

ed

to te

amw

ork

desi

gn &

dyn

amic

s im

prov

e or

gani

sati

onal

lear

ning

Org

anis

atio

nal

lear

ning

16

7 qu

esti

onna

ires

of

larg

e fi

rms

in S

pain

us

ing

a co

nven

ienc

e sa

mpl

e (1

4% r

espo

nse

rate

)

Tea

m-b

ased

TM

can

pos

itiv

ely

impa

ct

orga

nisa

tion

al le

arni

ng e

spec

iall

y w

hen

te

ams

of ta

lent

ed in

divi

dual

s ar

e gi

ven

the

scop

e/au

tono

my

to b

e cr

eati

ve

Rya

n (2

012)

D

iscu

ssio

n on

bui

ldin

g a

team

of

A

play

ers

in G

ilt G

roup

e –

Pra

ctit

ione

r vi

ewpo

int a

rtic

le

TM

is a

mor

e im

port

ant r

ole

for

the

CE

O

than

any

oth

er a

spec

t of

his/

her

role

bec

ause

it

bri

ngs

the

grea

test

ret

urns

Arg

ues

that

ther

e is

no

scie

nce

in e

ffec

tive

rec

ruit

men

t & th

at

CV

s &

inte

rvie

ws

are

over

-val

ued,

whi

le

refe

renc

e ch

ecki

ng is

und

er-a

ppre

ciat

ed

Sch

olz

(201

2)

Exa

min

es w

heth

er c

ultu

re im

pact

s th

e ta

lent

man

agem

ent p

roce

ss

Nat

iona

l cul

ture

18

0 qu

esti

onna

ires

fro

m v

ideo

gam

es

deve

lopm

ent t

eam

mem

bers

of

the

Inte

rnat

iona

l Gam

e D

evel

oper

Ass

ocia

tion

(1

8% r

espo

nse

rate

). T

he m

ajor

ity

of

resp

onde

nts

wer

e in

the

UK

, USA

, and

C

anad

a, w

hile

job

role

s va

ried

wid

ely

Cul

ture

has

a p

ositi

ve in

flue

nce

acro

ss v

ario

us

role

s in

vid

eo g

ame

deve

lopm

ent t

eam

s. I

t is

reco

mm

ende

d th

at f

irm

s co

nsid

er c

ultu

ral

dive

rsit

y &

thos

e w

ith

the

best

fit

for

rol

es in

th

e in

dust

ry w

hen

attr

acti

ng &

rec

ruit

ing

staf

f



Aut

hors

P

aper

aim

/TM

focu

s T

heor

etic

al/li

tera

ture

fr

amin

g M

etho

ds

Key

find

ings

Sch

wee

r et

al.

(201

2)

Exa

min

es h

ow T

M p

ract

ices

can

im

prov

e co

llab

orat

ion

in f

irm

s &

ho

w e

mpl

oyee

net

wor

ks in

crea

se

indi

vidu

al &

fir

m p

erfo

rman

ce

– O

nlin

e su

rvey

of

76 ta

lent

man

ager

s in

gl

obal

fir

ms

(spe

cifi

c co

ntex

ts n

ot

prov

ided

), in

terv

iew

s w

ith

tale

nt e

xper

ts,

15 in

-dep

th f

ocus

gro

ups

appl

ying

soc

ial

netw

ork

anal

ysis

& s

emi-

stru

ctur

e in

terv

iew

s. N

o re

spon

se r

ate

prov

ided

Fir

ms

look

ing

to le

vera

ge th

eir

tale

nt &

TM

pr

ogra

ms

can

bene

fit s

ubst

anti

ally

thro

ugh

a

coll

abor

ativ

e ne

twor

k ap

proa

ch. I

t is

impo

rtan

t tha

t org

anis

atio

ns lo

ok a

t the

ir h

igh

perf

orm

ers

wit

h re

spec

t to

mak

ing

co

llab

orat

ive

cont

ribu

tions

in a

ddit

ion

to

mor

e tr

adit

iona

l con

trib

utio

ns

Sco

tt a

nd R

evis

(2

008)

R

evie

ws

deve

lopm

ents

in c

aree

r m

anag

emen

t & n

otio

ns o

f ta

lent

fro

m

an o

rgan

isat

iona

l & h

ospi

talit

y gr

adua

te p

ersp

ecti

ve

– N

o em

piri

cal d

ata

Iden

tifi

es th

ree

them

es in

the

lite

ratu

re: (

1) th

e gr

adua

te a

s ta

lent

; (2)

man

agin

g &

dev

elop

ing

tale

nt f

or th

e ho

spit

alit

y in

dust

ry; (

3) h

ospi

talit

y gr

adua

te c

aree

r m

anag

emen

t

Sw

aile

s

(201

3)

Con

side

rs th

e et

hica

l iss

ues

surr

ound

ing

orga

nisa

tion

al

appr

oach

es to

TM

Dut

y et

hics

, vir

tue

ethi

c, d

istr

ibut

ive

just

ice

theo

ry,

stak

ehol

der

theo

ry

No

empi

rica

l dat

a P

ropo

ses

a fr

amew

ork

to in

flue

nce

the

enac

tmen

t of

TM

in o

rgan

isat

ions

that

may

le

ad to

mor

e et

hica

l app

roac

hes

Tat

li e

t al.

(2

012)

D

iscu

sses

whe

ther

the

use

of g

ende

r qu

otas

wou

ld a

ssis

t TM

in th

e A

sia

Pac

ific

Reg

ion

– N

o em

piri

cal d

ata

Man

y A

sian

eco

nom

ies

are

suff

erin

g fr

om

sign

ific

ant t

alen

t sho

rtag

es b

ut d

espi

te th

is a

re

fail

ing

to d

raw

on

an u

nuse

d ta

lent

poo

l – h

igh

pote

ntia

l fem

ales

. Sug

gest

s th

at in

tegr

atin

g T

M

wit

h ge

nder

equ

alit

y m

ay p

rovi

de o

ptio

ns to

or

gani

sati

ons

in th

is r

egio

n to

add

ress

som

e ta

lent

sho

rtag

es

Thu

nnis

sen

et a

l. (2

013)

A

rev

iew

of

the

tale

nt m

anag

emen

t li

tera

ture

–

Str

uctu

red

lite

ratu

re r

evie

w

Arg

ues

that

the

tale

nt m

anag

emen

t lit

erat

ure

is

too

one-

dim

ensi

onal

and

nar

row

and

ove

rly

unit

aris

t and

man

ager

iali

st. S

ugge

sts

that

ther

e is

a n

eed

for

a m

ore

plur

alis

t app

roac

h th

at

wou

ld in

volv

e ad

ditio

nal a

ppro

ach

such

as

stak

ehol

der

theo

ry



Aut

hors

P

aper

aim

/TM

focu

s Th

eore

tica

l/lite

ratu

re

fram

ing

Met

hods

K

ey fi

ndin

gs

Val

verd

e et

al.

(201

3)

Exa

min

es T

M in

Spa

nish

sm

all–

med

ium

-siz

ed f

irm

s –

Six

cas

e st

udie

s of

sm

all-

med

ium

fir

ms

in

Spa

in. S

emi-

stru

ctur

ed in

terv

iew

s w

ith

the

owne

r of

the

com

pany

alo

ng w

ith

the

HR

m

anag

er to

ok p

lace

alo

ng w

ith

one

to tw

o em

ploy

ee le

vel i

nter

view

s (t

alen

ts &

non

-ta

lent

s w

here

thes

e w

ere

iden

tifie

d) in

eac

h ca

se

Lit

tle

awar

enes

s of

eit

her

the

term

, TM

, or

th

e rh

etor

ic s

urro

undi

ng th

e co

ncep

t was

fo

und

even

whe

re p

ract

ices

that

are

oft

en

cons

true

d as

TM

wer

e be

ing

used

Wan

g-C

owha

m

(201

1)

Exp

lore

s th

e co

nnec

tion

betw

een

tale

nt d

evel

opm

ent &

kno

wle

dge

shar

ing

mec

hani

sms

Soci

al e

xcha

nge

theo

ry &

kno

wle

dge

shar

ing

Sem

i-st

ruct

ured

inte

rvie

ws

wit

h 20

C

hine

se H

R p

ract

ition

ers

Kno

wle

dge

shar

ing

soci

alis

atio

n m

echa

nism

s in

tegr

ated

wit

h ta

lent

dev

elop

men

t can

fa

cilit

ate

orga

nisa

tion

al k

now

ledg

e sh

arin

g &

su

ppor

t ind

ivid

ual &

org

anis

atio

nal-

led

tale

nt

deve

lopm

ent

Wat

son

(200

8)

Rev

iew

s th

e co

mpo

nent

s of

m

anag

emen

t dev

elop

men

t & f

acto

rs

infl

uenc

ing

it &

how

thes

e fi

t wit

h T

M in

the

hosp

ital

ity

indu

stry

– N

o em

piri

cal d

ata

Pre

sent

s a

fram

ewor

k of

the

man

agem

ent

deve

lopm

ent i

ssue

s af

fect

ing

TM

in th

e ho

spita

lity

indu

stry

. The

se e

ncom

pass

ex

tern

al &

inte

rnal

fac

tors

alo

ng w

ith s

kills

&

com

pete

ncie

s, c

aree

r is

sues

& d

evel

opm

ent

prac

tice

s

Whe

lan

and

Car

cary

(20

11)

Con

side

rs h

ow th

e pr

inci

ples

of

TM

ca

n be

use

d to

enh

ance

kno

wle

dge

man

agem

ent (

KM

) in

itiat

ives

– O

ne f

ocus

gro

up o

f th

ree

KM

pra

ctit

ione

rs

Fiv

e K

M c

once

rns

arou

nd T

M c

an b

e le

vera

ged

to im

prov

e K

M: (

1) id

enti

fyin

g kn

owle

dge

wor

kers

; (2)

kno

wle

dge

crea

tion

; (3

) kn

owle

dge

shar

ing;

(4)

dev

elop

ing

know

ledg

e co

mpe

tenc

ies;

(5)

kno

wle

dge

rete

ntio

n. T

hese

KM

con

cern

s ca

n be

nefi

t fro

m

the

inte

grat

ion

of T

M b

ut th

ey a

re n

ot o

f eq

ual

valu

e/im

port

ance

Whe

lan

et a

l. (2

010)

E

xam

ines

how

ext

erna

l kno

wle

dge

reac

hes

staf

f w

ith th

e ab

ility

to e

xplo

it su

ch k

now

ledg

e fo

r in

nova

tion

pu

rpos

es &

the

spec

ific

tale

nts

thes

e in

divi

dual

s ex

hibi

t

Tec

hnol

ogic

al

gate

keep

er th

eory

S

ingl

e ca

se s

tudy

of

a m

edic

al d

evic

es

R&

D g

roup

in I

rela

nd th

at in

clud

ed s

ocia

l ne

twor

k an

alys

is b

ased

on

a qu

esti

onna

ire,

as

wel

l as

ten

sem

i-st

ruct

ured

inte

rvie

ws

Gat

ekee

ping

rol

es a

re v

ital

to a

n ef

fect

ive

R&

D o

pera

tion

but

it is

rar

e fo

r a

sing

le

indi

vidu

al to

hav

e th

e ta

lent

s re

quir

ed f

or th

e ac

quis

ition

& d

isse

min

atio

n of

ext

erna

l kn

owle

dge



Aut

hors

P

aper

aim

/TM

focu

s Th

eore

tica

l/lite

ratu

re

fram

ing

Met

hods

K

ey fi

ndin

gs

Wib

len

et a

l. (2

012)

In

vest

igat

es th

e ro

le o

f th

at

tech

nolo

gy p

lays

in id

entif

ying

tale

nt

– S

ingl

e ca

se s

tudy

of

a la

rge

prof

essi

onal

se

rvic

es f

irm

in A

ustr

alia

invo

lvin

g

42 s

emi-

stru

ctur

ed in

terv

iew

s of

m

anag

ers

invo

lved

in ta

lent

iden

tific

atio

n

Dec

isio

ns o

n w

heth

er a

n em

ploy

ee w

as a

‘t

alen

t’ w

ere

com

mon

ly b

ased

on

subj

ecti

ve

eval

uati

ons

alth

ough

, on

occa

sion

, thi

s w

as

com

bine

d w

ith m

ore

obje

ctiv

e, f

orm

al

mea

sure

s fa

cili

tate

d by

IT

van

Roo

ij (

2012

) A

naly

ses

the

trai

ning

lite

ratu

re to

es

tabl

ish

the

incl

usiv

enes

s of

old

er

wor

kers

thro

ugh

the

lens

of

syst

emat

ic

inst

ruct

iona

l des

ign

Inst

ruct

iona

l des

ign

liter

atur

e N

o em

piri

cal d

ata

HR

man

ager

s ne

ed to

app

reci

ate

age-

incl

usiv

e tr

aini

ng d

esig

n &

inte

grat

e th

ese

prin

cipl

es

into

the

firm

’s T

M s

trat

egy

Yan

ador

i and

K

ang

(201

1)

Ana

lyse

s co

mpe

nsat

ion

syst

ems

for

R&

D s

taff

and

adm

inis

trat

ive

empl

oyee

s in

US

hig

h-te

chno

logy

or

gani

sati

ons

HR

arc

hite

ctur

e lit

erat

ure

Indi

vidu

al e

mpl

oyee

com

pens

atio

n ra

tes

from

100

US

high

tech

nolo

gy p

ublic

and

pr

ivat

e fi

rms

gath

ered

thro

ugh

an a

nnua

l co

mpe

nsat

ion

surv

ey c

arri

ed o

ut b

y a

Bos

ton

cons

ultin

g fi

rm f

rom

199

2 to

200

2.

Com

pens

atio

n fo

r 98

8, 2

23 e

mpl

oyee

s –

of

whi

ch r

ough

ly o

ne-f

ourt

h w

ere

adm

inis

trat

ive

staf

f. N

o re

spon

se r

ate

prov

ided

If f

irm

s de

viat

e fr

om m

arke

t rat

es to

o m

uch

then

this

may

hav

e a

nega

tive

infl

uenc

e on

th

e at

trac

tion

& r

eten

tion

of

tale

nt b

y un

derp

ayin

g st

aff

or in

crea

sing

rew

ards

. T

he f

indi

ngs

endo

rse

crit

icis

ms

from

TM

on

unn

eces

sary

mai

nten

ance

of

a m

onol

ithi

c ap

proa

ch to

HR

M a

cros

s em

ploy

ee g

roup

s al

thou

gh o

ther

lite

ratu

res

note

the

dang

ers

of

pay

dif

fere

ntia

tion

too

Yar

nall

(2

011)

R

evie

ws

the

case

stu

dy li

tera

ture

for

th

e po

tent

ial i

mpl

icat

ions

of

sele

ctin

g &

dev

elop

ing

spec

ific

tale

nt p

ools

w

ithin

fir

ms

– N

o em

piri

cal d

ata

Sev

en f

acto

rs e

mer

ged

as im

port

ant i

n ef

fect

ivel

y us

ing

tale

nt p

ools

. The

fir

st tw

o re

fer

to e

stab

lish

ing

an e

ffec

tive

app

roac

h ar

ound

seg

men

tatio

n &

the

nom

inat

ion

proc

ess.

The

rem

aini

ng a

re c

ateg

oris

ed a

s m

aint

enan

ce w

hich

incl

ude

bein

g co

gnis

ant o

f ch

angi

ng b

usin

ess

need

s, c

hang

ing

indi

vidu

al

circ

umst

ance

s, p

rovi

ding

dev

elop

men

tal

oppo

rtun

ities

, sen

ior

leve

l com

mit

men

t &

succ

ess

mea

sure

s

Yoo

n an

d L

im

(201

0)

Dis

cuss

es v

irtu

al le

arni

ng &

te

chno

logi

es &

how

sys

tem

isat

ion

can

occu

r th

roug

h m

anag

ing

firm

co

mpe

tenc

y &

tale

nts

Ble

nded

lear

ning

N

o em

piri

cal d

ata

Man

agin

g fi

rm c

ompe

tenc

y as

sist

s in

pr

iori

tisi

ng le

arni

ng &

tech

nolo

gies

, whi

le

TM

hel

ps d

evel

op a

sys

tem

to d

evel

op &

re

tain

tale

nts.

TM

sho

uld

be p

art o

f H

RD

pr

acti

ces


The review reveals that scholars of the management of talented individuals are more interested in understanding the broader concerns facing organisations rather than individual TM practices such as succession, recruitment or compensation issues. As a result there is a serious gap in our knowledge regarding how talented individuals are managed, especially regarding the processes organisations use to recruit, motivate and reward talent. Talent retention, however, is an exception. For example, Cappelli (2000) suggests that

organisations need to adopt a more market-oriented approach in retaining talent. He argued that the idea of adopting a long-term strategy, across the enterprise, craving employee loyalty as being neither desirable nor achievable. This perspective challenges organisations to reconsider the perspective that employee turnover is always negative with a more nuanced understanding by focusing on who is leaving and where they are taking up new roles. Consequently, he argues that there needs to be tailored retention programs for different talent which should tie in with the level of demand for them on the external labour market.

Tymon et al. (2010) using large scale survey evidence from India found that employee perceptions of the company as being socially responsible were related to organisational pride, which directly impacted satisfaction with the organisation; this satisfaction was associated with reduced intention to leave and improved perceptions of career success. A later paper from the same data set (Doh et al., 2011) found that responsible leadership was another critical factor in retention.

Other papers have sought to be more holistic in covering recruitment and retention together. For example, Hiltrop (1999) analyses some of the strategies and practices that firms utilise in attracting and retaining talent. A key conclusion is the need for tailored strategies and practices to meet the expectations and needs of particular target groups in attracting them to the organisation and subsequently motivating and retaining them. Zheng et al. (2008) found that manufacturing firms in Asia had to be particularly aggressive in attracting and retaining highly skilled managerial and professional staff with organisations in the Tiger economies of Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines and Thailand. Remaining in the emerging markets, Ready et al. (2008) proposed a set of principles for attracting and retaining talent, built around the organisation’s purpose, culture, brand and opportunities provided to individuals. These authors urge caution to organisations that view their domestic talent strategies being effective in emerging markets with the development of a core of local talent vital to business success in these countries.

5.2 Identifying strategic positions and talent management systems

The second approach to the management of talent focuses on strategic positions and TM systems in organisations. A growing body of research emphasises the identification of strategic or pivotal positions which have the potential to differentially impact the competitive advantage of the organisation (e.g. Boudreau and Ramstad, 2005; Collings and Mellahi, 2009). The point of departure is the identification of key positions rather than talented individuals per se. Thus, the point is made that not every position in the organisation needs to be filled with the highest performers. Collings and Mellahi (2009) argue that the starting point for any TM system should be the systematic identification of the key positions which differentially contribute to an organisation’s sustainable competitive advantage. This approach reflects the evolution of the strategic HRM literature which increasingly recognises that there should be a greater degree of differentiation of roles within organisations, with more emphasis on strategic over non-strategic jobs (Becker and Huselid, 2006), or between those organisational roles which


promise only marginal impact vis-à-vis those which can provide above-average impact (Boudreau and Ramstad, 2007). This is in contrast to the situation in many organisations where overinvestment in non-strategic roles is commonplace (Boudreau and Ramstad, 2007; Huselid et al., 2005). This approach diverges from the traditional focus of strategic HRM research, which adopted a bottom-up focus in theory development, emphasising the idea that employees can contribute to the firm’s strategic objective simply because of their value and uniqueness (Becker and Huselid, 2006). In contrast, this perspective advocates a top-down approach and recognises that ‘… not all strategic processes will be highly dependent on human capital’ and hence not all roles require ‘A players’. Thus, the differentiating factor in explaining strategic value becomes the job not the individual. These ‘A positions’ are distinguished by their ‘disproportionate importance to a company’s ability to execute some parts of its strategy and second … the wide variability in the quality of the work displayed among the employees in these positions’. Human capital is of little economic value unless it is deployed in the implementation of the organisation’s strategic intent, or in the pivotal roles within the organisation (Boxall and Purcell, 2011).

Our review suggests that more recently there has been an evolution of thought with an increasing realisation that ‘great systems are often more important than great people’ (Beechler and Woodward, 2009, p.277). Reflecting this argument Collings and Mellahi (2009) draw upon the ability-motivation-opportunity (AMO) framework to highlight that performance is more complex than simply employing great talent. The AMO framework proposes that employee performance (P) is a function of the employee’s ability (A), motivation (M) and opportunity (O) to perform. Thus, assuming that ability is taken as a given, seeing as an organisation’s key talent are the focus of the system, it is important that the organisation has systems which ensure these individuals have the opportunity to perform (through supporting development opportunities and ensuring they are deployed effectively) and are highly motivated (through appropriate HR policies and supports) to maximise performance.

In the vein of systems, several papers explored the use of information technology (IT) in the identification and management of talent. This theme reflects the increasing search for more evidence-based decisions around talent (see Vaiman et al., 2013). For example, the issue of analytics is considered by Harris et al. (2011) who discuss how analytical methods can be used to better argue that investing in human capital leads to a return on financial capital. To be effective, data (bedrock of effective analytical approaches), analyses and processes throughout the organisation need to be integrated. Inherent in this is the need to move away from static reporting of convenience data to using more outcome-focused predictive measures. However, Wiblen et al.’s (2012) study challenges the extent to which the data from systems actually inform talent decisions. Drawing on the social construction of technology literature, the authors found that the role of IT was contested and marginalised by decision-makers as they preferred to make both individual and collective sense of their environment. Decisions on whether an individual was a talent or not were typically based on subjective interpretations. It was clear that there were significant variations in understanding of what constituted talent and how to identify it with the authors suggesting that the potential of IT to facilitate better talent identifications decisions was very much under-realised. The paper points to the limited use of analytics even where they exist.

Given that the common focus appears to be on a small and exclusive group of employees, attention has been drawn to the ethical implications of TM and focusing on particular individuals with high potential. Swailes (2013) argues that while a


differentiated, exclusive approach may make intuitive sense, there are ethical issues and challenges. Swailes (2013, p.41) develops a useful evaluation framework encompassing four stages that organisations can consider in determining the ethical standing of their approach to talent management. The first imagines talent where views are free of bias and exemplify virtue. Key questions that are raised include, is an elitist TM program needed and how can it be effectively communicated to the workforce? Further, to what extent is the program free of bias (e.g. gender) and does it effectively differentiate between talent and popularity? Second, in identifying talent there are ethical issues if not all individuals are provided with just opportunity to be considered. Consequently, central considerations are whether all staff receive a fair opportunity to be considered as a talent and what efforts have been made to remove bias from the identification stage. The third element of the framework is developing talent. This raises the issue of how ‘non-talents’ will feel about being excluded from an exclusive TM program and what resources are made available to these vis-à-vis those classified as talent. The final stage is that on evaluating the program and considering how it benefits those excluded from it. A key point put forward is that duty and virtue ethics promote the idea that TM should be ethical, and drawing on the distribute justice literature, stakeholder theory and utilitarianism argues that excluded individuals still benefit in some form. Similarly, Downs and Swailes (2013) argue that current focus on talented individuals and high performers represent a ‘dark side’ of TM which is likely to be detrimental to both individuals and organisations. The topic of ethics and TM is something that we feel warrants greater attention and as a result, we return to this later in the paper.

6 Individual talent perspectives

While our review identifies a strand of research focusing strongly on the individual talents, this theme has received considerably less attention. One illustrative exception is Bjorkman et al.’s (2013) study. Their research found significant differences between individuals who were identified as ‘talent’ and those who were not and those who did not know. Specifically, individuals who perceived they had been identified as talent compared to those who were not had lower turnover intent were more committed to increasing their performance levels, more actively supportive of their employer’s strategic objectives, identified to a greater degree with the focal organisation and were more committed to developing competencies of value to the firm. Broadly similar findings emerged for those who perceived they had been identified as talent compared to those who did not know if they were regarded as talented or not. Consequently, there appears to be a motivational impact on informing individuals of their talent status. Dries et al. (2012a) considered whether the traditional view of careers still had resonance in the case of high potentials and average performing staff. Their findings indicated that high potentials reported higher levels of job security and salary increases than average performers. It appeared that attitudes and inducements associated with traditional careers were clearer in the case of high potentials. The findings led the researchers to conclude that the traditional organisational career remains relevant among the highest performing individuals. Related to the articles around ethical issues (e.g. Swailes, 2013), Bjorkman et al. recommend that organisations should ensure that they ‘consider the potential long term implications of identifying talent, and to counterbalance the focus on top talent’ with approaches that encompass diversity and are more inclusive than very elitist systems (2013, p.210).


Table 3 Summary of articles focusing on talent/talented individuals

Aut

hors

P

aper

aim

/TM

focu

s Th

eore

tica

l/lit

erat

ure

fram

ing

Met

hods

K

ey fi

ndin

gs

Bjo

rkm

an e

t al.

(201

3)

Exa

min

es w

hat e

ffec

t tal

ent

iden

tifi

cati

on h

as o

n em

ploy

ee

atti

tude

s

Soc

ial e

xcha

nge

theo

ry

Onl

ine

surv

ey o

f 93

0 m

anag

ers

&

prof

essi

onal

s in

106

sub

sidi

arie

s of

11

Nor

dic

MN

Cs

(76%

res

pons

e ra

te)

The

res

ults

indi

cate

that

info

rmin

g

tale

nted

sta

ff o

f th

eir

stat

us w

ill h

ave

a m

otiv

atio

nal e

ffec

t tha

t mat

ches

the

pred

icti

ons

of s

ocia

l exc

hang

e th

eory

and

su

ppor

ts th

e lo

gic

of T

M

Dri

es a

nd

Pep

perm

ans

(201

2)

Ana

lyse

s th

e li

tera

ture

to a

rriv

e at

a

mod

el o

f ho

w to

mor

e ef

fect

ivel

y id

enti

fy le

ader

ship

tale

nt

– A

lite

ratu

re r

evie

w le

d to

the

deve

lopm

ent

of 7

7 cr

iter

ia o

f le

ader

ship

pot

entia

l. T

hese

cr

iter

ia w

ere

sent

to 3

2 su

bjec

t exp

erts

(s

tude

nts

of a

Mas

ters

of

Indu

stri

al &

O

rgan

isat

iona

l Psy

chol

ogy

& s

enio

r H

R

prof

essi

onal

s) in

Bel

gium

who

wer

e as

ked

to p

ut th

em in

to s

truc

ture

d pi

les

acco

rdin

g to

m

eani

ng &

rel

evan

ce &

labe

l the

m

Ana

lyti

cal s

kill

s (i

ncor

pora

ting

inte

llec

tual

cu

rios

ity,

str

ateg

ic in

sigh

t, de

cisi

on-m

akin

g

& p

robl

em-s

olvi

ng);

lear

ning

agi

lity

(w

illi

ngne

ss to

lear

n, e

mot

iona

l int

elli

genc

e

& a

dapt

abil

ity)

; dri

ve (

resu

lts

orie

ntat

ion,

pe

rsev

eran

ce &

ded

icat

ion)

; & e

mer

gent

le

ader

ship

(m

otiv

atio

n to

lead

, sel

f-pr

omot

ion

& s

take

hold

er s

ensi

tivi

ty)

repr

esen

t a f

our-

quad

rant

mod

el o

f id

entif

ying

lead

ersh

ip

pote

ntia

l

Dri

es e

t al.

(201

2a)

Exa

min

es w

heth

er th

e ca

reer

s li

tera

ture

th

at a

rgue

s th

at th

e tr

aditi

onal

or

gani

sati

onal

car

eer

is d

ead

is c

lose

r to

the

trut

h th

an th

e T

M li

tera

ture

that

su

gges

ts th

ey r

emai

n si

gnif

ican

t pa

rtic

ular

ly a

mon

g th

e be

st p

eopl

e

Bou

ndar

yles

s ca

reer

, jo

b se

curi

ty,

orga

nisa

tion

al s

uppo

rt,

care

er o

rien

tati

on,

loya

lty

pref

eren

ce,

orga

nisa

tion

al

com

mit

men

t, ca

reer

sa

tisf

acti

on li

tera

ture

s

Onl

ine

surv

ey o

f 94

1 hi

gh p

oten

tials

&

aver

age

perf

orm

ers

(con

trol

gro

up)

from

12

Bel

gian

, int

erna

tiona

lly

acti

ve f

irm

s op

erat

ing

in th

e ba

nkin

g, in

sura

nce,

bus

ines

s co

nsul

ting,

IC

T, e

nerg

y &

aut

omot

ive

sect

ors

(49%

res

pons

e ra

te)

Hig

h po

tent

ials

& th

ose

iden

tifi

ed a

s ke

y ex

pert

s re

port

ed h

ighe

r jo

b se

curi

ty &

sa

lary

incr

ease

s si

nce

join

ing

the

orga

nisa

tion

th

an a

vera

ge p

erfo

rmer

s. H

igh

pote

ntia

ls

also

rep

orte

d m

ore

orga

nisa

tion

al s

uppo

rt,

mor

e pr

omot

ions

& h

ighe

r or

gani

sati

onal

co

mm

itm

ent.

Indu

cem

ents

& a

ttit

udes

as

soci

ated

wit

h tr

adit

iona

l car

eers

wer

e ty

pica

lly

mor

e ob

viou

s in

the

case

of

high

po

tent

ials

Dri

es e

t al.

(201

2b)

Exa

min

es h

ow le

arni

ng a

gili

ty is

abl

e to

pre

dict

whe

ther

an

indi

vidu

al is

id

enti

fied

as

high

pot

enti

al

Lea

rnin

g ag

ilit

y A

sur

vey

was

con

duct

ed o

f hi

gh p

oten

tial

s an

d no

n-hi

gh p

oten

tial

sta

ff (

n =

63)

in

seve

n T

M b

est p

ract

ice

firm

s (a

s id

enti

fied

by

a c

onsu

ltan

cy f

irm

) st

emm

ing

from

fou

r in

dust

ries

(fi

nanc

ial c

onsu

ltin

g, d

istr

ibut

ion,

IC

T, t

elec

om).

No

resp

onse

rat

e pr

ovid

ed

Lea

rnin

g ag

ilit

y w

as a

bet

ter

pred

icto

r of

an

indi

vidu

al b

eing

iden

tifi

ed a

s a

high

po

tent

ial t

han

job

perf

orm

ance

. Car

eer

va

riet

y is

pos

itiv

ely

asso

ciat

ed w

ith

one’

s le

arni

ng a

gili

ty. F

irm

s sh

ould

con

side

r in

corp

orat

ing

lear

ning

agi

lity

into

thei

r ta

lent

id

enti

fica

tion

sys

tem

s an

d co

nsid

er h

ow th

ey

may

enh

ance

the

vari

ety

of h

igh

pote

ntia

ls’

care

ers


Table 3 Summary of articles focusing on talent/talented individuals (continued)

Aut

hors

P

aper

aim

/TM

focu

s T

heor

etic

al/l

iter

atur

e fr

amin

g M

etho

ds

Key

find

ings

Gro

ysbe

rg e

t al

. (2

008)

C

onsi

ders

whe

ther

a s

tar

in o

ne jo

b &

or

gani

sati

on r

emai

ns a

sta

r w

hen

they

m

ove

else

whe

re

– A

com

pari

son

of th

e pe

rfor

man

ce o

f st

ar,

US

, Nat

iona

l Foo

tbal

l Lea

gue

(NF

L)

wid

e re

ceiv

ers

& p

unte

rs w

ho s

wit

ched

tea

ms

wit

h th

eir

coun

terp

arts

who

did

not

mov

e

Hir

ing

star

indi

vidu

als

can

be r

isky

in

that

they

may

not

ach

ieve

thei

r pr

evio

us

leve

ls o

f pe

rfor

man

ce &

that

it m

ay i

mpa

ct

the

perf

orm

ance

& m

oral

e of

exi

stin

g st

aff.

M

anag

ers

wou

ld b

e ad

vise

d to

try

to m

inim

ise

the

port

abil

ity

of th

ose

in p

arti

cula

r st

ar

posi

tion

s so

as

to r

etai

n th

ose

indi

vidu

als

whi

ch p

rovi

de c

ompe

titi

ve a

dvan

tage

Hau

skne

cht

et a

l. (2

009)

E

xam

ines

why

hig

h pe

rfor

mer

s st

ay

wit

h th

eir

empl

oyer

T

heor

y of

or

gani

sati

onal

eq

uili

briu

m

Ann

ual (

2003

) em

ploy

ee o

pini

on s

urve

y of

em

ploy

ees

in a

larg

e ho

spit

alit

y/le

isur

e co

mpa

ny in

the

US

A. A

res

pons

e ra

te o

f 87

.7%

was

ach

ieve

d eq

uati

ng to

30,

556

indi

vidu

als.

The

pap

er d

raw

s on

ope

n-en

ded

ques

tion

res

pons

es f

rom

24,

829

Hig

h pe

rfor

mer

s &

non

-hou

rly

staf

f ci

te

adva

ncem

ent o

ppor

tuni

ties

& o

rgan

isat

iona

l pr

esti

ge a

s th

e m

ost

impo

rtan

t rea

sons

for

st

ayin

g w

ith

the

firm

. Hou

rly

and

low

pe

rfor

min

g st

aff

wer

e m

ore

like

ly to

cit

e ex

trin

sic

rew

ards

as

why

they

sta

y. T

he

find

ings

em

phas

ise

the

need

for

fir

ms

to

diff

eren

tiat

e th

eir

rete

ntio

n pr

acti

ces

Kim

et a

l. (

2012

) A

naly

ses

the

effe

cts

of i

ndiv

idua

l va

lues

on

appl

ican

t at

trac

tion

am

ong

Vie

tnam

ese

stud

ents

tow

ards

wor

king

in

Jap

anes

e co

mpa

nies

Per

son–

orga

nisa

tion

fi

t the

ory

& a

ttra

ctio

n–se

lect

ion–

attr

itio

n fr

amew

ork

Sur

vey

of u

nder

grad

uate

uni

vers

ity

stud

ents

in

thre

e pr

esti

giou

s V

ietn

ames

e un

iver

siti

es

cons

isti

ng o

f 32

6 re

spon

ses

(82%

res

pons

e ra

te)

Rec

ruit

ing

tale

nts

in V

ietn

am r

equi

res

clos

e un

ders

tand

ing

of in

divi

dual

dis

posi

tion

al

fact

ors

beca

use

the

rese

arch

sho

ws

that

wor

k-ce

ntri

c, m

oney

-ori

ente

d &

col

lect

ivis

tic

jo

b-se

eker

s w

ere

mor

e at

trac

ted

to J

apan

ese

MN

Cs.

Mor

eove

r, in

divi

dual

val

ues

m

oder

ate

the

rela

tion

ship

bet

wee

n fi

rm

char

acte

rist

ics

& a

ppli

cant

att

ract

ion

Tan

sley

and

T

ietz

e (2

013)

E

xam

ine

how

TM

is e

xper

ienc

ed a

nd

resp

onde

d to

by

indi

vidu

al ta

lent

s at

di

ffer

ent j

unct

ures

& c

onsi

der

how

id

enti

ty w

ork

impa

cts

the

tran

siti

onal

pr

oces

s of

indi

vidu

als

as th

ey a

dvan

ce

thro

ugh

a T

M p

rogr

am

Rit

es o

f pa

ssag

e C

ase

stud

y of

a m

ajor

acc

ount

ancy

co

nsul

tanc

y in

the

UK

inco

rpor

atin

g si

x se

mi-

stru

ctur

ed in

terv

iew

s w

ith

staf

f re

spon

sibl

e fo

r m

anag

emen

t tal

ent,

alon

g w

ith

two

focu

s gr

oups

of

staf

f at

dif

fere

nt

care

er s

tage

s &

whi

ch w

ere

rega

rded

as

tale

nt

Tec

hnic

al a

bili

ty is

im

port

ant b

ut n

ot

suff

icie

nt o

n it

s ow

n to

suc

cess

full

y

prog

ress

thro

ugh

the

tale

nt a

dvan

cem

ent

proc

ess.

Ide

ntit

y w

ork,

wit

h re

spec

t to

de

velo

ping

spe

cifi

c w

ork

orie

ntat

ions

&

disp

osit

ions

to a

ssis

t ind

ivid

uals

cop

e w

ith

incr

easi

ng a

mbi

guit

y &

cha

nge,

is

cent

ral

to

adva

ncem

ent

Wal

lace

et a

l. (2

012)

E

xam

ines

the

bra

nd a

ttri

bute

s th

at

grad

uate

s pl

ace

mos

t em

phas

is o

n &

co

nsid

ers

how

org

anis

atio

ns w

ith

a w

eak

bran

d ca

n en

gage

in

TM

Bra

nd e

quit

y &

si

gnal

ling

theo

ry

352

surv

eys

of f

inal

yea

r en

gine

erin

g st

uden

ts f

rom

fiv

e un

iver

siti

es &

a

tech

nica

l/fu

rthe

r ed

ucat

ion

coll

ege

in f

ive

Aus

tral

ian

stat

es (

86%

res

pons

e ra

te)

Gra

duat

es f

aile

d to

vie

w r

ail a

s ha

ving

a

bran

d po

siti

on. W

eake

r pr

ofil

e in

dust

ries

sh

ould

con

side

r th

e at

trib

utes

that

thei

r ta

rget

la

bour

poo

l fee

l are

im

port

ant

to th

em in

bu

ildi

ng a

n at

trac

tive

bra

nd


How talent is defined is a question that is widely identified as needing greater attention by researchers. Linked to the issue is the ability to effectively define and identify high potential – a term often used interchangeably with talent. Dries and colleagues have produced some of the most noteworthy research here. Dries and Peppermans (2012) utilise a range of qualitative and quantitative methodologies in considering how to identify leadership potential. They developed a four quadrant model of analytical skills, learning agility, drive and emergent leadership which received significant consensus (albeit from a limited sample) and addressed some of the issues that often impede the assessment of leadership potential (e.g. the performance versus potential conundrum). Dries et al. (2012b) evaluate, from the perspective of the rater, the ability of learning agility to predict whether an individual employee will be identified as high potential. They found that learning agility was a more effective predictor of an employee being labelled as a talent than job performance and that career variety had a positive association with an individual’s learning agility.

7 Global talent management

About one-third of the reviewed papers focused on the management of talent within MNCs, labelled as GTM. The review reveals that GTM suffers from similar issues to that of the overarching literature in that there is limited consensus on its meaning from a theoretical and conceptual perspective. Broadly defined, GTM refers to the activities of attracting, selecting, developing and retaining those best employees in the most strategy roles (those roles necessary to achieve organisational strategic priorities) on a global scale. It takes into account the differences in both organisations’ global strategic priorities as well as the differences across national contexts of how talent should be managed in the countries in which they operate (Scullion et al., 2010). Stahl et al. (2012) reiterates some of the issues already discussed around defining and assessing performance and potential but when one considers the global nature of MNCs the challenges are accentuated.

Tarique and Schuler (2010) identify a range of exogenous and endogenous GTM challenges, as well as discussing the major international HR activities that should be incorporated within GTM systems. Schuler et al. (2011) further consider several global talent challenges and the opportunities that these can present for MNCs. They develop nine propositions that integrate external forces and shapers, global talent challenges, practices and expected results. Kim and McLean (2012) consider why GTM is necessary and the key challenges in developing global talent in which they focus strongly on three main challenges, namely concerns about global mobility, the use of an ethnocentric strategy, and barriers between the headquarters and subsidiaries. They propose four Human Resource Development (HRD) roles for GTM which are balancing centralised and decentralised strategies, developing global competencies, creating structured global talent development, and global team building. McDonnell et al. (2010) provided large scale survey evidence on the use of different mechanisms by MNCs in Ireland encompassing some of the roles raised by Kim and McLean (2012). They further note they found contextual factors as important predictors of GTM with the larger MNCs and the provision of standardised products and services between subsidiaries particularly significant.


Minbaeva and Collings (2013) reiterate a point long-made in the international HRM literature about the additional challenges that management on a global rather than domestic scale inevitably involves. They consider seven myths which, though more focused on the MNC context, could also be proposed for TM itself. We outline these here and integrate other research where they resonate with the myth. The first myth proposed is that TM is not an HR responsibility. They note that while the top management team are critical in effective TM, the corporate HR function must keep a central role in how GTM is operationalised across subsidiaries. The key issue is the HR function’s capacity to demonstrate and convince senior management that they have the capabilities to manage the MNC’s global talent pool. The role of the corporate HR function in MNCs has received some attention by way of proposing different roles that the function plays in GTM (Farndale et al., 2010; Sparrow et al., 2013). Specifically, the four roles proposed that facilitate GTM effectiveness are being guardians of culture, champion of processes, managing receptivity, and network leadership and intelligence. Based on two cases, Sparrow et al. (2013) found support for the four roles and the interdependencies between them. It was also shown that external factors, like the Global Financial Crisis (GFC), impacted on the role played. Garavan (2012) similarly noted GTM was viewed as strategically important by stakeholders of pharmaceutical MNCs and that the GFC perpetuated greater control over talent coupled with increased involvement of the corporate and regional headquarters in subsidiary level talent decisions.

The second myth is that TM is all about people and this is counterpoised with the notion that it is pivotal positions which are the bedrock of any effective system. The third myth is that all positions require A players instead suggesting that the focus should be on improving the positioning and retention of A players in the MNCs’ pivotal positions. The portability of talent is the source of myth number four. The fifth myth debunks the idea of employee turnover as always negative. Calling for a more nuanced approach and drawing on the work of Somaya et al. (2008) they suggest that investing in the maintenance of relationships with departing staff may be a beneficial strategy in the long run. The penultimate myth is that there is a clear line of sight between GTM and MNC performance. Demonstrating cause and effect between HR and firm performance is notoriously difficult to establish with the MNC context adding to this challenge. A more holistic return on investment measure is suggested that incorporates multiple stakeholders and quantitative and qualitative measures. Finally, they suggest that TM decisions are not necessarily fair due to the limitations of standardised evaluation instruments in culturally distant contexts. This was something centred on by Mäkelä et al. (2010) in examining the factors that influence the likelihood of being classified as talent within MNCs. They propose that the higher the cultural and institutional distance between where individuals are located and where the primary decision-makers are based, the less likelihood she/he is viewed as talent. The greater the degree of similarity between candidate and decision-maker will increase the likelihood. Finally, the more central an individual is within the MNC’s internal network, the more likely she/he will be included in a talent pool. Zander et al. (2010) also consider such issues using intersectionality theory as a new means of considering how social interaction impacts the interplay between an MNCs’ talent identification and individuals’ identification processes. Further, Mellahi and Collings (2010) in a conceptual piece suggest that subsidiary management may attempt to circumvent their most talented staff being identified as talent in the MNC because the subsidiary may be perceived to gain little from doing so. They also point to the challenge of completely understanding talent resources in the MNC and suggest that it may go beyond the capability of managers at the corporate HQ.


Table 4 Summary of articles focusing on global talent management

Aut

hors

P

aper

aim

/TM

focu

s T

heor

etic

al/

lite

ratu

re fr

amin

g M

etho

ds

Key

find

ings

Bur

bach

and

R

oyle

(20

10)

Exp

lore

s ho

w ta

lent

is m

anag

ed in

M

NC

s, th

e ro

le o

f H

R I

T s

yste

ms

&

the

fact

ors

whi

ch m

edia

te th

e T

M

proc

ess

– S

ingl

e ca

se s

tudy

of

Iris

h &

Ger

man

su

bsid

iari

es o

f a

US

, med

ical

dev

ices

M

NC

TM

pra

ctic

e di

ffus

ion

was

con

ting

ent o

n st

akeh

olde

r in

volv

emen

t, to

p le

vel s

uppo

rt,

mic

ro-p

olit

ical

exc

hang

es a

nd in

tegr

atio

n w

ith

a gl

obal

HR

IT

sys

tem

Doh

et a

l.

(201

1)

Exa

min

es th

e pe

rcep

tion

s of

pr

ofes

sion

al ta

lent

tow

ards

thei

r fi

rm’s

T

M e

ffor

ts

– S

trat

ifie

d ra

ndom

sam

ple

of e

mpl

oyee

s w

as ta

ken

wit

h 48

91 p

arti

cipa

ting

in a

n on

line

sur

vey

(54%

res

pons

e ra

te).

28

com

pani

es in

Ind

ia e

ncom

pass

ing

32

oper

atin

g si

tes

cons

isti

ng o

f fo

reig

n M

NC

s, I

ndia

n M

NC

s an

d In

dian

dom

esti

c fi

rms

wer

e in

clud

ed

Com

pani

es p

rovi

ding

mea

ning

ful &

re

spon

sive

app

roac

hes

to d

evel

opin

g an

d m

anag

ing

tale

nt w

ill b

e in

a s

tron

ger

po

sitio

n in

ret

aini

ng th

eir

prof

essi

onal

s.

The

em

ploy

ee v

alue

pro

posi

tion

off

ered

to

prof

essi

onal

sta

ff is

impo

rtan

t as

it c

an g

ive

the

com

pany

an

edge

ove

r it

s co

mpe

tito

rs in

at

trac

ting

& r

etai

ning

tale

nt

Far

ndal

e et

al.

(201

0)

Exa

min

es th

e ro

le o

f th

e co

rpor

ate

HR

fu

ncti

on in

GT

M

– N

o em

piri

cal d

ata

Sug

gest

s th

at th

ere

are

four

key

rol

es th

at

the

corp

orat

e H

R f

unct

ion

can

play

in G

TM

, na

mel

y ch

ampi

on o

f pr

oces

ses,

gua

rdia

n of

cu

ltur

e, n

etw

ork

lead

ersh

ip &

inte

llig

ence

&

man

ager

s of

inte

rnal

, rec

epti

vity

Gar

avan

(20

12)

Inve

stig

ates

how

act

ors

view

a f

irm

’s

stra

tegi

c pr

iori

ties

dur

ing

the

GF

C &

ho

w th

ese

alig

n w

ith

GT

M

Res

ourc

e-ba

sed

view

, be

st-f

it (

cont

inge

ncy)

&

res

ourc

e de

pend

ency

theo

ries

Non

e ca

se s

tudi

es o

f ph

arm

aceu

tica

l M

NC

s in

Ire

land

inco

rpor

atin

g 12

0 se

mi-

stru

ctur

ed in

terv

iew

s w

ith

info

rman

ts f

rom

di

ffer

ent l

evel

s of

the

orga

nisa

tion

hi

erar

chy

GT

M w

as a

key

str

ateg

ic a

ctiv

ity

duri

ng

the

GF

C th

roug

h as

sist

ing

man

agem

ent i

n do

wns

izin

g, e

xpan

sion

& r

e-al

igni

ng

stru

ctur

es. G

TM

was

vie

wed

as

an e

nabl

er

to f

utur

e gr

owth

Har

tman

n et

al.

(201

0)

Exa

min

es T

M in

wes

tern

MN

Cs

in

Chi

na a

nd th

e in

flue

nce

of in

stit

utio

nal

& c

ultu

ral f

acto

rs in

dif

fusi

ng p

ract

ices

fr

om th

e H

Q to

sub

sidi

arie

s

– S

even

cas

e st

udie

s of

US

& E

urop

ean

MN

Cs

in C

hina

(m

anuf

actu

ring

& s

ervi

ces

indu

stry

) co

nsis

ting

of

inte

rvie

ws

wit

h (s

enio

r/m

iddl

e le

vel H

R m

anag

ers

and

‘tal

ents

’)

The

TM

sys

tem

is tr

ansf

erre

d fr

om H

Q

wit

hout

muc

h ch

ange

& is

foc

used

on

deve

lopi

ng ‘

tale

nts’

& b

uild

ing

an

orga

nisa

tion

al c

ultu

re. I

nteg

rate

d, s

trat

egic

T

M w

as n

ot p

arti

cula

rly

evid

ent

Har

vey

et a

l. (2

011)

P

ropo

ses

a se

ries

of

hypo

thes

es a

roun

d th

e ro

le o

f tr

ust i

n im

prov

ing

glob

al

rela

tion

ship

s in

clud

ing

the

impa

ct o

n G

TM

Ref

eren

ce p

oint

th

eory

N

o em

piri

cal d

ata

The

dev

elop

men

t of

trus

t bet

wee

n in

patr

iate

s an

d he

adqu

arte

rs s

taff

wil

l fac

ilit

ate

glob

al

mob

ilit

y w

hich

wil

l pos

itiv

ely

impa

ct o

n th

e ab

ilit

y to

dev

elop

glo

bal t

alen

t

Hua

ng a

nd

Tan

sley

(20

12)

Inve

stig

ates

how

an

MN

C u

sed

rhet

oric

al u

nder

pinn

ings

in

impl

emen

ting

TM

Rhe

tori

c th

eory

S

ingl

e U

S M

NC

cas

e st

udy

enco

mpa

ssin

g 62

inte

rvie

ws

from

six

reg

ions

incl

udin

g H

Q c

onsi

stin

g of

exe

cuti

ves

& m

anag

ers

from

acr

oss

func

tion

s. T

hree

foc

us g

roup

s w

ere

also

hel

d fr

om n

on-m

anag

eria

l, op

erat

iona

l sta

ff

Man

agem

ent r

heto

rica

lly

emot

iona

lise

thei

r st

aff

abou

t the

re b

eing

a ‘

tale

nt w

ar’

outs

ide

the

fact

ory

to a

ccom

mod

ate

chan

ging

ag

enda

s &

cir

cum

stan

ces.

Thi

s as

sist

ed th

e M

NC

to c

over

up

inco

nsis

tent

pra

ctic

es &

le

giti

mis

e T

M


Table 4 Summary of articles focusing on global talent management (continued)

Aut

hors

P

aper

aim

/TM

foc

us

The

oret

ical

/ li

tera

ture

fra

min

g M

etho

ds

Key

fin

ding

s

Iles

et

al.

(201

0a)

Ana

lyse

s ho

w M

NC

s in

Chi

na d

efin

e T

M &

whe

ther

it

is v

iew

ed a

s di

scre

te

man

agem

ent

acti

vity

dif

fere

nt t

o H

RM

– S

even

cas

e st

udie

s of

US

& E

urop

ean

MN

Cs

(IT

, edu

cati

on, h

ealt

hcar

e,

cons

ulta

ncy

sect

ors)

in

Chi

na in

volv

ing

22

sem

i-st

ruct

ured

inte

rvie

ws

wit

h in

divi

dual

s at

dif

fere

nt o

rgan

isat

iona

l le

vels

& w

ithi

n di

ffer

ent

func

tion

s

TM

was

not

vie

wed

as

esse

ntia

lly

diff

eren

t

to H

RM

thou

gh H

RM

is

view

ed a

s ha

ving

br

oade

r sc

ope.

TM

pro

mot

es s

egm

enta

tion

, w

here

as H

RM

pro

mot

es e

gali

tari

anis

m

Kim

and

McL

ean

(201

2)

Iden

tifi

es t

he n

eces

sity

& c

hall

enge

s

of T

M i

n a

glob

al c

onte

xt &

pro

pose

s ro

les

for

HR

D

– N

o em

piri

cal

data

P

ropo

ses

a fr

amew

ork

of t

he n

eces

sity

, ch

alle

nges

& H

RD

rol

es f

or G

TM

Li

and

Scu

llio

n (2

010)

D

evel

ops

a co

ncep

tual

fra

mew

ork

for

deve

lopi

ng e

xpat

riat

e m

anag

ers’

loc

al

com

pete

nce

in t

he e

mer

ging

mar

kets

Soc

iali

sati

on,

Ext

erna

lisa

tion

, C

ombi

nati

on,

Inte

rnal

isat

ion

(SE

CI)

th

eory

of

know

ledg

e ac

quis

itio

n

No

empi

rica

l da

ta

The

dev

elop

ed f

ram

ewor

k ar

gues

tha

t tr

adit

iona

l st

rate

gies

for

dev

elop

ing

loca

l co

mpe

tenc

e m

ay b

e in

effe

ctiv

e in

dev

elop

ing

glob

al m

anag

ers

to w

ork

in t

he e

mer

ging

m

arke

ts

Mäk

elä

et a

l.

(201

0)

Con

side

rs th

e fa

ctor

s th

at i

nflu

ence

the

li

keli

hood

of

an i

ndiv

idua

l bei

ng

clas

sifi

ed a

s ‘t

alen

t’ w

ithi

n M

NC

s

Str

ateg

ic s

earc

h &

ch

oice

S

ingl

e ca

se s

tudy

of

a F

inni

sh, p

roce

ss

man

ufac

turi

ng M

NC

inv

olvi

ng s

emi-

stru

ctur

ed in

terv

iew

s w

ith

45 k

ey

info

rman

ts, a

long

wit

h do

cum

ent a

naly

sis

Dev

elop

s a

theo

reti

cal

fram

ewor

k of

the

de

term

inan

ts o

f ta

lent

ide

ntif

icat

ion

inco

rpor

atin

g cu

ltur

al &

inst

itut

iona

l di

stan

ce

betw

een

loca

tion

s of

pot

enti

al ta

lent

poo

l m

embe

rs &

the

dec

isio

n-m

aker

s, h

omop

hily

be

twee

n de

cisi

on-m

aker

s &

the

ind

ivid

ual,

&

the

netw

ork

posi

tion

of

the

indi

vidu

al

McD

onne

ll e

t al

. (2

010)

E

xplo

res

the

exte

nt to

whi

ch M

NC

s en

gage

in

GT

M a

nd t

he f

acto

rs

pred

icti

ng th

e us

e of

GT

M p

ract

ices

HR

arc

hite

ctur

e R

epre

sent

ativ

e su

rvey

of

the

mos

t se

nior

H

R r

epre

sent

ativ

e in

260

for

eign

and

do

mes

tic

owne

d M

NC

s in

Ire

land

(63

%

resp

onse

rat

e)

Sig

nifi

cant

num

bers

of

MN

Cs

do n

ot

appe

ar t

o be

eng

agin

g in

GT

M. G

loba

l H

R

func

tion

str

uctu

res,

the

larg

est

MN

Cs

and

whe

re M

NC

s se

rvic

e gl

obal

mar

kets

si

gnif

ican

tly

pred

ict

GT

M e

ngag

emen

t

Mel

lahi

and

C

olli

ngs

(201

0)

Exa

min

es t

he b

arri

ers

tale

nts

face

to

corp

orat

e ad

vanc

emen

ts i

n su

bsid

iari

es

Age

ncy

& b

ound

ed

rati

onal

ity

theo

ries

N

o em

piri

cal

data

S

elf-

serv

ing

inte

rest

s of

sub

sidi

ary

man

ager

s &

the

ina

bili

ty o

f H

Q m

anag

ers

to p

roce

ss

the

com

plex

nat

ure

of u

nder

stan

ding

the

ir

orga

nisa

tion

’s t

alen

t re

sour

ces

may

ne

gati

vely

im

pact

the

ide

ntif

icat

ion

of

tale

nted

indi

vidu

als

Mel

lahi

and

C

olli

ngs

(201

0)

Exa

min

es t

he b

arri

ers

tale

nts

face

to

corp

orat

e ad

vanc

emen

ts i

n su

bsid

iari

es

Age

ncy

& b

ound

ed

rati

onal

ity

theo

ries

N

o em

piri

cal

data

S

elf-

serv

ing

inte

rest

s of

sub

sidi

ary

man

ager

s &

the

ina

bili

ty o

f H

Q m

anag

ers

to p

roce

ss

the

com

plex

nat

ure

of u

nder

stan

ding

the

ir

orga

nisa

tion

’s t

alen

t re

sour

ces

may

ne

gati

vely

im

pact

the

ide

ntif

icat

ion

of

tale

nted

indi

vidu

als



Aut

hors

P

aper

aim

/TM

foc

us

The

oret

ical

/ li

tera

ture

fra

min

g M

etho

ds

Key

fin

ding

s

Min

baev

a an

d C

olli

ngs

(201

3)

Unp

acks

som

e of

the

key

myt

hs t

hat

surr

ound

glo

bal

TM

–

No

empi

rica

l da

ta

Pro

pose

s se

ven

myt

hs t

hat

if m

inim

ised

sh

ould

ass

ist

the

deve

lopm

ent

of T

M

prac

tice

. The

myt

hs i

dent

ifie

d ar

e: (

1) T

M

is n

ot a

n H

R r

espo

nsib

ilit

y; (

2) T

M i

s al

l ab

out p

eopl

e; (

3) a

ll p

osit

ions

sho

uld

be

fill

ed w

ith

A p

laye

rs;

(4)

tale

nt i

s po

rtab

le;

(5)

tale

nt tu

rnov

er i

s al

way

s ba

d fo

r th

e

firm

; (6

) th

ere’

s a

clea

r li

ne o

f si

ght

betw

een

GT

M a

nd f

irm

per

form

ance

; (7

) ta

lent

de

cisi

ons

are

‘fai

r’

Pre

ece

et a

l.

(201

1)

An

anal

ysis

of

whe

ther

tal

ent

man

agem

ent

can

be c

onsi

dere

d ak

in t

o a

new

man

agem

ent

fash

ion

Inst

itut

iona

l th

eory

&

man

agem

ent

fash

ion

Sev

en c

ase

stud

ies

(fiv

e U

S, o

ne U

K, o

ne

Can

adia

n) o

f M

NC

s in

Chi

na in

volv

ing

22

sem

i-st

ruct

ured

int

ervi

ews

wit

h H

R

spec

iali

sts,

sen

ior

& f

unct

iona

l m

anag

er &

no

n-m

anag

eria

l em

ploy

ees

TM

did

exe

mpl

ify

char

acte

rist

ics

of

man

agem

ent

fash

ion

but

this

the

ory

was

un

able

to e

ntir

ely

inte

rpre

t T

M. T

here

was

ev

iden

ce o

f co

mpa

nies

eng

agin

g in

TM

as

a m

eans

of

addr

essi

ng c

hall

enge

s of

tal

ent

attr

acti

on, m

otiv

atio

n &

ret

enti

on

Pre

ece

et a

l.

(201

3)

Iden

tifi

es t

he T

M i

ssue

s w

ith

esta

blis

hing

reg

iona

l MN

C s

truc

ture

s in

the

Asi

a P

acif

ic

– S

ingl

e ca

se s

tudy

of

a Ja

pane

se M

NC

fo

cuse

d on

est

abli

shin

g a

regi

onal

he

adqu

arte

r in

Asi

a. F

ive

inte

rvie

ws

wit

h se

nior

man

ager

s at

the

reg

iona

l le

vel

foll

owed

by

thre

e in

terv

iew

s w

ith

seni

or

man

ager

s at

a s

econ

d vi

sit

wit

h on

e be

ing

a fo

llow

-up

inte

rvie

w

Fou

nd a

reg

ioce

ntri

c st

affi

ng a

ppro

ach

to b

e in

pla

ce. T

he s

mal

l po

ol o

f ex

peri

ence

d le

ader

s in

the

reg

ion

caus

es s

igni

fica

nt

chal

leng

es f

or t

he M

NC

. A k

ey i

ssue

is

deve

lopi

ng s

ubsi

diar

y le

vel

indi

vidu

als

to

take

on

mor

e co

mpl

ex r

egio

nal

HQ

rol

es.

Get

ting

sub

sidi

arie

s to

tak

e T

M s

erio

usly

w

as a

sig

nifi

cant

cha

llen

ge

Rea

dy a

nd

Con

ger

(200

7)

Exa

min

es h

ow P

roct

er &

Gam

ble

&

HS

BC

are

pri

me

exam

ples

of

tale

nt

fact

orie

s al

low

ing

them

to

deve

lop

and

reta

in k

ey e

mpl

oyee

s an

d fi

ll p

osit

ions

in

lin

e w

ith

the

evol

ving

bus

ines

s re

quir

emen

ts

– D

raw

s on

exa

mpl

es f

rom

tw

o le

adin

g M

NC

s bu

t the

re w

ere

no d

etai

ls p

rovi

ded

on th

e m

etho

dolo

gy

Com

pani

es s

triv

ing

for

busi

ness

gro

wth

hav

e li

ttle

hop

e w

itho

ut b

eing

abl

e to

put

the

righ

t pe

ople

in th

e ri

ght j

obs

whe

n th

e ti

me

arri

ves.

T

o do

so,

fir

ms

need

to

coor

dina

te

func

tion

alit

y, c

ompr

ehen

sive

TM

pra

ctic

es

that

sup

port

str

ateg

ic o

bjec

tive

s, w

ith

vita

lity

co

nsis

ting

of

a st

rong

man

ager

ial

com

mit

men

t to

TM

Rea

dy e

t al

. (2

008)

T

o id

enti

fy h

ow c

ompa

nies

can

be

succ

essf

ul i

n at

trac

ting

and

ret

aini

ng

tale

nt i

n th

e em

ergi

ng m

arke

ts

– D

raw

s on

exa

mpl

es f

rom

lar

ge M

NC

s in

th

e em

ergi

ng m

arke

ts b

ut t

here

wer

e no

de

tail

s pr

ovid

ed o

n th

e m

etho

dolo

gy

Fir

ms

need

to

be c

auti

ous

on t

rans

ferr

ing

dom

esti

c ta

lent

str

ateg

ies

to t

he e

mer

ging

m

arke

ts. I

t is

cri

tica

l to

dev

elop

a c

ore

of

loca

l ta

lent

to g

uide

the

fir

m i

n th

ese

mar

kets

&

rel

ying

on

Eng

lish

as

the

offi

cial

bus

ines

s la

ngua

ge m

ay b

e de

trim

enta

l to

ide

ntif

ying

ta

lent



Aut

hors

P

aper

aim

/TM

focu

s T

heor

etic

al/

lite

ratu

re fr

amin

g M

etho

ds

Key

find

ings

Sch

uler

et a

l. (2

011)

H

ighl

ight

s th

e gl

obal

tale

nt c

hall

enge

s fa

ced

by o

rgan

isat

ions

and

the

oppo

rtun

ities

that

thes

e pr

esen

t

– N

o em

piri

cal d

ata

Dev

elop

s a

fram

ewor

k of

glo

bal t

alen

t ch

alle

nges

& G

TM

init

iati

ves

alon

g w

ith

prop

osin

g ni

ne p

ropo

sitio

ns r

elat

ed to

this

Shi

and

Han

dfie

ld

(201

2)

Exa

min

es th

e ca

uses

und

erly

ing

the

chal

leng

es o

f H

R m

anag

ers

in

recr

uiti

ng a

nd r

etai

ning

Chi

nese

em

ploy

ees

– In

terv

iew

s w

ith

thre

e gr

oups

: (1)

11

Wes

tern

logi

stic

MN

C r

epre

sent

ativ

es w

ith

oper

atio

ns in

Chi

na; (

2) p

rofe

ssor

s &

ad

min

istr

ator

s fr

om f

ive

Chi

nese

un

iver

siti

es w

ith

logi

stic

s/su

pply

cha

in

prog

ram

s; (

3) 1

1 hi

ghly

qua

lifi

ed C

hine

se

man

ager

s w

orki

ng f

or M

NC

s in

Chi

na.

Als

o pa

rtic

ipan

t obs

erva

tion

in o

ne M

NC

The

re is

a m

ajor

gap

bet

wee

n C

hine

se

empl

oyee

exp

ecta

tion

s &

the

perc

eive

d re

alit

y of

for

eign

man

ager

s ar

ound

exp

ecte

d te

rms

& c

ondi

tions

. MN

C lo

gist

ic r

oles

are

no

t vie

wed

par

ticu

larl

y at

trac

tive

by

Chi

nese

jo

b ca

ndid

ates

Sku

za e

t al.

(201

3)

Exp

lora

tory

stu

dy o

f th

e ta

lent

ch

alle

nges

fac

ed b

y fo

reig

n M

NC

s an

d P

olis

h ow

ned

com

pani

es

– S

ix f

ocus

gro

ups

invo

lvin

g a

tota

l of

58

low

er, m

iddl

e an

d up

per

man

ager

ial l

evel

pa

rtic

ipan

ts f

rom

28

fore

ign

and

30

dom

esti

c fi

rms

in P

olan

d fo

llow

ed u

p w

ith

a te

leph

one

surv

ey o

f ea

ch (

100%

res

pons

e ra

te)

Lit

tle

to n

o ev

iden

ce o

f si

mil

arit

y be

twee

n P

olis

h fi

rm &

‘W

este

rn’

prac

tice

. The

re w

ere

grea

ter

TM

cha

llen

ges

perc

eive

d by

Pol

ish

firm

s. T

M is

like

ly to

cha

llen

ge th

e tr

adit

iona

l pra

ctic

es a

s P

olan

d be

com

es a

m

ore

open

, mar

ket e

cono

my

Spa

rrow

et a

l. (2

013)

E

xplo

res

the

corp

orat

e H

R f

unct

ion

role

in G

TM

–

One

UK

(in

tern

atio

nal b

anki

ng &

fin

anci

al

serv

ices

) &

one

US

MN

C (

prof

essi

onal

se

rvic

es)

whi

ch h

ave

cent

rali

sed

&

dece

ntra

lise

d ap

proa

ches

to g

loba

l TM

re

spec

tive

ly. 2

6 in

terv

iew

s to

ok p

lace

ac

ross

the

case

stu

dies

invo

lvin

g m

ulti

ple

HR

per

sonn

el f

rom

the

MN

C

Evi

denc

e w

as f

ound

of

the

corp

orat

e H

R

func

tion

hav

ing

a ch

ampi

on o

f pr

oces

s,

guar

dian

of

cultu

re, m

anag

er o

f in

tern

al

rece

ptiv

ity

and

netw

ork

lead

ersh

ip &

in

tell

igen

ce r

ole

alth

ough

thes

e di

ffer

ed

som

ewha

t bet

wee

n w

heth

er it

was

the

cent

rali

sed

or d

ecen

tral

ised

GT

M a

ppro

ach

Sta

hl e

t al.

(201

2)

Inve

stig

ates

how

MN

Cs

deve

lop

and

sust

ain

thei

r ta

lent

pip

elin

es

– 20

cas

e st

udie

s in

corp

orat

ing

312

inte

rvie

ws

wit

h pr

ofes

sion

als

at th

e co

rpor

ate,

reg

iona

l & c

ount

ry le

vel

foll

owed

by

a w

eb s

urve

y of

263

HR

pr

ofes

sion

als

fro

m th

e A

mer

icas

, Asi

a-P

acif

ic, E

urop

ean,

Mid

dle

Eas

t & A

fric

an

regi

ons.

No

resp

onse

rat

e pr

ovid

ed

Com

peti

tive

adv

anta

ge r

esul

ts f

rom

eff

ecti

ve

inte

rnal

ali

gnm

ent o

f th

e pr

acti

ces

whi

ch

enco

mpa

ss th

e M

NC

’s G

TM

sys

tem

, alo

ng

wit

h be

ing

embe

dded

in th

e co

rpor

ate

valu

es

syst

em a

nd li

nked

to b

usin

ess

stra

tegy

. It i

s no

t abo

ut d

esig

ning

& im

plem

enti

ng ‘

best

pr

acti

ces’

Tar

ique

and

S

chul

er (

2010

) R

evie

ws

acad

emic

wor

k on

GT

M a

nd

prop

oses

an

inte

grat

ive

fram

ewor

k fo

r ad

vanc

ing

rese

arch

Inst

itut

iona

l the

ory

No

empi

rica

l dat

a D

evel

ops

an in

tegr

ativ

e fr

amew

ork

of th

e ex

ogen

ous

& e

ndog

enou

s dr

iver

s of

GT

M

whi

ch im

pact

upo

n th

e G

TM

sys

tem

and

that

di

rect

ly a

ffec

t GT

M e

ffec

tive

ness

/out

com

es



Aut

hors

P

aper

aim

/TM

focu

s T

heor

etic

al/

lite

ratu

re fr

amin

g M

etho

ds

Key

find

ings

Tym

on e

t al.

(201

0)

Ana

lyse

s th

e ro

le o

f in

trin

sic

rew

ards

an

d re

tent

ion,

car

eer

succ

ess

and

orga

nisa

tion

al s

atis

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8 Looking to the future – progressing the field

A number of papers have drawn attention to key challenges that ensue in the TM literature (e.g. guest editorials of special issues). We utilise and build upon some of this discourse, while also drawing on the findings of this systematic review and bring our own recommendations to play in proposing some especially pertinent research trajectories for the field. Our discussion is not meant as all-encompassing but rather we point to what we, as researchers in the field, consider especially important themes and questions that empirical research and enhanced conceptualisation have the greatest potential to advance the field of TM from adolescence to maturity.

8.1 Boundaries of TM

A consistent finding for reviews of the field is that a multitude of meanings and definitions (where provided) exist. While we contend that a single definition of TM is neither desirable nor required, there needs to be greater consensus on the boundaries of the field. We argue, as do others (e.g. Lewis and Heckman, 2006; Collings and Mellahi, 2009; McDonnell, 2011), that without the development of some parameters development of a mature field will prove challenging. Moreover, the lack of basic boundaries was reflected in the exclusion of articles from our review despite our initial inspection suggesting inclusion. In practice, on reading some papers it became obvious that there was no engagement with the TM literature despite the term being used in the title (e.g. Levenson, 2012; van den Brink et al., 2013). Despite the strong focus of extant published works on exploring the meaning of TM and the different perspectives taken by organisations in various business contexts it remains apparent that more thorough empirical research is required on the area. It is evident that some doubt exists as to whether TM really equates to a new and discrete strategic management activity that moves beyond HRM or HRD. Until there are much more comprehensive research studies undertaken and enhanced theorisation then question marks over the extent to which this is a discrete concept will continue. As field scholars and gatekeepers, we need to be clear in articulating how TM is defined in published work.

We argue that TM is a discrete field that stands in contrast to mainstream HR in a number of important ways. In particular, we propose that TM should be concerned with understanding where value is added in organisations by human capital, how talented individuals influence organisational performance, and also how talent practice can maximise the contributions of those individuals. We see the ultimate goal of TM as contributing to sustainable organisational performance. The basic premise underlying TM is that effective management of talented individuals requires alternative practices that are qualitatively different than the baseline HR practices within the organisation. However, as yet we do not have a clear understanding of what those TM practices are and the contexts in which they are not (in)effective. While arguing that TM is a discrete field, it is also very evident that there are potentially key links with a range of areas such as supply chain management, strategy and employer branding. There are aspects within each of these areas that have potential utility in the context of talent management.


Indeed, our review shows that a central focus has been on the systems and processes of TM and management of star employees (e.g. Groysberg et al., 2008). As Schuler et al. (2011, p.2) surmise, the major focus of much of this work was on ‘corporations obtaining and managing a sufficient number of highly talented individuals (… including high level executives, those with high managerial potential, and those with rare technical skills) to deal with the challenge of the global talent shortage’. A key gap in our understanding of TM is what determines high performance? Most studies ignore this question and jump straight into considering how such talents should be managed, implicitly presuming a straightforward linear association between talent and outstanding performance. We argue that this is a key limitation in our understanding of how best to manage top talent. In other words there is a significant degree of ambiguity about the interaction of factors that result in high performance. Without knowing the precise antecedents of high performance it is difficult to understand how best to deliver it. Thus, a key objective of future research efforts should be to consider the antecedents of high performance of the so-called talent. The lack of understanding of the association between talent and high performance will otherwise preclude a clear understanding of how talent contributes to organisational performance.

Moreover, there is the issue of how talent is identified by organisations. In particular, what do organisations look for in individuals when determining whether they are key talent or not? It is likely that achieving a high level of performance will be important but does this equate to talent or are there additional factors/characteristics that one needs to display. Similarly, commitment is likely to be a key ingredient to any ‘talent recipe’ but is unlikely to be the main, or certainly not the only, component. The review demonstrated much use of the term ‘high potential’ but we are typically left wondering when it comes to understanding what is viewed as potential. Clarity over how talent is identified in practice is of key importance because there is danger that if decisions taken are not viewed as relatively objective and transparent that employee dissatisfaction (particularly amongst those not classified) may become an issue (Bjorkman et al., 2013). Consequently, it is clear that scholars perhaps need to take a step backwards in focusing on the key foundation of effective TM – how is talent defined and how is it identified in practice?

These questions give rise to the issue of needing to consider TM in contexts beyond the large, private sector firm. The public sector has been subject to much more intense scrutiny in the developed world during and post GFC. There have been attempts in countries such as Britain, Ireland and Australia to introduce key reforms but reports are beginning to now emerge that raise concerns about the potential for these to succeed as a result of major TM concerns skills gaps are a particular worry (e.g. Hay Group, 2011). There must be some concern, for example, as to what extent the public sector has thought strategically about their talent needs and whether they are equipped to deliver on reforms and future strategy in the context of less resources and greater expectations for improved service delivery and transparency.

8.2 Equity, ethics, and justice

One of the more controversial aspects of TM is that considering high performing talents as a sui generis group has the potential to polarise individuals in organisations. Despite the ubiquity and the potential consequences of the norms of equity (Adams, 1965), fairness (Festinger, 1954) and justice (Blau, 1964), they have largely been overlooked


(bar some notable exceptions as discussed earlier; Downs and Swailes, 2013; Swailes, 2013). This is a key oversight given fairness, justice and equity are considered cornerstones of healthy organisations (Bloom and Michel, 2002). Indeed, Cosier and Dalton (1983, p.311) argue: ‘it is something of an understatement to suggest that concepts such as justice, fairness, and equity are of fundamental importance in the workplace. The consequences of the organization’s mishandling of these concepts can be dramatic’.

The issues of equity and fairness are of significant importance here given that many TM systems place considerable onus on A performers and/or talented individuals performing in A positions, thereby creating an employment structure characterised by extreme wage dispersion, and differentiated treatment of employees within the organisation. Groysberg (2010, p.3) argues that one of the roots of inequitable distribution of rent is the fact that in knowledge companies ‘where it is virtually an article of faith that settling for ‘B’ players is a recipe for mediocrity, managers work hard to attract the best and the brightest’. When firms find such talent they essentially offer what it takes to attract and retain them. However, the performance of star performers is contingent on the input of a large number of supporting individuals many of whom may be B or even C players. This could create psychological tensions within the organisation and potentially exacerbate perceived inequalities and perceptions of unfairness. The fact that our review demonstrates limited attention on the perspectives of individuals classified as talent is an issue surrounding this.

A large body of research shows that perceptions of equity and discrepancy are two of the strongest determinants of employees’ satisfaction or lack thereof in organisations (c.f. Bloom and Michel, 2002). This is because individuals often compare their compensation to that of referent others (Nosanchuk and Erickson, 1985). The relativity of rewards compared to those who employees consider comparators is often more significant than the absolute level of rewards in evaluations of equity (Bloom and Michel, 2002). Perceptions of relative underpayment have negative repercussions. Zenger (1992) found that the emphasis on rewarding best performers resulted in moderately high performers leaving the organisation because of feelings of inequity. Similarly, studies on the impact of wage dispersion (c.f. Siegel and Hambrick, 2005) demonstrated that it diminishes cooperation (Pfeffer and Langton, 1993), increases managerial turnover (Bloom and Michel, 2002), lowers group cohesion (Bloom, 1999) and negatively impacts firm performance (Siegel and Hambrick, 2005). Bloom and Michel (2002) noted that while extreme pay dispersion enabled firms to retain key star performers, it resulted in a high level of turnover among managers.

Additionally, the issues of equity, fairness and justice may unfold differently across cultural contexts. There is general acceptance of the view that the effectiveness of compensation practices varies across societies (Gomez-Mejia and Werner, 2008). In particular, cultural values and norms, such as how people relate to one another as a group, influence cultural preferences for different compensation systems. For instance, individuals in collectivist cultures, where individuals are tightly bound together, prefer group-based compensation practices to maintain and strengthen in-group harmony (Hui et al., 1991). Therefore, the individualised reward structures inherent in many talent systems may disrupt in-group harmony and as a result may be resisted as illustrated by the Japanese maxim ‘the nail that sticks out will be hammered down – Deru kugi wa utareru’.


In brief, the issues of equity, justice and ethics are acutely felt in organisations embracing TM. Managers are pulled in opposite directions. TM’s simultaneous advocacy for retaining and rewarding star performers on the one hand, and team work, organisational citizenship and motivation on the other may seem contradictory. If these contradictions are not effectively resolved, TM may impede, rather than facilitate, sustainable high performance. Research exploring the ethics of different aspects of talent management across a variety of contexts would greatly add to knowledge and potentially bring fairer, more equitable approaches and enhanced outcomes.

8.3 TM as a contributor to individual, group and organisational outcomes

Establishing the contribution of TM to individual, group and organisational level outcomes is central to the evolution of the field. While some practitioner reports (e.g. Ernst and Young, 2010, p.4) point to a positive correlation between superior TM and ‘enhanced business performance’, academically rigorous studies have yet to engage with this. There has been a strong corpus of research that has focused on high performance work systems and how they can lead to positive organisational outcomes (e.g. MacDuffie, 1995). If TM is a truly discrete activity then we need to gain evidence on how different approaches impact performance. Here we caution an approach which becomes overly focused on outcomes such as stock-market performance, which although clearly important may mask the longer-term impact of talent practices owing to the short-term focus of stock-market trends. For example, one of the most prominent exemplars of TM in the original McKinsey study was Enron, a company which clearly was performing very well on the stock market at the time. However, this masked underlying issues with the talent systems underpinning the organisation’s performance. Thus, we call for more innovative organisation performance outcomes which look at performance in a broader sense than simply stock-market returns, and which include the perceptions of a wider range of stakeholders.

Davenport et al. (2010) provided a cautionary note around the common mistakes organisations make in utilising talent analytics. These include using analytics as an excuse to treat employees like interchangeable widgets; over relying on a small number of metrics to evaluate performance, risking employees learning to play the system; using inappropriate metrics or keeping metrics live without ongoing business requirements; failing to adopt metrics and analysis to changes in organisational priorities; and using metrics for lower level employees only and focusing on aspects of performance which are easier to quantify. Similarly, Pfeffer (2001) cautions the dangers of fighting the talent war. In particular, he notes the danger of the inevitable individualisation which TM systems assume which diminish the importance of teamwork and can prevent learning in an organisation. Hence, it is a mistake to assume that high levels of individual performance automatically aggregate to organisational performance (see Pfeffer, 2001). So individual performance outcomes need to be contextualised within the teams and organisations in which it unfolds. All in all this calls for a more nuanced approach to measuring the impact of TM on performance outcomes.

This concern around the relationship between TM and individuals and teams is taken up by Tarique and Schuler (2010), albeit in a different context, when talking about how MNCs coordinate their subsidiaries worldwide. They argue that as a result of the pressures or desire to coordinate activities that the importance and reliance on global teams as opposed to individuals is likely to increase. They consider the impact in a cross-


cultural sense that such developments may have on HRM and raise the question, ‘Does GTM shift from an individual-based IHRM issue to a team-based IHRM issue?’ (Tarique and Schuler, 2010, p.131). This leads to key research questions including: do organisations focuses solely on individual performance and potential? Do organisations incorporate the impact of others on an individual’s performance and if so, how? Research that focuses on these questions and, more generally, how organisations integrate the team and wider organisational context into TM systems, is needed.

Boudreau (2010) calls for a retooling of HR to utilise adaptations of the same consistent logical frameworks that other organisational leaders use (e.g. net present value, market segmentation) to analyse where to invest, maintain or cut resources in talent. Significant research efforts are required to bridge the knowledge divide between the analytics that are quite commonly used and the analytics that could make a substantial improvement on decision-making around talent. Viewing TM as a decision science offers potential for moving organisational practice beyond the three-by-three performance-versus-potential matrices which appear common in TM processes. As Davenport et al. (2010, p.54) argue ‘if you want better performance from your top employees – who are perhaps your greatest asset and your largest expense – you’ll do well to favour analytics over your gut instincts’. The deployment of these tools should enhance communication between HR leaders and other stakeholders by reframing HR issues in language and frameworks that these other stakeholders are comfortable with (Boudreau, 2010).

9 Conclusion

This paper provides a comprehensive review of the state of the art in TM scholarship through employing a systematic review. In addition, we have engaged with, as interested scholars, how we feel that the field might usefully develop over the coming years. While there have been reviews on this topic undertaken in previous years we have illustrated that the approach adopted here has surfaced a range of caveats not previously highlighted (e.g. greater quantity of papers, higher proportion of empirical papers). We adopt a view that the field is moving towards adolescence and it has a long, windy road to travel before it reaches maturity (Scott, 1987). The trajectory so far can be viewed as overwhelmingly positive, in terms of advancing our knowledge of TM and how organisations are dealing with the inherent challenges. However, there is a need for caution because it is a term that appears to be used on many occasions in very a loose way that may have negative repercussions for conceptual and theoretical advancement which is the bedrock of establishing a critical research field. In addition, scholars need to push the intellectual boundaries and focus on making this a sustainable field of research that adds not only to academic understanding and theorisation but which also helps bridge the often-highlighted practice gap (McDonnell, 2011). If the field is to advance to maturity there is an acute need for the rather fragmented nature of the literature to be brought closer together towards a more common paradigm and it is this to which we urge scholars to pay most attention.

To do so most effectively will likely require greater levels of interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary research which are much talked about in academic circles but appear to be relatively uncommon. There are literature bases that in our view have clear resonance with TM but which don’t tend to ‘talk to one another’. For example, there is a


considerable body of research on ‘stars’ in the psychology journals (e.g. Aguinis and O’Boyle, 2014). We contend that there is potentially greater benefit in greater alignment between scholars in both fields. A limitation of our search methodology is that these potentially significant areas of research which are relevant to TM are not incorporated in the paper.

We contend that not only is there a need to improve from a conceptual and theoretical perspective, but also there needs to be significantly increased empirical investigations that can greatly assist in addressing the aforementioned fragmentation. While our review contradicted previous suggestions that this was a field dominated by conceptual work, there is no room for complacency about the quality and quantity of primary research. We retain the call for increased empirical research but we wish to especially emphasise the need to make significant inroads in terms of the quality, depth and breadth of the methodologies employed. The use of single case studies has been, and can continue to be, useful in enhancing the depth of understanding. However, it is clear that the level to which some of these case studies delve could be deepened. There needs to be a greater inclusion of different stakeholders which pushes forward the idea of multi-level designs. For example, in addition to HR managers and the top management team, we need to hear the voices of middle and line managers, consultants, recruitment agencies, employees and their representatives. Further, there is a need to move towards conducting more generalisable studies. There is much scope for quantitative work in this area; however, a key challenge is the lack of boundaries that exist in the literature. Without the development of constructs it will be very difficult to undertake research with high levels of reliability and validity.

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Note

1 It must be acknowledged that making interpretations on affiliations of authors is problematic given global mobility of academics.


Appendix – Systematic review methodology

In order to identify relevant peer reviewed articles we utilised the two most comprehensive databases in management and organisation studies, namely ProQuest and Scopus. The term ‘talent management’ was used as the search criterion. The objective was to identify all theoretical and empirical journal articles addressing talent management from 1998 until May 2013. The year 1998 was selected as the starting point on the basis that it is commonly cited as the year in which talent management became popularised due to the McKinsey report coining the phrase the ‘war for talent’ (Chambers et al., 1998). Peer reviewed, English language scholarly journals were used as key filters in our search. Hence, conference papers, editorials, monographs, books, book chapters and unpublished works were excluded in our review due to lack of a consistent quality assurance mechanism. In other words, it was too difficult to determine if there had been any peer review process undertaken in these mediums.

The initial Scopus search returned 209 papers, while the ProQuest search returned 265 articles. As a means of focusing on high-quality publications, journals were only included if they were ranked as a two or higher in the Association of Business Schools (ABS) (UK) academic journal quality guide (2009, version 3) and/or a A*, A or B in the Australian Business Deans Council (ABDC) academic journal rankings (2010). This provided a baseline quality threshold beyond a paper just having to be peer reviewed. For example, in the ABS 3* outlets publish ‘original and well executed research papers and are highly regarded’. It is important to acknowledge that these journal ranking lists are not adopted universally and that other journal ranking lists also exist; however, there is a strong degree of overlap among the different sources. We also considered other quality benchmarks but felt that these rankings were most suitable and more inclusive because of the relatively recent development of talent management scholarship. For example, the use of citation records, sometimes used in systematic reviews, did not make sense because of how recent research appears to have emerged. Consequently, while the objective criteria utilised here are not without potential criticism we argue that our approach is more comprehensive than many review pieces in the field of management which tend to focus strongly on a very small number of leading, typically US, journals.

After the initial scanning and exclusion of articles took place (i.e. those that did not meet the criteria set out thus far), we read through each remaining article to more effectively determine whether there was a strong focus on talent management as opposed to the paper merely paying a fleeting reference to the topic. For example, the use of the talent management terminology in the title or keywords but the paper paying absolutely no attention to the topic was not uncommon. On completion of this task, we were left with a total of 88 papers.

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