The psychology of talent management: A review and research agenda

Abstract

Across six different streams of the literature (i.e., HRM; I/O psychology; educational psychology; vocational psychology; positive psychology; social psychology) we identify a number of discrepancies (i.e., between practitioner and academic interest; between talent management discourse and practice), theoretical perspectives (i.e., talent as capital; talent as individual difference; talent as giftedness; talent as identity; talent as strength; and talent as the perception of talent), tensions (i.e., object-subject; inclusive-exclusive; innate-acquired; input-output; transferable-context-dependent), and assumptions (i.e., about intuition versus data; about the effects of being labeled 'talented'; about the effects of differential treatment) which we argue can serve as a basis for theory building, methodological advances, and new empirical work. With this review, we hope to join a growing group of talent management scholars pushing to make the transition from a growing into a mature field of study, characterized by widely accepted theoretical frameworks and research designs, and supported by the scholarly community.

Exploring the Relationship Between Exclusive Talent Management, Perceived Organizational Justice and Employee Engagement: Bridging the Literature

“…The exclusive perspective singles out a limited number of 'talented' employees to belong to a talent pool, while the inclusive perspective includes all employees in the organization's overall TM strategy, with developmental pathways for all employees (Collings and Mellahi 2009;Dries 2013;Swailes et al 2014). Inclusive TM follows the general rule that all employees have their own strengths and are talented in their own way .…”

“…It is an ethical HRM principle that all employees' performances are to be valued and managed, and they should have the opportunity to be part of the organization's talent program (Swailes et al 2014). Conversely the exclusive view, which regards some workers as more talented, and valuable than others (Dries 2013), is seen by some as being the main difference between TM and HRM (Collings and Mellahi 2009). The exclusive approach to TM has become the more practiced form in organizations today (Garavan et al 2012), mainly due to perceived cost-effectiveness and Exploring the Relationship Between Exclusive Talent Management, Perceived Organizational… efficiency (Huselid and Becker 2011;Marescaux et al 2013).…”

“…Exclusive TM, as part of the inclusive/exclusive tension in TM research, sits among five inter-related tensions in TM research (Dries 2013). The other four tensions are firstly the subjective-objective view of talent.…”

“…This perspective focuses on high-performing or high-potential employees, with the selection and identification of these exclusive employees raising ethical questions concerning hidden biases and workforce homogeneity. Second, the innate versus acquired perspective centers on the extent to which talent can be taught or learned (Dries 2013;Meyers et al 2013). The innate perspective concentrates on the identification and selection of 'talented' employees, an exclusive perspective that resonates with our focus on exclusive TM, and with hidden bias in terms of talent recognition in organizations.…”

A multidisciplinary review into the definition, operationalization, and measurement of talent

“…The human capital perspective on talent described typically draws inspiration from a resource-based view on humans, in which employees are directed towards creating added value for their organizations (Dries, 2013). Inkson (2008) warns us for the potential pitfalls of labeling employees as 'human capital' that is manageable towards certain outcomes in the same way other resources are.…”