Category: Talent Management

Abstract

For a long time, conventional human resource management either underestimated or ignored the role played by talent management in the process of recruiting employees. until recently, and due to the impact of globalization and changing marketing trends, strategic human resource management that integrates an incorporates talent and knowledge management has been adopted and implemented by quite a number of leading organisations.

Indeed, great goals and objectives set forth by a business organisation may not be achieved by an ordinary professional workforce; it is vital to integrate individuals with specific talents to realize the very goals. It is against this background that this paper explores the irrefutable role played by talent in modern human resource management while at the same time debunking the myth that talent management is a fancy term with negligible influence in human resource management.

Introduction

Talent management is a recent development in human resource practices as many organisations are now shifting from traditional ways of recruiting and retaining high skilled employees. while talent management may be perceived in other quotas as a fancy name for human resource or personnel development, it is imperative to note that there needs to be a paradigm shift in the modalities used by organisations to hire employees in order to survive in this hypercompetitive and dynamic world economy (Chaffey & Wood, 2006).

Besides, organisations that are prudent enough in managing human resource clearly understand that achieving best organisational outcomes requires more than just professionalism in the workforce; some talent has to identified, nurtured and retained.

Data obtained from most empirical research studies demonstrate that managing talent has consistently grown to become one of the integral concerns when managing organizations. Needless to say, there are myriad of interplaying factors that have necessitated this paradigm shift in hiring employees.

For instance, the changing business trends as well as the cultural, social, economical and demographic aspects have largely impacted organisations on a global scale in the sense that managing human capital has turned out to the launch pad for impressive organizational performance (Boxall & Purcell, 2011).

The manner in which managers respond to these emerging environmental factors determines both the speed and scope in which talent is identified and developed among employees. Furthermore, as the gap between the aforementioned factors widen with respect to organizational performance, it becomes quite tricky and challenging as well to sustain talent within a given a workforce.

While we continue to appreciate the relative importance of talent within an organisational set up, is also vital to note that there is insufficient supply of talent today in most organisations. Right from the top of the organisation leadership hierarchy, talent gaps are eminent. Worse still, the lower and middle level cadre is not spared either. Hence, the fact that talent is increasingly becoming a rare element in human resource implies that its management should be optimal.

This paper aims at not only refuting the claim that talent management is a fancy ideal in human resource development, it also seeks to clarify why specific, general, short and long term objectives of an organisation may be cumbersome to meet when there are visible gaps in talent management.

Literature review

People who are highly talented differ greatly from the rest of the workforce in an organisation. Although roles and responsibilities may be equally assigned to both the talented and untalented personnel, the former is expected to deliver more and beyond the ordinary level. At the same, a talented employee has more expectations just from fellow colleagues but more so from the employer.

At this point, it is vital to point out that an organisation that hires and manages talent should also be ready to compensate the very talent at a relatively higher cost in order to retain the unique natural ability. In real sense, it is quite costly to maintain a talented employee at workplace both in terms of the two-way traffic expectations as well as the monetary compensation needed.

One of the outstanding characteristic of a talented employee is the extreme ability to think differently and translate the same thoughts to action within a very short time. In the event that the co-workers cannot quickly grasp the fine details of a particular task, a talented worker is easily bored.

More difficult and challenging responsibilities are preferred to smooth sailing tasks. as much as they can handle complex problems within their area of expertise, most research studies on talent management reveal that talented people are intrinsically complex in their own way and it may sometimes be cumbersome to fully understand them (Antonelli, Geuna & Steinmueller, 2000).

Indeed, these attributes of talented people calls for a non-traditional perspective and approach when handling them at workplace. The fact that talented people are naturally smart in their specific areas of specialization explains why organizations need to hire such personalities offer help but not be guided on what to do.

Talent flow within an organisation and the way it is strategically hired, developed, nurtured and retained are all components of talent management. Although a business organisation or institution may opt to settle for trained professionals, the process of aligning the right personnel with jobs that suits them most demands more than just professionalism and training.

Indeed, the availability of sufficient and most productive labour supply requires cross-section of talent management throughout an organisation as per the broad objectives of a business organisation.

Hence, talent management surpasses the simple thought of a fancy idea carved out of human resource practices. Realistically, optimizing competitive advantage in employees through an integrated and holistic approach should be the actual mindset in talent management (Bowen & Ostroff, 2004). Thus, talent management is not a simple and narrow concept that seeks to fashion out human resource development at workplace.

Any organisation that is seeking to deliver a single profound benefit both its objectives and employees may not ignore the innumerable positive outcomes brought about by talent management. Moreover, it is a human resource process that attempts to deploy and retain the right people in their rightful jobs within an organisation by identifying, developing, engaging and systematically attracting talent rather than just training.

As such, hiring talent to suffice labour needs within an organizational set up is crucial since there may be foreseeable future labour needs than an organisation is looking forward to or some current critical roles that such talents are desperately needed. All the components of the life cycle of an employee are covered in talent management, including performance management, succession, development and selection (Fey & Bjorkman 2001).

For talent management to be successful in an organisation there are quite a number of key compliments that the management should bear in mind. As already mentioned in the earlier part of this literature review, talent management is more of a process than an instantaneous act.

Hence, an organisation wishing to adopt and implement talent management in its human resource system should be able to fully and clearly comprehend the business strategies of the given organisation both at the present and future time. In addition, the existing gaps that exist between the available talent and what is needed by the organisation to run its human resource needs should also be assessed. When a comparison has been drawn between the two extremes, it will be possible o fill the employment gap therein.

On the same note, bridging the talent gaps at workplace also requires a thorough talent management plan that has incorporated and integrated both the strategic and business plan for the organisation. This will assist in decisions related to hiring, promoting and demoting of employees based on their individual abilities to perform.

Similarly, the end performance results where talent has been incorporated during production process should connect the corporate goals with those of individual employees, teams or departments within an organisation. When this is attained in talent management, it will be possible to offer feedbacks and clear expectations on behalf of both the employees and organisation in question (Areiqat, Abdelhadi & Al-Tarawneh, 2010).

Enhancing the performance of individual employees may also be an uphill task if talent is not developed. It is paramount to note that employees need to be prepared, in terms of capacity building, to effectively manage their current positions and future responsibilities. Therefore, the integral components required for maximum utilization of talent should be part and parcel of the strategy used to manage hired talent. Emphatically, an evaluation on the impact of the talent employed is necessary after execution of the devised strategies.

As can be observed, talent management is a broad human resource concept and application that cannot be roughly taken as a fancy term used by HR professionals. Moreover, attracting employees who have been perceived to be highly potential is not the ultimate goal for an organisation wishing to accelerate its growth pattern. It is overly necessary to retain and develop those individuals.

Most organisations today are up in arms trying to identify specific talents each employee is endowed with and also developing the very talents so that they can realize positive returns on investment. It is against this backdrop that the inadequate role played by human resource practices has been identified by most practitioners as a stumbling block in managing employees effectively.

The existing talent gap in HR has been aggravated by the increasingly competitive business environment as well as the aftermath of rapid globalization (Harris, Craig & Egan, 2010). By fact, the emergence of strategic human resource management (SHRM) was as a result of transforming the conventional and outdated human resource practices that did not secure any room for harnessing, developing and utilising talent (Antonelli, Geuna, & Steinmueller, 2000).

Strategic human resource management largely deals with how human resource needs can be strategically managed in an organisation in order to improve work output. It is a rather new approach and concept towards the management of human resource in comparison to technical human resource management (Fey & Bjorkman, 2001).

In addition, the basic function of strategic human resource management lies within the designation and implementation of quite a number of managerial policies within an organisation with a broad objective of ensuring that the available human resource management significantly contributes to the productivity of an organisation.

When business strategy is combined with the human resource management function as well as talent management, strategic human resource management would reflect a relatively resilient plan of not only utilizing human resource to the optimum but also driving an organisation towards a competitive edge.

The concept of fit and talent management may not be discussed in isolation since both terms are closely related and interlinked. The concept of fit is primarily the process of melding the human resource function within the strategic goals of an organisation (Wei & Lau, 2005).

There are quite a number of conceptual illustrations that have demonstrated that the design and implementation of sets of strategic human resource practices may not be coherent at all owing to the fact that the concept of fit has not been understood well. Realistically, the concept of fit and the talent management lay much emphasis in improving the capacity of a firm in responding to the external factors especially those related to the hiring and utilization of human resource.

Research methodology

In order to carry out research study on talent management, both qualitative and quantitative research methodology can be employed. For instance, a recruitment and retention committee charged with the duty of identifying, hiring and retaining high potential or talented employees can be used for quantitative study of talent in strategic human resource management. On the other hand, qualitative analysis of secondary data collected from previously conducted research studies on talent management is also vital as a research methodology.

Results

Strategic human resource management is one of the core activities of talent management as believed by most advancing organisations (Oehley & Theron, 2010). some research studies have unanimously concluded that talent management and human resource development are indeed inseparable in term of application if an organisation is to remain profitable both in the hard and smooth economic times.

Besides, the market supply of talented employees is still dismal, partly because most organisations have not designed, adopted and implemented talent managanment designs that reflect the needs of their respective organisations and the business environment. In any case, organisations have been found to compete stiffly not in terms of an effective labour force but in relation to how much talent they can attract, develop and retain their human resource development.

In simple terms, this implies that talent management as a process entails three main steps namely identifying people within an organisation who have a naturally high potential to deliver in their areas of ability and interest, assessing their specific areas of interest and finally assigning them the various responsibilities based on the two criteria.

The logic behind this reasoning is that it is highly likely for talented employees to be attracted by other organisations and of course recruited elsewhere if they are not assigned their specific areas of interest and ability (Oehley & Theron, 2010). This can be economically detrimental to the organization losing such a talent.

According to the humanistic perspective of human resource and talent management, the competence of employees can best be built when interventions and activities surrounding the two types of management in human resource are well coordinated (Saini, 2010). Better still; a well coordinated talent management plan with human resource development will definitely lead to motivation of employees since they will be able to quantify their efforts against individual and organizational goals set beforehand.

Knowledge is bestowed in people. Successful organisations often invest in people with specific talents to attain their goals since individual talented people superficially store the much needed knowledge. Indeed, one way of achieving better knowledge management in human resource management is by developing stronger networks between high potential employees and other professionals (Pinkerton, 2003).

This can be termed as a professional network and its main purpose is to exchange, disseminate as well as compare the available knowledge as part and parcel of nurturing or building the identified talent. In addition, connecting people with other sources of knowledge entails developing a rigorous capacity and building program. This can be achieved through training, workshops and seminars.

Although such undertaking are often done periodically, it is quite necessary for organisations involved in serious information management to adopt the system as a continuous and on-going process throughout the life of an organisation (Chaffey & Wood, 2006). Unless this is done, new innovative methods of production may be missed out and consequently lose out in the market competition.

Nonetheless, in an organisational scenario where there is a stable pool of well managed talent, it is possible to merge knowledge easily using values paths. In connection to this an organization is expected to harmonize and re-engineer its workforce through a recognizable and well outlined hierarchy. In order to connect people with the right information each individual worker should not only be placed in an environment that is rich in information but should also be equipped in a smarter way on how to use the very information (Maier, 2007).

Furthermore it is pertinent to note that for an organization to attain a competitive edge in a dynamic market; employees who have been recruited through talent search should be motivated using the various motivational means available. Although each organization often crave for growth and profitability, the latter may not be achieved unless its talented workforce is well connected or endowed with the right information (Antonelli, Geuna & Steinmueller, 2000).

In order to create a platform where by knowledge can be shared among the employees in building the capacity of workers, prospective organization ought to adopt and embrace externalization, socialization, internalisation and combination model. When the four elements are properly harnessed, knowledge can be created within a short span of time and also be made available to employees. Indeed, this should be the right way to place talent in an environment that is conducive and enriched with viable information.

The system adopted by Carillon Health System (CHS) is a critical case study on the paradigm shift from conventional human resource management that did not embrace talent management to strategic human resource management (Pinkerton, 2003). This system was applied with the aim of hiring and retaining talented employees. The system has been found to be beneficial in quite a number of ways.

For instance, it is possible to share resources economically with the use of this system. Additionally, the duplication of roles and responsibilities is significantly minimized alongside providing a wider forum for creative approaches and ideas that are essential when carrying out the process of recruiting and retaining talent.

Conclusion

In recap, it is pertinent to reiterate that talent management is no longer a fancy term used by human resource professionals. The radical shift to strategic human resource management from traditionally valued technical human resource saw the relative importance of integrating the aspect of talent when recruiting employees.

This has been occasioned by the rapidly changing business environment that demands equal measure of not only restructuring organizational leadership but also identifying, hiring, nurturing and retaining people with high potential to meet the short and long term goals of an organisation. Further, talent management has also been incorporated in knowledge management by connecting talented people with other professionals as part and parcel of boosting their overall performance.

References

Antonelli, C., Geuna, A. & Steinmueller, W. E. 2000. Information and communication technologies and the production, distribution and use of knowledge. International Journal of Technology Management, 20: 72-94.

Areiqat, A., Abdelhadi, T. & Al-Tarawneh, H. 2010. Talent Management as a Strategic Practice of Human Resources Management to Improve Human Performance. Interdisciplinary Journal of Contemporary Research In Business 2, no. 2, (June 1): 329-341.

Bowen, D. E. & Ostroff, C. 2004. Understanding HRM-firm performance linkages: The role of the strength of the HRM system. Academy of Management Review, 29 (2), 203-221.

Boxall, P & Purcell, J. 2011. Strategy and Human Resource Management (3^rd ed.), London: Palgrave Macmillan.

Chaffey, D. & Wood, S. 2006. Business Information Management  Improving performance using information Systems, New York: Prentice Hall.

Fey, C. F. & Bjorkman, I. 2001. The effect of human resource management practices on MNC subsidiary performance in Russia. Journal of International Business Studies, 32(1): 59-75.

Harris, J. Craig, E. & Egan, H. 2010. How successful organizations strategically manage their analytic talent. Strategy & Leadership 38, no. 3, (May 1): 15-22.

Maier, R. 2007. Knowledge Management Systems: Information and Communication Technologies for Knowledge Management, Verlag: Springer.

Oehley, A. & Theron, C. 2010. The development and evaluation of a partial talent management structural model. Management Dynamics 19, no. 3, (July 1): 2-28.

Pinkerton, S. 2003. A System Approach to Retention and Recruitment. Nursing Economics, 20(6): 296-299.

Saini, D. 2010. Talent Management in the Developing World. Vision 14, no. 4, (October 1): 340-341.

Wei, L. Q. & Lau, C. M. 2005. Market orientation, HRM importance and HRM competency: Determinants of SHRM in Chinese firms. International Journal of Human Resource Management, 16(10): 1901-1918.

Attraction and Retention of Talent

Human resource management becomes an essential part of business world. Even though innovative technologies contributed to the business world and many processes are completed by the machines, the successful business is run when people monitor the working process, participate in it and do all possible to remain successful and effective. To have a successful profitable people, managers are to create a good team from talented people.

Attraction and retention of talents remains one of the main goals of the human resource managers in the company and the successful implementation of the programs connected with the issue may bring much profit for both sides. Retention and attraction of talents is one of the main issues for human resource managers in different companies and the problems and opportunities connected with the issue are going to be discussed below.

Considering the experiences of the respected companies in attraction and retention of talents, it may be concluded that the use of the brand of the employer is one of the main strategies applied for the issue. When a company is famous among people and its image is rather high, talented people are sure to go there in search for a job.

Having conducted a research in the sphere of influence of the brand image on attraction and retention of talents in the company, Botha, Bussin, and De Swardt (2011) prove the mentioned statement. A positive brand of the image and the correct use of this brand while attracting employees, their training and further treatment increases the chance of employing great talents in the company.

However, the authors of the research state that wrong use of the brand of the company while human resource management may cause undesired outcome and negatively influence talent attraction and retention (Botha, Bussin, & De Swardt, 2011).

Conducting a deeper research, the report Talent Attraction and Retention in Larger Accounting Firms (2012) by Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority presents the following reasons as the main means for attraction and talents retention, prestige of working for a branded firm, job security, steep leaning curve, opportunities for career progression, regular performance feedback, structured training, high future earning potential, benefits package, and compensation that commensurate with work efforts.

Trying to consider some of the issues in detail, it should be stated that attraction and retention of the talents is not connected with high salary at the earliest stages. Talented employees understand that to get good salary, they are to work more. Additionally, the retention of talented employees does not depend on their position while job placement, the possibility of training and career development are more influential factors which make talented people remain at work (Talent Attraction and Retention in Larger Accounting Firms 2012).

Therefore, it may be concluded that talented people are encouraged by the possibility to develop both personally and professionally. High positions at the beginning of their career are not that important how the possibility of the professional growth. Therefore, it should be mentioned that talented people are eager to come to the companies whose brand is known and its image is not spoiled.

Moreover, applying for a job, talented people do not expect to get the highest positions, they are eager to work hard and achieve higher positions by means of their talents. The presence of the training is an important factor for talented people as the y put much on personal development.

Developing Human Resources in Organisation

The role of human resources in the company cannot be overestimated, as the successful functioning of the organization is possible only when the employees personally and professionally grow. The world is changing, the approaches and means of work performance are changing as well. Absence of development may lead to the lack of competence.

The main idea of the human resource management is to consider the issues connected with the training and development of employees skills and personalities. It is impossible to lead business successfully without working hard with the staff. Developing human resources in organization, company invests into its successful functioning in the future. Trying to understand the main reason of development of the human resources and a detailed discussion of the issues is one of the main aspects of this discussion.

Development of the human resources is directly connected with the education and training. Working on the problems, employees usually refer to the knowledge and experience they have. Therefore, they work productively and successfully for some time. However, the absence of the appropriate training leads to the absence of the personal and professional development.

Employees may grow professionally within the frames of the company as they may get to know more in the sphere of the company performance, however, the personal growth is possible only when additional data is studied. Employers may offer employees to search for the additional knowledge personally, but in this case the systematic education serves better (Byrne 1999).

Developing human resources in the organization, the employer performs several functions. First of all, he/she cares for the employees employed in the company and for their personal growth which improves performance in the organization. Second, employer shows that the development of the staff is important and it improves the company image inside and outside the organization.

Finally, developing human resources, the company gives an opportunity for others to get to know about it as conducting international trainings, the company positions itself at the international arena as the caring company which is really important. Therefore, the development of the business relations may be considered as one of the factors of the successful development of the human resources (Leopold 2002).

Trying to understand the advantages of the human resource development in organization for an employee, the personal development should be put on the highest positions. Those employees who constantly learn something new and develop professionally are sure to experience personal growth. It is really important to grow personally as this is the guarantee of successful working performance, self-realization and increase of self-esteem.

In case the companies do not pay much attention to the employees development, the work becomes boring and unimpressive. Employees are not given an opportunity to offer creative realization of the ordinary problems. Studying is the way to know something new and the way to the development which is essential for company successful development. Standing at one and the same place does not allow the company to increase oits profit.

Human Resources Planning in a Changing Environment

Dwelling upon human resource planning as the part of the company strategy, it is important to understand the main idea of the issue. Human resource management has many definitions, however, the most extended and specific one is as follows, human resource planning is a process of determining and assuming that the organization will have an adequate number of qualified persons available at the proper times, performing jobs which meet the needs of the enterprise and which provide satisfaction for the individuals involvement (Pravin 2010, p. 108).

Trying to characterise the human resource planning, it should be stated that the main purpose of this procedure is to fulfil the goals and strategies of the company. Planning is really important in the present world. However, the changing environment creates a number of specific difficulties and barriers on the way to easy planning.

Therefore, planning cannot be called an easy process, as it should involve a number of processes, activities and tasks carried out on a continuous basis. One of the main challenges on the way of human resource planning is to cover the long-term periods. The tactics should be applied here to make sure that the long-term periods are realisable and the short-term tasks will be successfully met (Bandt & Haines 2004).

Trying to understand the principle of human resource planning in the changing environment, it should be stated that absence of planning leads to complete chaos. Even though the changing environment does not give an opportunity to remain assured in the predicted and presupposed outcome, planning is essential.

Human resource planning is the consideration of the future needs of the company. It is impossible to develop the strategy and the company purposes without planning future activities. Planning in the changing environment should be constantly supported with the research and amendments. Making planning as the essential part of company development, it is important to understand that having created a long-term plan, it does not mean that it remains unchangeable.

Further research in the sphere of company performance and making changes in the long-term planning is essential for successful realization of human resource planning. Successful planning is the one which is constantly supported, not the one which remains stable up to the final terms (Nissley 2004).

To complete planning successfully, the specific steps are to be followed. First of all, the company should establish a strategic planning committee. Then, the revision of the existing and previous plans should be completed with the purpose to understand the real estate of the company business.

Then, those who are going to deal with human resource planning should check the mission and the vision of the company in order to understand the direction of the company strategic development. Then, the strategic planning committee should define the issues and out of this data the goals and objectives of the company development are to be considered. Implementation plans development is the next stage in human resource planning.

It is important to evaluate the success of the company development under the created plan. As it has already been mentioned, constant research, consideration and consideration of the plan are the guarantees of the successful development of the company.

Getting down to human resource planning, it is important to ask the questions connected with the purposes of planning. The purposes help understand the necessity and rational basis of the planning. Finally, planning is the central basis of any business, it is impossible to work without strategic planning.

Reference List

Bandt, A & Haines, SG 2004, Successful Strategic Human Resource Planning, Systems Thinking Press, New York.

Botha, A, Bussin, M, & De Swardt, L 2011, An employer brand predictive model for talent attraction and retention, SA Journal of Human Resource Management, vol. 9, no. 1, pp. 1-12.

Byrne, SM 1999, The Value of Human Resource Development to an Organization; Providing Technical Assistance to Small Manufacturing Companies, Assistant Professor, University of St. Thomas. Web.

Leopold, J 2002, Human Resources in Organisations, Pearson Education, Oxford.

Nissley, N 2004, Human resources and their development, Human Resource Development and Environmental Change, vol. 2, pp. 1-15.

Pravin, D 2010, Human Resource Management, Pearson Education India, New Delhi.

Talent Attraction and Retention in Larger Accounting Firms 2012, Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority, pp. 1-28. Web.

The modern business environment has its unique peculiarities that precondition the choice of practices and strategies. The latter should be explored to survive and guarantee the further rise of a certain project. Moreover, the tendency towards the appearance of new business ventures and an increase of rivalry introduces the unique necessity of the acquisition of competitive advantage needed to create the basis for the further rise and obtain stable revenues. For this reason, companies tend to implement new approaches and strategies to attain better results. Talent management could be considered one of these practices explored to attain success and increase the efficiency of numerous processes that are considered a crucial part of any companys functioning. Besides, efficient talent management guarantees that the talent pool will be explored most appropriately. That will bring benefits and contribute to the improvement of the current companys position.

Therefore, delving into the peculiarities of the efficient talent management, Big League, a small software development company located in New York, is being used as the background to introduce an efficient model that could be explored to guarantee overall success and attain appropriate final results. The organization employs 200 people, 20 of whom are identified leaders. The companys human resources (HR) department understands a link between efficient and appropriate talent management and a companys net earnings. For this reason, it tends to explore the most innovative and efficient patterns that will ensure a significant increase in efficiency and provide opportunities for talented employees to evolve. The given paper aims to outline and suggest a sustainable management process that could be used to measure employees talent and create the environment needed for the development of the most important qualities among the staff.

Nevertheless, any company focused on its further rise, and evolution tries to implement new and the most efficient strategies that could help attain a competitive advantage and become successful. However, the modern business environments peculiarities result in the reconsideration of the existing approach to human resource management. At the moment, we could observe a significant shift in priorities towards talent management to improve final results by providing talented workers with additional opportunities. Thus, we already know that Big League has developed a talent management strategy that consists of the following elements: organizational diagnosis, assessment, program design, implementation, support, and evaluation (Blass, 2009). However, it is crucial to be able to measure employee talent to determine the most efficient workers who should be provided with additional authorities. At the moment, companies accomplish standard employee evaluations once a year (Bhattacharyya, 2015). They explore such aspects as feedbacks, overall efficiency, performance standards, etc. However, the given approach does not guarantee that employee talent will be evaluated appropriately as it touches upon traditional dimensions of the functioning of any specialist when a talented one has other methods and perspectives.

Additionally, talent is something subjective that could not be measured by traditional evaluation tools. For this reason, there is a great need for a new approach. Besides, employee evaluation should be performed at least twice a year as short-term performance data will better indicate one or another ability (Bhattacharyya, 2015). Additionally, direct observation, work results, and critical comments about the employees work should be taken as the most crucial elements which could be evaluated to measure an employees talent and guarantee that he/she will be provided with appropriate opportunities (Bhattacharyya, 2015). Therefore, using a balanced scorecard as an evaluation and measurement tool could be considered another appropriate method. It is an efficient performance management tool that monitors the comprehending of the companys current goals and outlines the methods used to achieve them.

Thus, the exploration of BSC could help trace unusual approaches combined with increased efficiency and measure employee talent as in case it is applied at the individual level. We could collect the most relevant data and conclude the efficiency of one or another individual (Mathew, 2015). Finally, the evaluation of a team performance could also be taken as one of the monitoring tools. Big League has 20 identified leaders who are responsible for the functioning of different departments and teams. So, if the teamwork is at the high level, the efficiency and talent of these leaders could be proven.

We should also keep in mind the fact that only in case all talent issues are touched upon by the management process, a significant improvement could be observed. Thus, it is crucial to outline the key concepts related to talent pools and talent review process. Besides, the latest tendencies in management and numerous collaborative researches related to the given sphere indicate that there are several the most important concepts that should be considered, and these are retaining high-performance, manager capability, professional skills, leadership qualities, and succession pool (Kim & McLean, 2012). These concepts determine any organizations efficiency and should also be analyzed when measuring employee talent in the Big League. An outstanding and talented worker possesses leadership skills that help him/her impact the collective and attain improved results. However, if a talented worker is deprived of an opportunity to exercise these very leadership skills and impact other employees, he/she will not evolve.

So, the overall efficiency will decrease. This aspect is also closely connected to high-performance. It is one of the most important elements of any organizations functioning as it creates the basis for the further rise and helps to attain a competitive advantage. High-performance depends on a set of factors that include opportunities for growth, personal and professional skills, manager capability, etc. (Kim & McLean, 2012). Finally, practice is another crucial concept which impacts talent management greatly. All employees skills and competencies should be unified to improve practice skills. It means that any company should provide extra training for workers to be able to improve this aspect. For this reason, it becomes obvious, that the focus on talent management should also imply the exploration of the concepts mentioned above to guarantee that an employee will be provided with the needed environment and all his/her demands will be satisfied. Only in case, all these concepts are touched upon by managers, a significant improvement of outcomes will be observed.

Furthermore, introducing the basic monitoring practices and measuring the performance, the company should also outline talent management objectives to consider to guarantee the comprehensive evolution of functional expertise and performance improvement. That is why talent enhancement strategy should be closely related to business strategy as any employee should be ready to work hard to achieve business goals. For this reason, we could state that the main companys objectives and strategic priorities coincide with the needs for the improvement of personal and professional skills of talented employees. Moreover, several other aspects like cultural peculiarities, business drivers, and skills should also be taken into account when creating a certain strategy aimed at the improvement of talent management (Swailes, 2016). Another objective related to enhancing this aspect, and the final result is the wide usage of technologies to improve outcomes and increase the efficiency of different processes (Swailes, 2016). The modern technologies provide numerous opportunities for the delivery of messages, data sharing, etc.

For this reason, managers should not ignore such a powerful tool and explore it to improve functional expertise and attain better results. However, it is also important to consider global tendencies peculiar to the current business environment. These might be the global economys state and problems related to the workforce like its aging, low level of skills, lack of motivation, etc. Consideration of these objectives will help to improve talent management.

As stated above, the company is not able to ignore the current global trends. For this reason, it should be internationally operated and consider internal and external factors when introducing a specific strategy. First of all, it is the religious and cultural peculiarities of workers (Ohlrich, 2015). The tendency towards the increased globalization preconditions the fact that most teams are international, and these peculiarities should be minded. Moreover, employees should know the basic expectations related to their functioning and accept them.

Furthermore, delving into the external factors, we could also admit that a persons performance depends on his/her mood, motivation, social status, etc. (Ohlrich, 2015). That is why when Big League wants to increase an efficiency of a certain worker, it should devote attention to all elements that impact his/her mood, which might be the family background, relations with the community and team, peculiarities of personality, psyche, etc. Only considering these factors, success could be attained.

Finally, optimization of the talent management process and its adjustment to Big Leagues environment is another crucial element the talent management is. It guarantees the constant improvement of the given aspect and acceptable outcomes. As stated above, the main objectives of this process should coincide with business goals. It could be considered one of the main factors of successful optimization. In case the company manages to combine both talent management and strategic approaches, it will acquire the flexibility needed to adapt to new conditions and respond to the most complex challenges.

Furthermore, the integrity of talent management is another way to optimize this process and make it more efficient. Big League has several long-term goals that precondition its strategy. For this reason, the company should also create long-term practices aimed at constant and gradual improvement of the personal and professional skills of talented employees to guarantee outstanding final results. Only in case these aspects are considered when creating a talent management strategy, it could be optimized and will help the company to evolve.

Altogether, Big League has numerous opportunities to implement an efficient management process to measure employee talent and provide numerous opportunities for workers to evolve and become efficient. The implementation of the model mentioned above will help to increase the companys efficiency and achieve the outlined goals.

References

Bhattacharyya, K. (2015). Compensation and benefits program a mediating variable for talent retention. Compensation & Benefits Review, 47(2), 75-80. Web.

Blass, E. (2009). Talent management: Cases and commentary. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.

Kim, S., & McLean, G. (2012). Global talent management. Advances in Developing Human Resources, 14(4), 566-585. Web.

Mathew, A. (2015). Talent management practices in select organizations in India. Global Business Review, 16(1), 137-150. Web.

Ohlrich, K. (2015). Exploring the impact of CSR on talent management with generation Y. South Asian Journal of Business and Management Cases, 4(1), 111-121. Web.

Swailes, S. (2016). The cultural evolution of talent management. Human Resource Development Review, 15(3), 340-358. Web.

Introduction

Learning Management Systems (LMS) are the tools employed by educational institutions and organizations for the improvement of the work process (“What is the best,” 2015). The popularity of LMS has grown due to its easy use and the possibility to be endorsed by big corporations as well as small businesses. LMS help these companies to operate their online learning courses. The biggest advantage of LMS is the opportunity to prepare substantial resources for educating the employees or students (“What is the best,” 2015).

Also, LMS enables the students and staff to check their proficiency and get accredited in the fields related to their activity. The “best-of-breed” programs are the ones concentrated on LMS as opposed to “integrated suites” instruments that suggest a variety of software applications. Two of the best LMS are DoceboLMS and TalentLMS.

DoceboLMS

Docebo is a principal provider of SaaS (software as service) eLearning solutions and an extensive system for training management (“Docebo,” 2017). This LMS is mobile-ready, promptly scalable, and completely integrated. It is also possible to use Docebo off-the-shelf. This LMS is suggested for global users, and it is available in over thirty languages. Owing to these features, Docebo is used by some of the greatest corporations in the world that want to achieve operational proficiency in their field (“Top ten learning,” 2017).

DoceboLMS is a powerful and extendable SaaS incorporating a function of activating an Enterprise Cloud Solution application that makes it possible for the system to operate on an instance of a dedicated cloud. Moreover, Docebo provides the customers with a convenient one-page application that demonstrates how to deliver, operate, and follow a variety of eLearning activities (“Top ten learning,” 2017). Enterprises of different sizes can enforce this cost-effective LMS that is compatible with a tablet and rich in options. DoceboLMS administers over 300,000 users in various distance-learning programs.

The most important features of this LMS are classroom management, asynchronous learning, eCommerce, certification management, and AICC/SCORM compliance (“Top ten learning,” 2017). Additionally, Docebo provides its users with a neat and up-to-date user experience, constant innovation, flexible prices, and a free trial option.

Advantages of the Training Function in a Company

Docebo suggests several major benefits for corporate training. The first one is an uninterrupted one-step publication of educational programs into LMS. Integration makes it much easier for the course authors to operate the process of uploading the materials (Leavoy, 2017). Docebo is much better than a standard platform for publishing content as it allows the authors to get rid of manual uploading.

The second advantage for corporate training provided by Docebo is the one-click alternative. It means that as soon as the content has been added to the online system, users can take it to the correlative Docebo instance with the help of PENS protocol with just one click (Leavoy, 2017). After that, content becomes accessible through the “single source learning object repository” (Leavoy, 2017, para. 5).

The third major benefit of Docebo is the availability of an eLearning combo and power learning options with the best-of-breed content (Leavoy, 2017). With the help of these options, the publishing process is greatly simplified. Also, Docebo makes it possible for the users to see what devices and layouts the learners are employing while viewing the content. Such a feature can be used by program authors to identify the most popular trends and use them in the future.

TalentLMS

TalentLMS is a powerful cloud LMS that allows employers and professors to train their employees, students, clients, and partners (“TalentLMS,” 2017). The system is entirely customizable and suggests extensive analytics concerning all the elements of the eLearning environment (“Top ten learning,” 2017). The best elements of TalentLMS are gamification, notifications, flexible user profiles, video-conferencing, and SCORM and TinCan compliance. The application is in sync with iPhone/iPad and Android devices (“TalentLMS,” 2017). Its design is easy and responsive. Talent LMS offers an exceptional opportunity to get a free trial period.

There are several key features that make TalentLMS so accessible and popular. First of all, this cloud-based application makes it possible for users to arrange an eLearning platform in a few minutes. Also, the Talent’s interface is minimalistic, which allows people to concentrate on content rather than a variety of features (“Top ten learning,” 2017). Furthermore, users can modify the application to their branding specifications.

Another feature is that TalentLMS suggests a fantastic mobile experience, allowing the users to get access to PC, tablet, smartphone, and tablet. Finally, the application has a very flexible pricing system (“Top ten learning,” 2017). It is possible for users to choose from a variety of packages depending on their needs. If the requirements are simple, the organizations can keep using a free plan forever.

Benefits for the Training Function in a Company

The advantages presented by TalentLMS are numerous. First of all, it suggests great course management tools. The app is content friendly, and it allows the course instructor to eliminate the ways in which the courses can be completed. Also, Talent has surveys and assessment engines. The survey engine gathers and investigates the survey results. Assessments engine provides support for a variety of kinds of questions and test types (“TalentLMS,” 2017).

The next benefit of this application is concerned with the learning delivery. With the help of videoconference support, learners receive better communication options. The blended learning feature allows users to combine instructor-led training with eLearning. Rich communication tools suggested by Talent make it possible to organize a calendar, personal messages, and discussion forums.

Another helpful feature of TalenLMS is that it is enterprise-ready (“TalentLMS,” 2017). The app enables considerable reporting about everything in the eLearning environment. There is a timeline of all activities and admission to all the events. Talent allows companies to create themes and logos that make the app personalized.

The Future of LMS

Learning management systems have provided employers with the opportunity to enhance their employees’ possibilities. However, all technologies are developing rapidly, and LMS will most likely alter in the nearest future so as to comply with the users’ demands. It is expected that LMS will engage with virtual (VR) and augmented reality (AR) (“The future of learning,” 2017). With the help of VR and AR, trainers will be able to design the most realistic scenarios for learners.

Another future change concerning LMS is that they will become more personalized (“The future of learning,” 2017). While LMS already suggest personalization options for the users, in the future, they are expected to concentrate on non-traditional approaches.

More extensive gamification is another change predicted for LMS. Organizations will have to comply with the demands of new employee generation that will consist of the millennials. Another future innovation is more in-app feedback that will allow employers to understand their employees’ needs better. Finally, there is even an opinion that LMS will engage robots to perform some of the tasks. However, this feature so far seems the least possible of all.

The Limitations of LMS

Despite all the positive features provided by LMS, there are some things lacking in the organization of these platforms. The greatest problems associated with the implementation of LSM are IT issues, system customization, integration, ongoing administration, content integration, and system performance (“Six biggest challenges,” 2017). IT issues appear due to the fact that many companies have restricted IT resources.

System customization may become a problem when it comes to choosing among a large variety of themes and designs. Integration may be difficult for users who do not know how to find and report the necessary information (“Six biggest challenges,” 2017). Ongoing administration may be too complicated for a leader to employ. Content integration and system performance may present difficulties in case if there are unproductive approaches or too complicated reports. However, when LMS applications are created in a way that is acceptable and plain for all users, such gaps will not appear.

Conclusion

LMS have acquired great popularity and are striving to sustain it no matter how difficult it may be at times. Learning management systems suggest numerous benefits for small and big businesses. However, in spite of a great number of useful features, LMS may lose their significance in the future. In order to eliminate such possibility, LMS creators need to take into consideration the current limitations of such applications. Technology is constantly developing, and learning management systems may lose their dominant role if they do not keep up with the pace of innovations.

References

Docebo. (2017). Web.

Leavoy, P. (2017). Three benefits of Docebo-Lectora integration for corporate training. eLearning Industry. Web.

Six biggest challenges in LMS implementation. (2017). Compliance Training Solutions. Web.

TalentLMS. (2017). Web.

The future of learning management systems. (2017). Moodle News. Web.

Top ten learning management systems for your company. (2017). Web.

What is the best learning management system? (2015). Web.

Theoretical Framework

Introduction

This section elaborates on the use of attribution theory and grounded theory as the primary methods of examination utilized by the researcher in order to check the information gathered during the interview. These theories were chosen due to their ability to examine the opinions of the interviewees in order to properly interpret the data and create viable solutions and recommendations. For example, through attribution theory the research will be able to correlate the views of the talent manager with their current experiences within Etisalat in order to properly determine whether the current talent management system is appropriate/inappropriate in properly developing employees within the company.

By following grounded theory during the data analysis stage of the study, the research will be able to determine the current state of talent management within Etisalat, whether significant problems exist, what the company is doing to address such issues and if possible alternative to current methods have been considered. It is expected that by following the two theoretical frameworks during the examination process of the paper, the researcher will be able to succinctly address the research objectives of the study.

The main difference between the two theories is that attribution theory concerns itself with the assumptions people have towards a particular product or process while grounded theory focuses more on developing succinct assumptions based on the data that has been presented. As such, by combining both methods this enables the study to examine the opinions of a test subject under a particular investigative framework while at the same time utilizing another framework to determine the inherent problems within a given scenario and the appropriate method of addressing them.

It is based on this that these two theories become an ideal method for the research topic “Achieving Competitive Advantage through Talent Management”. The main benefit of utilizing both theories in the examination of the research topic is that they enable a better examination of the responses of the interviewees as well as the data from the literature review as compared to merely doing an examination of both aspects utilizing a single theory.

Attribution Theory

Attribution theory is an excellent method of analyzing talent management practices since it delves direct into opinions and inclinations regarding particular products or topics (Orth, 2012). As a result, researchers are better able to understand the opinions of candidates that are being examined and their overall responsiveness to current talent management practices (Trafimow et al., 2011).

Attribution theory centers around the derived assumption of a particular individual/group of people regarding a particular process, product or service based on their experience with it (Trafimow et al., 2011). It is often used as means of investigating consumer opinions regarding a particular product and to determine the level of satisfaction derived from its use (Trafimow et al., 2011). By utilizing this particular theory as the framework for this study, the researcher will be able to correlate the opinions of the interviewee regarding their assumptions over what practices lead to job satisfaction thus resulting in improved employee retention practices (Orth, 2012).

This particular theoretical framework helps to address the research objective of determining current talent management practices within the company by creating the framework that will be utilized within the interview. Utilizing attribution theory, the research will design the research questions in such a way that they delve into the opinions of the manager regarding current talent management practices within the company.

The needed information will be extracted through a carefully designed set of questions whose aim is to determine how a particular manager’s experience with the company’s talent management processes affects the way they view the current state of talent management within the company and whether significant improvements need to be implemented or not. However, it should be noted that while attribution theory is an excellent means of examining the opinions of interviewees, it is an inadequate framework when it comes to determining the origin of problems in certain cases. Grounded theory, with its emphasis on utilizing a specific framework to guide a researcher during the examination process can be considered an adequate method of performing the more “in-depth” aspects of the research.

Justification for Utilizing Attribution Theory

As a guideline for examination, attribution theory enables researchers to better understand how people react or will react based on the introduction of a new set of parameters (Trafimow et al., 2011). This can encompass a new product, process or organizational structure, however, its main intended purpose is to help researchers understand the justification behind the reactions of the research subjects (Orth, 2012).

Based on this, it can be seen that attribution theory is an ideal method of examination for this paper since it would enable the researcher to better understand the factors (i.e. organizational culture, personal preference etc.) that influence the talent manager in his/her position regarding talent management practices within Etisalat. Not only that, it would enable the researcher to determine whether such influences positively/negatively affect the development of talent management practices within the company.

Grounded Theory

The advantage of utilizing ground theory over other theoretical concepts is that it does not start with an immediate assumption regarding a particular case (Gambetti, Graffigna and Biraghi, 2012). Instead, it focuses on the development of an assumption while the research is ongoing through the use of the following framework for examination:

1. What is going on?
2. What is the main problem within the company for those involved?
3. What is currently being done to resolve this issue?
4. Are there possible alternatives to the current solution?

This particular technique is especially useful in instances where researchers need to follow a specific framework for examining a problem (as seen in the framework above) and, as such, is useful in helping to conceptualize the data in such a way that logical conclusions can be developed from the research data (Hunter, 2012).

Through the use of grounded theory, the researcher will be able to determine how talent management practices in Etisalat such as employee benefits programs, employee training programs, work/life balance initiatives, mentoring or in-house education services are effective enough in retaining the company’s current talent base. This will be done by following the ground theory framework of examination (that was already mentioned) in order to help guide the research and interview process that will be conducted.

According to Charmaz (2006), grounded theory provides systematic, yet flexible guidelines to collect and analyze data. That data then forms the foundation of the theory while the analysis of the data provides the concepts resulting in an effective examination and presentation of the results of the study.

Methodology

Introduction to Methodology

This section aims to provide information on how the study will be conducted and the rationale behind employing the discussed methodologies and techniques towards augmenting the study’s validity. In addition to describing the research design, this section will also elaborate on instrumentation and data collection techniques, data analysis and study concerns.

Research Design

Sekaran (2006) observed most qualitative studies are either descriptive or experimental. The study will utilize a descriptive correlation approach because the participant will be measured once. According to Sekaran(2006), an interview technique is used when the researcher is principally interested in descriptive, explanatory or exploratory appraisal, as is the case in this study. The justification for choosing an interview approach for this particular study is grounded on the fact that the participant will have the ability to respond to the researcher questions more directly and thus provide more information than a simple questionnaire.

An analysis of related literature will be used to support the study findings with research on various strategies utilized in talent management. Such analysis, according to Sekaran (2006), is important in identifying the actual constructs that determine efficient analysis because “it goes beyond mere description of variables in a situation to an understanding of the relationships among factors of interest” (Sekaran, 2006: 19).

Data Collection

According to Patton (2002), the purpose of an interview is to obtain subjective data, such as attitudes, which are not observable. The interview will provide an opportunity for the interviewees to share their knowledge about talent management and their attitude about the use of skill training, job satisfaction and developing job interest in their programs. Since the questions will be open-ended, each interviewee will also have an opportunity to ask questions or take the interview in a different direction in order to share their ideas regarding the topic.

Sekaran (2006) notes that research that is performed in a rigorous manner can lead to more effective practices than decisions based mainly on intuition, personal preferences, or common sense. It is based on this that the researcher will utilize the views garnered through the interview that will be conducted along with data from the literature review in order to develop a sufficient platform from which effective and above all accurate conclusions can be created.

The open-ended questions that will be utilized within the study will primarily be guided by the case study objectives established by the researcher. The interview style will be intensive interviewing (Patton, 2002). Intensive interviewing allows the researcher to conduct an in-depth exploration of a particular topic. Unlike “regular” interviews, intensive interviewing focuses on the presentation of specific facts, circumstances, events and data sets by the interviewer and examines how the respondents react to such data via opinions, presentation of inherent knowledge or application of the given data on a case by case basis.

This differs significantly from the way in which “regular” interviews are conducted wherein the data is far more generalized and there is little if any sufficient application of data to resolve presented problems. From a certain perspective, it can be stated that a regular interview is static in that interactions between the interviewer and interviewee are limited to presenting views regarding particular instances.

On the other hand, intensive interviews are far more dynamic in that they delve into developing specifics and solutions for particular situations (Patton, 2002). One way of comparing the two methods can be seen in the case of interviews conducted by reporters on the street (which can be described as a regular interview) and the type of interviews seen on the popularly syndicated show “60 Minutes” (which is a form of intensive interview) (Patton, 2002).

As such, with this interview style, the researcher will be able to focus on the attitude and knowledge level of the participant about talent management. For example, the interviewer can stop and explore a statement, request more detail on a statement, keep the participant on a particular point or return to an earlier topic, and restate the participant’s point to check for accuracy. Such methods would not be acceptable in a normal conversation.

According to Charmaz (2006), intensive qualitative interviewing fits well with a grounded theory method because both are open-ended, yet directed. This combination is the perfect balance for this research study. The research questions are directed at how the managers feel about current talent management processes and how much they know about using attributes related to job satisfaction, interest and skills training in their programs. The use of these two methods will allow the researcher to direct the interview in order to keep it focused, while at the same time, provides a means for the participant to go in other directions in order to share thoughts and ideas. This open-ended style will allow for the greatest variety of data.

Deciding on the Questions to be used in the Interviews

The questions for the interviews were based on an evaluation of the research questions as well as the data and arguments presented in the literature review section. The aim of the researcher was to develop the questions in such a way that they build up on the material utilized in the literature review.

Data Analysis

The primary method of data analysis in the case of this study involves an individual review. The individual review will primarily be the researcher examining the collected response data from the manager that was interviewed and comparing it to the data obtained from the literature review. By doing so, this should create a better understanding of how close Etisalat talent management practices are to those advocated by academic researchers. The researcher will then review these main themes and use this information to assist in establishing the key findings of the study. This method of data analysis is appropriate for a qualitative design.

Study Concerns

One potential concern that should be taken into consideration is the potential that the responses given by the study participant are in fact inaccurate or outright false. While the researcher is giving the manager the benefit of the doubt, the fact remains that there is still the potential that the information being given has been crafted in such a way that it was made to ensure that other companies will not be able to determine how the internal operations of Etisalat function. Unfortunately, there is no way for the researcher to verify the information since only one research subject is being interviewed.

This methodology exposes the participant to an assortment of risks that need to be taken into consideration during the research process. The main risk the participant will encounter is if any of the answers that criticize or indicate dissatisfaction with talent management leaks. This encompasses the question on whether the company’s current program is effective or not. Depending on his opinion on such a matter, it may be grounds for termination depending on how upper level managers would perceive his evaluation of their work.

Section One: Summary of the Case Study

Norvatis is a pharmaceutical company that came into existence in the late 1990’s. The company has made tremendous success in terms of increasing its global presence and increasing its profit margins. The company’s CEO, Daniel Vasella grapples with the idea of coming up with an elaborate system of performance appraisal and worker’s motivation.

Apparently, Norvatis has an organizational culture that supports hiring senior management executives outside the company’s human resource department. As such, Vasella articulates that there is the need for the company to identify employees and train them within the context of organization to enhance their managerial skills.

Although the CEO asserts that 78% of senior managers have ascended through the ranks of the company, Norvatis experiences a challenge regarding ‘pay for performance’ and other ways of motivating the employees. This implies a global talent management system.

At the outset, it is important to appreciate the role of any global talent management system. According to the CEO, the company’s ability to develop leadership skills among its employees is a critical objective of global management system. In fact, he asserts that the manager ought to establish an organizational culture by allowing the senior managers to have vast experience in the organization.

He asserts that the process of hiring managers outside the organization is expensive and it discourages a consistent organizational culture within the company. The CEO is also wary of the fact that the trained managers would need to reach to their places of work before other companies hire them and as such, it will become an expensive venture for Norvatis.

To avoid such an occurrence, it is important for the company to provide motivation for the employees. Indeed, he appreciates that money did not motivate the employees to the level that is necessary to retain them. He says that many employees do not work for money but instead seek to be a part of the company’s success.

To that end, the performance management system at Norvatis ought to reflect the organization’s values and incline the employees towards increased chances for success. Initially, Norvatis had a performance management system that it used to rate its employees in order to have a performance based method of motivation and compensation.

The company also insisted on the need to have a uniform standard of measuring performance across the world. Guided by such values as innovation and creativity, the company’s ratings would receive their respective performance ratings across the globe (Goldsmith & Carter, 2009).

It is important to notice that the initial system of rating the employees suffered a lot of criticism owing to its inability to indicate employees’ performance precisely. Hence, performance management system ought to comprehend various aspects.

Norvatis encourages a distinction of the performance by different employees. It is apparently difficult to use a rating system that does not only fail to distinguish talents in the organization but also unable to understand the raters’ discernment. In addition, Norvatis contends with an increased urge to enhance the uniformity of its global talent and performance management.

Using online surveys, the research results indicated that the company had been able to implement a largely uniform system in 90% of its outlets. Norvatis’ operating and financial results that had been exceptional in majority of the outlets could have been influenced the uniformity. Norvatis also attempts to match its ‘pay to performance’.

To achieve this objective, the employees could have interpersonal appraisals with the manager to reveal the factors enhanced or impeded achievement of goals they set priory. The manner the discussions end influences the compensation a significant way. It was necessary to come up with a uniform system that would strike a balance and match the compensation criteria in the company.

The current system created unprecedented disparities to level that some of the employees received even two folds of their base salaries as opposed to others who do not manage to get a bonus due to poor performance (Goldsmith & Carter, 2009). This would ultimately result to imbalanced levels of employee’s work commitment and job satisfaction. This could affect Norvatis in a huge way.

Moreover, the aspect of cultural differences in various global outlets had presented a big challenge for the company. In particular, in Asian countries where Confucian ideas are prevalent, the performance rating systems were also different from the rest of the mechanisms in comprehending the ratings accruing each of the employees. Above that, it is apparent that different employees have demanded equivalent pay for similar jobs making it even difficult for the ‘pay for performance’ system to penetrate the rigid culture.

To achieve the goal of ensuring that senior managers have worked for the company previously, the company designed a training program targeting potential occupants of managerial positions in the upcoming future. The employees would receive training on issues surrounding strategic planning and management of improved performance among many other programs that typified the training.

The main objective of the training was to enhance a systematic and a gradual process through which management skills will emerge at an early stage. Nevertheless, some ongoing costs sought to question the company’s ability to increase the profit margin. This was despite the company’s successful implementation of its performance management system.

Norvatis has embarked on a program that seeks to source global talent. The company has opened different talent firms in many of its outlets. It introduced a program named international assignees in which employees in different locations could switch their operations and move to other countries that Norvatis held. Nevertheless, there was huge challenge especially in ensuring that the salaries for the international assignees were uniform notwithstanding the country that the assignees would work.

Initially, the company realized that the program cost was almost twice in the labors costs and particularly, salaries and wages. The rationale was that it was ethical for the company to facilitate the employees’ ability to sustain their households located in their home countries while at the same time ensuring that they were able to transit to the new countries with ease.

Norvatis found an opportunity to expand its operations to China. Having been able to establish elaborate research and development (R&D) in various countries, it intended to make research a priority especially when operating in the Chinese market. Luckily, research had revealed a gap in the provision of pharmaceuticals that would facilitate the fight against diseases that are prevalent in the country.

The company identified cancer caused by infections as a starting point for its aggressive strategy. Besides, it controlled a substantial competitive edge in that, a huge Chinese population preferred foreign health care providers to locally established pharmaceuticals. Norvatis invested handsomely but various factors presented a challenge to its ambitions. From the onset, the costs associated with labor began to increase in an unforeseen way.

In addition, the costs could increase exponentially if the company were to employ more number of native populations. This is because the Chinese labor market is typical of young and talented laborers who possess little experience especially that which relates to multinationals. As such, the company would incur increased costs of the imminent training and on-job development.

Strategies to counter the challenges involved being able to benefit from undervalued labor in China and relocating the company’s operation to rural areas where the costs of labor would ultimately be the lowest (Goldsmith & Carter, 2009).

Labor market saturation in China has deemed some graduates to opt for informal jobs. Norvatis could also aim at unifying the labor costs with the labor compensation of other countries. That was not all, the CEO highlights that the company also pointed some strategic concerns about ways to improve the transformative change that he had implemented.

Section 2

Universal systems of motivation

Apparently, Novartis makes an important decision that regard to having a uniform or universal system to motivate its employees. The company has enhanced its ability to make significant profits margins that has enabled it to operate in different countries across the globe.

To that end, the company would require uniform talent and universal performance measurement strategy has been used to enhance other appraisals. Using a universal method to motivate employees is a common aspect of multinationals. While many analysts articulate that the process of motivating employees ought to take different aspects, there are advantages that make a universal system of motivation to be reasonable (Friedman, 2005).

Scullion & Collings (2010) explicate that the system enhances an organizational culture within a company. While many companies are typical of fragmented systems of motivation, a universal system of motivation is an important tool through which the organization’s culture develops.

With a functional organizational culture, it is critical to notice that the employees can learn the values of the organization in the context of the motivation system making it to embrace change, which is unending process in all business environments (Monahan, 2000).

Besides, universal system of motivation enhances job satisfaction owing to the need for the employees to identify with people that work in similar capacities. It is clear that Norvatis noticed that employees felt a sense of inequality when some of them earned high salaries notwithstanding the same jobs that they hold.

Friedman (2005) says that it is vital for multinationals to consider the negative factors that might accompany the universal system of motivating employees. First, a multinational ought to consider that cultural difference may present a challenge when assuming such an approach of compensation. This is in appreciation of the fact that various employees draw motivation from different sources as opposed to one standardized system.

For instance, employees in Asian countries value non-tangible sources of motivation such as respect, which makes the Asians to standout from the rest of global talents that value conventional resources of motivation (Scullion & Collings, 2010). Further, it is important to realize that different employees have different skills, which cannot elicit equal motivation in the workforce.

Performance Measurement Systems

Currently, Norvatis has been able to achieve success especially in performance measurement systems but to a relatively low extent. The main challenge that has typified the company’s systems of appraising performance includes the inability to have an accurate assessment of employees. Friedman (2005) asserts that the rationale is that the current system is prone to manipulation by the managers who may not have the best intentions of some employees.

As such, the current tool may suffer from inaccuracies and inability to provide precise and reliable results. Another challenge that has been clear is inability of the system to give the right meaning of the quantitative rating systems. The ratings range from one to three with the lowest implying diminished productivity and it receives one. Even though the rating system may seem fair, it is important to recognize that a rating of two does not imply that the employee is above average in productivity (Scullion & Collings, 2010).

Norvatis should continue encouraging the use of normal/bell distribution. The rationale is that the tool has facilitated the ability of the managers to distinguish the performance of different employees. In other words, it encourages the managers to be honest when identifying and differentiating talents of all the employees.

Although the tool is largely unpopular among many multinationals, it also encourages the culture of honesty to prevail in an organization (Monahan, 2000). While the top performers may be motivated to seek adventurous and potentially beneficial innovations, it is the role of human resource department at Norvatis to encourage them and engage the rest in team working. This will ultimately motivate all the employees.

Global Talent challenges in China

Norvatis faces uphill task in China especially in meeting its seemingly uncontrollable turnover. Apparently, the cost for doing business in the country has soared in an unsurpassed way. Norvatis should be able to ensure that production of the drugs is cost-efficient by adopting the appropriate cost analysis tool and equally appropriate decision-making tool.

While we consider that the company has found over 1500 exotic elements that could act as the raw materials for the business, it is essential to realize that the company has saved such direct costs as shipping costs and inflationary pressures that could result from high costs of raw materials.

According to Scullion & Collings (2010), making the decision should entail appropriate strategies and enhancing the efficiency of the laborers. As such, the international assignee program should enhance outsourcing of labor from other Asian countries that may be experiencing surpluses in their markets.

Besides, it is important to enhance operations in China by training the newly hired employees to enhance roles break down and specialization (Swanson, 2005). Specialization of the employees will enhance their efficiency while performing their duties leading to time saving.

Swanson (2005) explains that the training ought to offer specific training to the different employees and assist the managers to understand the specific talents that the company possesses. Finally, it is imperative to embark on a project that would identify early talents and facilitate their integration of talents to the Norvatis’ organizational structures.

Conclusion

In sum, Norvatis is multinational Swiss company operating in over 140 countries in the world. The company considers improving its performance measurement systems, as they are tools for appraising performance and revealing the type of talents that the company possesses.

Although the company has been outstanding in increased revenues and other aspects like the organizational culture, it faces a huge business challenge especially when operating in China. The reason is the ever-increasing labor costs of operating in the country.

References

Friedman, T. (2005). The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century. New York: Straus & Giroux Press.

Goldsmith, M. & Carter, L. (2009). Best Practices in Talent Management. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall Publisher.

Monahan, G. (2000). Management Decision Making. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Scullion, H. & Collings, D. (2010). Global Talent Management. Irwin, New York: McGraw Publishers.

Swanson, K. (2005). Coping with China’s Talent Shortage. New York: Norton Publishers.

Abstract

For a long time, conventional human resource management either underestimated or ignored the role played by talent management in the process of recruiting employees. until recently, and due to the impact of globalization and changing marketing trends, strategic human resource management that integrates an incorporates talent and knowledge management has been adopted and implemented by quite a number of leading organisations.

Indeed, great goals and objectives set forth by a business organisation may not be achieved by an ordinary professional workforce; it is vital to integrate individuals with specific talents to realize the very goals. It is against this background that this paper explores the irrefutable role played by talent in modern human resource management while at the same time debunking the myth that talent management is a fancy term with negligible influence in human resource management.

Introduction

Talent management is a recent development in human resource practices as many organisations are now shifting from traditional ways of recruiting and retaining high skilled employees. while talent management may be perceived in other quotas as a fancy name for human resource or personnel development, it is imperative to note that there needs to be a paradigm shift in the modalities used by organisations to hire employees in order to survive in this hypercompetitive and dynamic world economy (Chaffey & Wood, 2006).

Besides, organisations that are prudent enough in managing human resource clearly understand that achieving best organisational outcomes requires more than just professionalism in the workforce; some talent has to identified, nurtured and retained.

Data obtained from most empirical research studies demonstrate that managing talent has consistently grown to become one of the integral concerns when managing organizations. Needless to say, there are myriad of interplaying factors that have necessitated this paradigm shift in hiring employees.

For instance, the changing business trends as well as the cultural, social, economical and demographic aspects have largely impacted organisations on a global scale in the sense that managing human capital has turned out to the launch pad for impressive organizational performance (Boxall & Purcell, 2011).

The manner in which managers respond to these emerging environmental factors determines both the speed and scope in which talent is identified and developed among employees. Furthermore, as the gap between the aforementioned factors widen with respect to organizational performance, it becomes quite tricky and challenging as well to sustain talent within a given a workforce.

While we continue to appreciate the relative importance of talent within an organisational set up, is also vital to note that there is insufficient supply of talent today in most organisations. Right from the top of the organisation leadership hierarchy, talent gaps are eminent. Worse still, the lower and middle level cadre is not spared either. Hence, the fact that talent is increasingly becoming a rare element in human resource implies that its management should be optimal.

This paper aims at not only refuting the claim that talent management is a fancy ideal in human resource development, it also seeks to clarify why specific, general, short and long term objectives of an organisation may be cumbersome to meet when there are visible gaps in talent management.

Literature review

People who are highly talented differ greatly from the rest of the workforce in an organisation. Although roles and responsibilities may be equally assigned to both the talented and untalented personnel, the former is expected to deliver more and beyond the ordinary level. At the same, a talented employee has more expectations just from fellow colleagues but more so from the employer.

At this point, it is vital to point out that an organisation that hires and manages talent should also be ready to compensate the very talent at a relatively higher cost in order to retain the unique natural ability. In real sense, it is quite costly to maintain a talented employee at workplace both in terms of the two-way traffic expectations as well as the monetary compensation needed.

One of the outstanding characteristic of a talented employee is the extreme ability to think differently and translate the same thoughts to action within a very short time. In the event that the co-workers cannot quickly grasp the fine details of a particular task, a talented worker is easily bored.

More difficult and challenging responsibilities are preferred to smooth sailing tasks. as much as they can handle complex problems within their area of expertise, most research studies on talent management reveal that talented people are intrinsically complex in their own way and it may sometimes be cumbersome to fully understand them (Antonelli, Geuna & Steinmueller, 2000).

Indeed, these attributes of talented people calls for a non-traditional perspective and approach when handling them at workplace. The fact that talented people are naturally smart in their specific areas of specialization explains why organizations need to hire such personalities offer help but not be guided on what to do.

Talent flow within an organisation and the way it is strategically hired, developed, nurtured and retained are all components of talent management. Although a business organisation or institution may opt to settle for trained professionals, the process of aligning the right personnel with jobs that suits them most demands more than just professionalism and training.

Indeed, the availability of sufficient and most productive labour supply requires cross-section of talent management throughout an organisation as per the broad objectives of a business organisation.

Hence, talent management surpasses the simple thought of a fancy idea carved out of human resource practices. Realistically, optimizing competitive advantage in employees through an integrated and holistic approach should be the actual mindset in talent management (Bowen & Ostroff, 2004). Thus, talent management is not a simple and narrow concept that seeks to fashion out human resource development at workplace.

Any organisation that is seeking to deliver a single profound benefit both its objectives and employees may not ignore the innumerable positive outcomes brought about by talent management. Moreover, it is a human resource process that attempts to deploy and retain the right people in their rightful jobs within an organisation by identifying, developing, engaging and systematically attracting talent rather than just training.

As such, hiring talent to suffice labour needs within an organizational set up is crucial since there may be foreseeable future labour needs than an organisation is looking forward to or some current critical roles that such talents are desperately needed. All the components of the life cycle of an employee are covered in talent management, including performance management, succession, development and selection (Fey & Bjorkman 2001).

For talent management to be successful in an organisation there are quite a number of key compliments that the management should bear in mind. As already mentioned in the earlier part of this literature review, talent management is more of a process than an instantaneous act.

Hence, an organisation wishing to adopt and implement talent management in its human resource system should be able to fully and clearly comprehend the business strategies of the given organisation both at the present and future time. In addition, the existing gaps that exist between the available talent and what is needed by the organisation to run its human resource needs should also be assessed. When a comparison has been drawn between the two extremes, it will be possible o fill the employment gap therein.

On the same note, bridging the talent gaps at workplace also requires a thorough talent management plan that has incorporated and integrated both the strategic and business plan for the organisation. This will assist in decisions related to hiring, promoting and demoting of employees based on their individual abilities to perform.

Similarly, the end performance results where talent has been incorporated during production process should connect the corporate goals with those of individual employees, teams or departments within an organisation. When this is attained in talent management, it will be possible to offer feedbacks and clear expectations on behalf of both the employees and organisation in question (Areiqat, Abdelhadi & Al-Tarawneh, 2010).

Enhancing the performance of individual employees may also be an uphill task if talent is not developed. It is paramount to note that employees need to be prepared, in terms of capacity building, to effectively manage their current positions and future responsibilities. Therefore, the integral components required for maximum utilization of talent should be part and parcel of the strategy used to manage hired talent. Emphatically, an evaluation on the impact of the talent employed is necessary after execution of the devised strategies.

As can be observed, talent management is a broad human resource concept and application that cannot be roughly taken as a fancy term used by HR professionals. Moreover, attracting employees who have been perceived to be highly potential is not the ultimate goal for an organisation wishing to accelerate its growth pattern. It is overly necessary to retain and develop those individuals.

Most organisations today are up in arms trying to identify specific talents each employee is endowed with and also developing the very talents so that they can realize positive returns on investment. It is against this backdrop that the inadequate role played by human resource practices has been identified by most practitioners as a stumbling block in managing employees effectively.

The existing talent gap in HR has been aggravated by the increasingly competitive business environment as well as the aftermath of rapid globalization (Harris, Craig & Egan, 2010). By fact, the emergence of strategic human resource management (SHRM) was as a result of transforming the conventional and outdated human resource practices that did not secure any room for harnessing, developing and utilising talent (Antonelli, Geuna, & Steinmueller, 2000).

Strategic human resource management largely deals with how human resource needs can be strategically managed in an organisation in order to improve work output. It is a rather new approach and concept towards the management of human resource in comparison to technical human resource management (Fey & Bjorkman, 2001).

In addition, the basic function of strategic human resource management lies within the designation and implementation of quite a number of managerial policies within an organisation with a broad objective of ensuring that the available human resource management significantly contributes to the productivity of an organisation.

When business strategy is combined with the human resource management function as well as talent management, strategic human resource management would reflect a relatively resilient plan of not only utilizing human resource to the optimum but also driving an organisation towards a competitive edge.

The concept of fit and talent management may not be discussed in isolation since both terms are closely related and interlinked. The concept of fit is primarily the process of melding the human resource function within the strategic goals of an organisation (Wei & Lau, 2005).

There are quite a number of conceptual illustrations that have demonstrated that the design and implementation of sets of strategic human resource practices may not be coherent at all owing to the fact that the concept of ‘fit’ has not been understood well. Realistically, the concept of fit and the talent management lay much emphasis in improving the capacity of a firm in responding to the external factors especially those related to the hiring and utilization of human resource.

Research methodology

In order to carry out research study on talent management, both qualitative and quantitative research methodology can be employed. For instance, a recruitment and retention committee charged with the duty of identifying, hiring and retaining ‘high potential’ or talented employees can be used for quantitative study of talent in strategic human resource management. On the other hand, qualitative analysis of secondary data collected from previously conducted research studies on talent management is also vital as a research methodology.

Results

Strategic human resource management is one of the core activities of talent management as believed by most advancing organisations (Oehley & Theron, 2010). some research studies have unanimously concluded that talent management and human resource development are indeed inseparable in term of application if an organisation is to remain profitable both in the hard and smooth economic times.

Besides, the market supply of talented employees is still dismal, partly because most organisations have not designed, adopted and implemented talent managanment designs that reflect the needs of their respective organisations and the business environment. In any case, organisations have been found to compete stiffly not in terms of an ‘effective labour force’ but in relation to how much talent they can attract, develop and retain their human resource development.

In simple terms, this implies that talent management as a process entails three main steps namely identifying people within an organisation who have a naturally high potential to deliver in their areas of ability and interest, assessing their specific areas of interest and finally assigning them the various responsibilities based on the two criteria.

The logic behind this reasoning is that it is highly likely for talented employees to be attracted by other organisations and of course recruited elsewhere if they are not assigned their specific areas of interest and ability (Oehley & Theron, 2010). This can be economically detrimental to the organization losing such a talent.

According to the humanistic perspective of human resource and talent management, the competence of employees can best be built when interventions and activities surrounding the two types of management in human resource are well coordinated (Saini, 2010). Better still; a well coordinated talent management plan with human resource development will definitely lead to motivation of employees since they will be able to quantify their efforts against individual and organizational goals set beforehand.

Knowledge is bestowed in people. Successful organisations often invest in people with specific talents to attain their goals since individual talented people superficially store the much needed knowledge. Indeed, one way of achieving better knowledge management in human resource management is by developing stronger networks between high potential employees and other professionals (Pinkerton, 2003).

This can be termed as a professional network and its main purpose is to exchange, disseminate as well as compare the available knowledge as part and parcel of nurturing or building the identified talent. In addition, connecting people with other sources of knowledge entails developing a rigorous capacity and building program. This can be achieved through training, workshops and seminars.

Although such undertaking are often done periodically, it is quite necessary for organisations involved in serious information management to adopt the system as a continuous and on-going process throughout the life of an organisation (Chaffey & Wood, 2006). Unless this is done, new innovative methods of production may be missed out and consequently lose out in the market competition.

Nonetheless, in an organisational scenario where there is a stable pool of well managed talent, it is possible to merge knowledge easily using values paths. In connection to this an organization is expected to harmonize and re-engineer its workforce through a recognizable and well outlined hierarchy. In order to connect people with the right information each individual worker should not only be placed in an environment that is rich in information but should also be equipped in a smarter way on how to use the very information (Maier, 2007).

Furthermore it is pertinent to note that for an organization to attain a competitive edge in a dynamic market; employees who have been recruited through talent search should be motivated using the various motivational means available. Although each organization often crave for growth and profitability, the latter may not be achieved unless its talented workforce is well connected or endowed with the right information (Antonelli, Geuna & Steinmueller, 2000).

In order to create a platform where by knowledge can be shared among the employees in building the capacity of workers, prospective organization ought to adopt and embrace externalization, socialization, internalisation and combination model. When the four elements are properly harnessed, knowledge can be created within a short span of time and also be made available to employees. Indeed, this should be the right way to place talent in an environment that is conducive and enriched with viable information.

The system adopted by Carillon Health System (CHS) is a critical case study on the paradigm shift from conventional human resource management that did not embrace talent management to strategic human resource management (Pinkerton, 2003). This system was applied with the aim of hiring and retaining talented employees. The system has been found to be beneficial in quite a number of ways.

For instance, it is possible to share resources economically with the use of this system. Additionally, the duplication of roles and responsibilities is significantly minimized alongside providing a wider forum for creative approaches and ideas that are essential when carrying out the process of recruiting and retaining talent.

Conclusion

In recap, it is pertinent to reiterate that talent management is no longer a fancy term used by human resource professionals. The radical shift to strategic human resource management from traditionally valued technical human resource saw the relative importance of integrating the aspect of talent when recruiting employees.

This has been occasioned by the rapidly changing business environment that demands equal measure of not only restructuring organizational leadership but also identifying, hiring, nurturing and retaining people with high potential to meet the short and long term goals of an organisation. Further, talent management has also been incorporated in knowledge management by connecting talented people with other professionals as part and parcel of boosting their overall performance.

References

Antonelli, C., Geuna, A. & Steinmueller, W. E. 2000. Information and communication technologies and the production, distribution and use of knowledge. International Journal of Technology Management, 20: 72-94.

Areiqat, A., Abdelhadi, T. & Al-Tarawneh, H. 2010. Talent Management as a Strategic Practice of Human Resources Management to Improve Human Performance. Interdisciplinary Journal of Contemporary Research In Business 2, no. 2, (June 1): 329-341.

Bowen, D. E. & Ostroff, C. 2004. Understanding HRM-firm performance linkages: The role of the ‘strength’ of the HRM system. Academy of Management Review, 29 (2), 203-221.

Boxall, P & Purcell, J. 2011. Strategy and Human Resource Management (3^rd ed.), London: Palgrave Macmillan.

Chaffey, D. & Wood, S. 2006. Business Information Management – Improving performance using information Systems, New York: Prentice Hall.

Fey, C. F. & Bjorkman, I. 2001. The effect of human resource management practices on MNC subsidiary performance in Russia. Journal of International Business Studies, 32(1): 59-75.

Harris, J. Craig, E. & Egan, H. 2010. How successful organizations strategically manage their analytic talent. Strategy & Leadership 38, no. 3, (May 1): 15-22.

Maier, R. 2007. Knowledge Management Systems: Information and Communication Technologies for Knowledge Management, Verlag: Springer.

Oehley, A. & Theron, C. 2010. The development and evaluation of a partial talent management structural model. Management Dynamics 19, no. 3, (July 1): 2-28.

Pinkerton, S. 2003. A System Approach to Retention and Recruitment. Nursing Economics, 20(6): 296-299.

Saini, D. 2010. Talent Management in the Developing World. Vision 14, no. 4, (October 1): 340-341.

Wei, L. Q. & Lau, C. M. 2005. Market orientation, HRM importance and HRM competency: Determinants of SHRM in Chinese firms. International Journal of Human Resource Management, 16(10): 1901-1918.

Executive Summary

This is a critical report that offers an objective, yet crucial account of the IHRM matters and tendencies presented in the article, “Talent management decision-making” by Vaiman, Scullion, and Collings (2012).

The report focuses on assumptions of the article, and their influence on presentation of the article. In this context, the article shows that global talent management is an emerging field thus, lacks a precise definition. Consequently, it focuses on contemporary issues affecting decision-making in global talent management.

It also reviews credibility of the authors, literature review, and its quality. This report covers an up-to-date account of the research issues.

The report also shows how IHRM practitioners can use its findings to formulate policies and practices for global talent management. It also asserts contemporary issues, which influence decision-making in global talent management. Finally, the report presents strengths and weaknesses of the article. These include a thorough review of literature and its inability to offer precise solution to challenges facing IHRM. However, it calls for further studies to tackle such challenges.

Assumptions and their influence on the article

Vaiman, Scullion, and Collings conducted a thorough literature review of talent management decision-making. They established that talent management of knowledge workers has become a strategic tool for organisations (Vaiman, Scullion and Collings 2012).

The authors argue that the field of talent management is emerging and lacks a concrete definition. Some scholars and professionals define talent management from human capital perspective. Conversely, others view talent management as a business strategy, corporate culture, and key to organisational success.

These researchers assumed that the challenge of exact definition of talent management has led to inadequate comprehension in the field of global talent management. However, they adopted a definition of global talent management by Scullion and Collings. It states that global talent management entails “every organisational action for attracting, selecting, developing, and retaining the best employees in the most strategic roles (those roles necessary to achieve organisational strategic priorities) on a global scale” (Scullion and Collings 2011).

The global perspective on talent management enables these authors to look at talent management from a global perspective. As a result, they take into account various perspectives based on differences from various countries. They conclude that decision-making in talent management should take into consideration various contexts in which employee management take places. This implies that it should differ from one region to another including the US where the practice and theory emerged.

Credibility of the authors

The article inspires credibility based on the number of sources these scholars used for the analysis talent management decision-making. Abilities to present issues systematically with logical conclusions and areas of limitations give the article credibility it deserves.

The authors carefully base their work on existing works of other researchers. This approach ensures that the article reflects previous works in the field of talent management. At the same time, they also remain objective by recognising that the field of global talent management is emerging, and practices may vary from country to country.

These authors have based their studies on perspectives of other authors in the same field. As a result, they establish credibility, identify gaps, and propose areas of study for future researchers.

Literature review and its quality

The article is about literature review in the field of global talent management decision-making. The authors have used 100 sources in this article. These sources present both current and past developments in the global talent management.

Such extensive usages of sources enable these researchers to establish various views about the global talent management. For instance, the researchers have established that the field of talent management is emerging. As a result, there are considerable debates about its areas of focus, definition, and application.

According to literature review, the authors have established that the field of talent management shall remain a major problem to various economies across the world. In addition, they point out a recent research, which suggests that talent management shall be acute in emerging economies (Yeung, Warner and Rowley 2008).

The literature review allows the authors to create a connection between talent management and management decisions. From this perspective, they draw from the works of Boudreau and Ramstad, who claim that HR departments have to change themselves as “a function and shift the emphasis from the provision of services to supporting key decisions within the business, particularly in relation to talent” (Boudreau and Ramstad 2007).

The authors also note that putting talent decision in its right context and maximising the use of relevant information during decision-making processes have gained attention in the past years (Vaiman, Scullion and Collings 2012). In addition, decision-making about global talent management has been the main source of concern among international corporations. Consequently, they have identified several factors that have resulted into these challenges.

First, the article shows that a shortage of talent shall remain a main source of challenge among many organisations as they expand their activities globally (Cappelli 2008). Thus, management decision-making is vital for strategic positioning of multinational organisation.

Second, studies have also identified rapid changes in demographic characteristics as factors, which influence the supply of labour and availability of employees in the labour markets. Consequently, organisations operating in such regions must apply strategies when selecting, recruiting, and retaining employees (Tarique and Schuler 2010).

Third, some studies have indicated that organisations should regard “Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) as an imperative part of their strategy to decision-making in talent management” (Summer 2005). According to these organizations, CSR has become a tool of attracting and retaining highly qualified employees. CSR is critical for developing organisational reputation for attracting and retaining top talents.

Fourth, diversity also has significant influence on the global talent management decision-making. Multinational organisations face challenges of managing workforce diversity. Therefore, as levels of organisational complexity increases, organisations find it difficult to manage global talents (Beechler and Woodward 2009).

Fifth, Tung and Lazarova note that increasing mobility of workers to various cultural and geographical locations also affects decision-making in the global talent management (Tung and Lazarova 2007).

Sixth, these authors also identify a permanent change to a knowledge-based economy as another factor influencing decision-making on the global talent management. According to International Labour Organisation (ILO), there is “a general change towards intangible and human assets” (International Labour Organization 2009). This trend emanates from the rapid growth of service sector where demands for highly qualified human resources are high.

Lastly, emerging markets have also affected decision-making on the global talent management. This is because firms are looking for competent teams who can manage in geographically and culturally different locations all over the world. As a result, retention of such managers and talents has become a challenge among many multinational organisations (Bhatnagar 2007; Li and Scullion 2010).

Establishing the issue as important for IHRM

Vaiman, Scullion, and Collings assert that decision-making in the global talent management affects strategic activities of the HRM and organisation. In this sense, they argue that IHRM practices and procedures must link talent management, strategy, and culture of an organisation. At the same time, this article suggests that organisations shall experience changes as practices evolve in the international labour market as globalisation matures.

These authors also tackle the latest trends witnessed in the international labour market as the main factors, which influence decision-making and the global talent management. This implies that IHRM practices must focus on these issues for successful decision-making in the global talent management.

Therefore, multinational organisations must coordinate and integrate international IHRM practices and policies relating to recruitment, selection, transfer, and retention of employees. However, this process may not be easy for such organisations. As a result, this article suggests further studies in order to identify factors, which may hinder global talent management decision-making. At the same time, such studies should review how HRM practices and policies have changed in response to the global talent management.

The article also shows that HRM practices should be different depending on the region. For instance, HRM needs to apply different procedures and practices when making decisions about international workforce. This implies that multinational organisations must change their HRM strategies depending on the region of operation.

Useful of the article for IHRM policy or practice

This article demonstrates how multinational organisations should align their decision-making processes with the global talent management. It shows that IHRM policies and practices should be different based on the region of operation. This is because of different cultures and geographies of the world.

This article also highlights the importance of global talent management with reference to IHRM policies and practices. In this regard, the article highlights “aspect of strategic HR management in the international company and shows several imperative elements, which influence decision-making in global talent management” (Vaiman, Scullion and Collings 2012). At the same time, it also shows some of the rising tendencies, which shall affect decision-making in talent management in the coming years.

However, this article cannot give a definite conclusion on IHRM practices and decision-making in global talent management because the field is still emerging. Therefore, it calls for further research and empirical studies to provide ways of understanding the field of IHRM and global talent management in a given context of practice.

Strengths and weaknesses of the article

This article has strengths on a thorough literature review. Consequently, it presents the subject from different perspectives of various scholars. At the same time, the article clearly identifies its areas of focus so that readers can easily understand the article. As a result, it systematically presents areas in which practices and policies of multinational organisations should focus on when formulating IHRM policies and practices.

On the other hand, the article lacks empirical data to support the theoretical perspectives it presents. It is only a review of past studies. Thus, it offers nothing new to the field of global talent management and decision-making. In fact, the article proposes a number of further studies to tackle issues it cannot find their solutions.

For instance, these authors also dismiss “the narrow best way to global talent management, which is still dominant in the global talent management literature” (Vaiman, Scullion and Collings 2012). However, they do not offer any alternative solution to the global talent management. Instead, they call for future studies to explore issues surrounding the implementation of talent management across various countries among multinational organisations.

In all, the article points out challenges IHRM policies may face in the future. In this sense, adequate empirical studies shall address issues relating to talent management decision-making in various contexts. At the same time, the article also posits that there is a need for further studies on new roles of HR departments as responses to emerging and complex issues of global talent management.

Further, the article proposes a further research to focus on the relationship between CSR and talent management, especially in emerging economies where CSR tends to control talent management decision-making among multinational organisations.

Representation of ‘sound research’ of the article in IHRM

Vaiman, Scullion, and Collings present their study in a systematic way just like other authors of scholarly studies. They outline the purpose of the research as an attempt to understand key issues that influence global talent management decision-making. These authors also note that their study takes the approach or design of literature review.

From the literature review, the authors present their findings. They review debates on the subject, focus on factors affecting global talent management decision-making, and propose further studies to enlighten subsequent decision-making in talent management. The authors also provide practical implications of their study.

They note that article shall be useful for IHRM practitioners when formulating policies for global talent management. Finally, the authors claim that the article provides an up-to-date account of talent management decision-making.

References

Beechler, Schon, and Ian Woodward. “The Global War for Talent.” Journal of International Management 15, no. 3 (2009): 273-85.

Bhatnagar, Jyotsna. “Talent management strategy of employee engagement in Indian ITES employees: key to retention.” Employee Relations 29, no. 6 (2007): 640-63.

Boudreau, John, and Peter Ramstad. Beyond HR: The New Science of Human Capital. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press, 2007.

Cappelli, Peter. Talent on Demand: Managing Talent in an Age of Uncertainty. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Press, 2008.

International Labour Organization. Global Employment Trends. Geneva: International Labour Organization, 2009.

Li, Shenxue, and Hugh Scullion. “Developing the local competence of expatriate managers for emerging markets: a knowledge based approach.” Journal of World Business 45, no. 2 (2010): 190-196.

Scullion, Hugh, and David Collings. Global Talent Management. London: Routledge, 2011.

Summer, Lin. “Employees: your most important stakeholders.” Corporate Responsibility Management 1, no. 5 (2005): 2.

Tarique, Ibraiz, and Randall Schuler. “Global talent management: literature review, integrative framework, and suggestions for further research.” Journal of World Business 45, no. 2 (2010): 122-133.

Tung, Rosalie, and Mila Lazarova. “The human resource challenge to outward foreign investment aspirations from emerging countries: the case of China.” International Journal of Human Resource Management 18, no. 5 (2007): 868-89.

Vaiman, Vlad, Hugh Scullion, and David Collings. “Talent management decision making.” Management Decision 50, no. 5 (2012): 925-941.

Yeung, Arthur, Malcolm Warner, and Chris Rowley. “Growth and globalization: evolution of human resource practices in Asia.” Human Resource Management 47, no. 1 (2008): 1-13.

Attraction and Retention of Talent

Human resource management becomes an essential part of business world. Even though innovative technologies contributed to the business world and many processes are completed by the machines, the successful business is run when people monitor the working process, participate in it and do all possible to remain successful and effective. To have a successful profitable people, managers are to create a good team from talented people.

Attraction and retention of talents remains one of the main goals of the human resource managers in the company and the successful implementation of the programs connected with the issue may bring much profit for both sides. Retention and attraction of talents is one of the main issues for human resource managers in different companies and the problems and opportunities connected with the issue are going to be discussed below.

Considering the experiences of the respected companies in attraction and retention of talents, it may be concluded that the use of the brand of the employer is one of the main strategies applied for the issue. When a company is famous among people and its image is rather high, talented people are sure to go there in search for a job.

Having conducted a research in the sphere of influence of the brand image on attraction and retention of talents in the company, Botha, Bussin, and De Swardt (2011) prove the mentioned statement. A positive brand of the image and the correct use of this brand while attracting employees, their training and further treatment increases the chance of employing great talents in the company.

However, the authors of the research state that wrong use of the brand of the company while human resource management may cause undesired outcome and negatively influence talent attraction and retention (Botha, Bussin, & De Swardt, 2011).

Conducting a deeper research, the report ‘Talent Attraction and Retention in Larger Accounting Firms’ (2012) by Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority presents the following reasons as the main means for attraction and talents retention, prestige of working for a ‘branded’ firm, job security, steep leaning curve, opportunities for career progression, regular performance feedback, structured training, high future earning potential, benefits package, and compensation that commensurate with work efforts.

Trying to consider some of the issues in detail, it should be stated that attraction and retention of the talents is not connected with high salary at the earliest stages. Talented employees understand that to get good salary, they are to work more. Additionally, the retention of talented employees does not depend on their position while job placement, the possibility of training and career development are more influential factors which make talented people remain at work (Talent Attraction and Retention in Larger Accounting Firms 2012).

Therefore, it may be concluded that talented people are encouraged by the possibility to develop both personally and professionally. High positions at the beginning of their career are not that important how the possibility of the professional growth. Therefore, it should be mentioned that talented people are eager to come to the companies whose brand is known and its image is not spoiled.

Moreover, applying for a job, talented people do not expect to get the highest positions, they are eager to work hard and achieve higher positions by means of their talents. The presence of the training is an important factor for talented people as the y put much on personal development.

Developing Human Resources in Organisation

The role of human resources in the company cannot be overestimated, as the successful functioning of the organization is possible only when the employees personally and professionally grow. The world is changing, the approaches and means of work performance are changing as well. Absence of development may lead to the lack of competence.

The main idea of the human resource management is to consider the issues connected with the training and development of employees’ skills and personalities. It is impossible to lead business successfully without working hard with the staff. Developing human resources in organization, company invests into its successful functioning in the future. Trying to understand the main reason of development of the human resources and a detailed discussion of the issues is one of the main aspects of this discussion.

Development of the human resources is directly connected with the education and training. Working on the problems, employees usually refer to the knowledge and experience they have. Therefore, they work productively and successfully for some time. However, the absence of the appropriate training leads to the absence of the personal and professional development.

Employees may grow professionally within the frames of the company as they may get to know more in the sphere of the company performance, however, the personal growth is possible only when additional data is studied. Employers may offer employees to search for the additional knowledge personally, but in this case the systematic education serves better (Byrne 1999).

Developing human resources in the organization, the employer performs several functions. First of all, he/she cares for the employees employed in the company and for their personal growth which improves performance in the organization. Second, employer shows that the development of the staff is important and it improves the company image inside and outside the organization.

Finally, developing human resources, the company gives an opportunity for others to get to know about it as conducting international trainings, the company positions itself at the international arena as the caring company which is really important. Therefore, the development of the business relations may be considered as one of the factors of the successful development of the human resources (Leopold 2002).

Trying to understand the advantages of the human resource development in organization for an employee, the personal development should be put on the highest positions. Those employees who constantly learn something new and develop professionally are sure to experience personal growth. It is really important to grow personally as this is the guarantee of successful working performance, self-realization and increase of self-esteem.

In case the companies do not pay much attention to the employees’ development, the work becomes boring and unimpressive. Employees are not given an opportunity to offer creative realization of the ordinary problems. Studying is the way to know something new and the way to the development which is essential for company successful development. Standing at one and the same place does not allow the company to increase oits profit.

Human Resources Planning in a Changing Environment

Dwelling upon human resource planning as the part of the company strategy, it is important to understand the main idea of the issue. Human resource management has many definitions, however, the most extended and specific one is as follows, human resource planning is “a process of determining and assuming that the organization will have an adequate number of qualified persons available at the proper times, performing jobs which meet the needs of the enterprise and which provide satisfaction for the individuals’ involvement” (Pravin 2010, p. 108).

Trying to characterise the human resource planning, it should be stated that the main purpose of this procedure is to fulfil the goals and strategies of the company. Planning is really important in the present world. However, the changing environment creates a number of specific difficulties and barriers on the way to easy planning.

Therefore, planning cannot be called an easy process, as it should involve a number of processes, activities and tasks carried out on a continuous basis. One of the main challenges on the way of human resource planning is to cover the long-term periods. The tactics should be applied here to make sure that the long-term periods are realisable and the short-term tasks will be successfully met (Bandt & Haines 2004).

Trying to understand the principle of human resource planning in the changing environment, it should be stated that absence of planning leads to complete chaos. Even though the changing environment does not give an opportunity to remain assured in the predicted and presupposed outcome, planning is essential.

Human resource planning is the consideration of the future needs of the company. It is impossible to develop the strategy and the company purposes without planning future activities. Planning in the changing environment should be constantly supported with the research and amendments. Making planning as the essential part of company development, it is important to understand that having created a long-term plan, it does not mean that it remains unchangeable.

Further research in the sphere of company performance and making changes in the long-term planning is essential for successful realization of human resource planning. Successful planning is the one which is constantly supported, not the one which remains stable up to the final terms (Nissley 2004).

To complete planning successfully, the specific steps are to be followed. First of all, the company should establish a strategic planning committee. Then, the revision of the existing and previous plans should be completed with the purpose to understand the real estate of the company business.

Then, those who are going to deal with human resource planning should check the mission and the vision of the company in order to understand the direction of the company strategic development. Then, the strategic planning committee should define the issues and out of this data the goals and objectives of the company development are to be considered. Implementation plans development is the next stage in human resource planning.

It is important to evaluate the success of the company development under the created plan. As it has already been mentioned, constant research, consideration and consideration of the plan are the guarantees of the successful development of the company.

Getting down to human resource planning, it is important to ask the questions connected with the purposes of planning. The purposes help understand the necessity and rational basis of the planning. Finally, planning is the central basis of any business, it is impossible to work without strategic planning.

Reference List

Bandt, A & Haines, SG 2004, Successful Strategic Human Resource Planning, Systems Thinking Press, New York.

Botha, A, Bussin, M, & De Swardt, L 2011, ‘An employer brand predictive model for talent attraction and retention’, SA Journal of Human Resource Management, vol. 9, no. 1, pp. 1-12.

Byrne, SM 1999, The Value of Human Resource Development to an Organization; Providing Technical Assistance to Small Manufacturing Companies, Assistant Professor, University of St. Thomas. Web.

Leopold, J 2002, Human Resources in Organisations, Pearson Education, Oxford.

Nissley, N 2004, ‘Human resources and their development’, Human Resource Development and Environmental Change, vol. 2, pp. 1-15.

Pravin, D 2010, Human Resource Management, Pearson Education India, New Delhi.

‘Talent Attraction and Retention in Larger Accounting Firms’ 2012, Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority, pp. 1-28. Web.

Introduction

With a customer base of 135 million, the Emirates Telecommunications Corporation based in the U.A.E, better known as Etisalat, has grown to become one of largest telecommunications companies in the world spanning several continents with an assortment of products and services ranging from mobile networks to internet service provision.

The success of the company is in part due to its expansion into various global markets such as those in the Middle East, Africa, and various parts of the Asian continent.

As indicated by Quisenberry & Griffith (2010,) frontier markets, especially those with few multinational corporations, are ideal locations for the creation of new business ventures due to the potential of becoming a market pioneer which is an enviable position for any company given that a well entrenched corporation within a particular market can in effect control a majority of the local market’s consumer base for many years (Quisenberry & Griffith, 2010).

What you have to take into consideration is that despite the fact the company makes a annual revenue of $8.4 billion with $2.07 billion in yearly profits, the fact remains that as it expands into new markets this creates an issue involving the training and retention of a diverse talent pool of employees from many different locations.

For example, Bley & Saad (2012) notes that when companies expand into new markets it is often the case that they do not do so alone due to a variety of rival corporations also seeking new opportunities within the same markets. As a result, this creates the potential for any expanding company to lose many of its talented expatriate employees to local rivals.

Another factor that should be taken into consideration is the fact that expanding into new markets often entails managers and other employees having to deal with a variety of distinctly different business cultures and styles which may significantly differ from what they are normally used to.

This would of course hamper operational efficiency due to the initial inability for company managers to effectively guide and instruct local employees due to a “gap” in business culture understanding. Thamhain (2009) indicates that research and development into new ways of improving a company’s talent pool is one of the practices most often seen in technology intensive enterprises (Thamhain, 2009).

This is due to the fact that technology has as of late been under a constantly accelerating level of development and, as a result, has enabled new players to enter into markets whereas in the past distinct barriers to proper entry would have been present (Thamhain, 2009).

Despite this, another factor that should be taken into consideration is how HRM acts as a method of human capital development which in effect enhances the capabilities of an organization through the creation of a talented pool of employees (Cabello-Medina, López-Cabrales & Valle-Cabrera, 2011).

As such, failure to sufficiently innovate and develop human resources along with new technological trends and products can be thought of as a failure on the part of the managerial practices at a company since being able to anticipate trends and use them to either reach greater market penetration or keep the company relevant to consumers is a necessity in today’s technology intensive market economy.

It is based on these factors involving improving a company’s talent pool of employees and retaining talented workers that this paper will examine how Etisalat can achieve a competitive advantage through talent management within the various new markets that it is entering in at the present.

This will be done through an examination of talent management from a corporate point of view within the context of the case of a large multinational company such as Etisilat and, as such, will encompass practices that are being implemented within Egypt, the U.A.E or in Etisilat’s other locations around the world.

The researcher expects that through an evaluation of the current practices implemented by Etisalat involving talent management, more effective procedures can be implemented which would result in improved performance and a far better competitive advantage for the company.

In order to accomplish this, the researcher will conduct an interview with a talent manager at Etisilat in order to obtain data regarding current practices within the company involving job satisfaction, motivation, maintaining interest as well as training and developing their employees. According to various research guides, an interview technique is used when the researcher is principally interested in descriptive, explanatory or exploratory appraisal (Rozakis, 1999).

The justification for choosing an interview approach for this particular study is grounded on the fact that participants will have the ability to respond to the data collection tool by way of self-report, thus, this project will utilize a self-administered interview schedule for the purposes of data collection (Rowland, 2000).

An analysis of related literature will also be used to compare the study findings in order to develop a succinct method of analysis regarding current practices utilized by Etisalat and industry recommended methods of talent management (Rozakis, 1999). It was determined by the researcher that utilizing an interview was the most appropriate method to obtain firsthand accounts of the current talent management processes utilized by Etisalat.

By doing so, this ensures that the aggregate data originates directly from the source and ensures that it is a viable and most importantly an academically sound way of evaluating the current processes utilized involving talent management. It is the assumption of this study that talent management and retaining employees are inherently connected to job satisfaction, as well as the degree development and the number of new tasks associated with a job that make it interesting thus resulting in a far greater degree of interest.

Background of the Study

As indicated by Jing, Sizong & Jun (2008) there are four characteristics that are in demand within a technology oriented enterprise, namely: high market responsiveness, fast developments, low cost, and finally high levels of creativity, innovation and efficiency (Jing, Sizong & Jun, 2008).

What must be understood though is that such characteristics are dependent upon the type of technical teams that are the backbone of the company wherein through the utilization of a variety of management practices a seamless integration of vertical and horizontal means of collaboration need to be implemented in order to create a stable organizational structure for proper operations and product development (Jing, Sizong & Jun, 2008).

This is where the concept of talent management enters the picture. Talent management can be described as the process by which a company develops an employee’s skills throughout their time within the company in order to take on a variety of job roles, as well as to manage their progress up the corporate ladder through a variety of leadership roles.

This process also necessitates a reduction in employee “churn rates” which requires the retention of talent within the company in order to reduce costs associated with training new employees and ensuring that talented individuals do not go to potential rivals within the same industry.

Studies such as those by Vaiman, Scullion & Collings (2012) have indicated that improving and retaining talent within any company is crucial for the success of a business due to way in which talented individuals are drivers for high performance and improved operational processes within a company (Vaiman, Scullion & Collings, 2012).

Oldroyd & Morris (2012) point out that it is not the quantity but rather the quality of a company’s workers that drives success no matter the type of business model or the popularity of a product (Oldroyd & Morris, 2012).

It is based on this that various business development specialists, such as Oldroyd & Morris (2012), indicate that it is crucial for any company that wishes to expand into different markets that their hiring and talent management processes are in line with long term views in relation to retaining employee rather than short term goals of merely keeping a position filled.

By allowing a company’s hiring practices and talent management processes to be complacent this can lead to serious detrimental effects on operational performance as well as result in increased costs related to having to fill positions over and over again as well as retrain the necessary individuals to fill them.

With the expansion of Etisalat into new markets comes the potential for various problems to crop up in reducing employee churn rates and ensuring standardization of performance across all levels of the company throughout its various locations.

Present day studies involving the expansion of telecommunication communication companies into new locations lack a sufficient emphasis on the necessity of effective talent management strategies which this study will seek to rectify through identification of perceived problems in current practices and the creation of recommendations to implement in order to create better corporate talent management practices across diverse international locations, in this case involving Etisalat.

Statement of the Problem

With the expansion of Etisalat into new markets comes the potential for problems related to employee retention and talent management. As such, it is necessary to develop new strategies that the company can employ in order to address such concerns and continue to be competitive.

Research Question

Do the current practices in talent management within Etisilat incorporate aspects related to job satisfaction, skills development and increasing job interest? If not, are its current practices already sufficiently competitive or should they be improved?

Objectives

The main objective of this study is to investigate possible methods involving talent resource management that can be implemented by Etisalat so as to become more competitive within the telecommunications industry. Other objectives within the study consist of the following:

1. To determine the current talent management practices currently in play within Etisalat and propose specific methods that can be realistically implemented by the company in order to further improve its current practices involving talent management (Huang & Tansley, 2012).
2. To show that job satisfaction is inherently connected with performance and employee retention rates (Huang & Tansley, 2012).
3. Contribute towards corporate best practices that would enable employers to not only derive better levels of performance from their employees but would also enable them to reduce employee churn rates as well (referring to the number of employees that enter/leave a company) (Huang & Tansley, 2012).

Significance of the Study

It is important to note that as multinational corporations continue to expand into new markets it has become increasingly apparent that effectively integrating managerial practices found in one business culture to another often creates a mixed result which at times reduces the operational effectiveness of a pioneer branch within a new location.

Since globalization and multiculturalism have become synonymous aspects of the global market place companies need to respond to the diverse consumer and cultural demographics to which they sell their products and services to stay relevant.

Not only that, companies need to be able to address the very real concern of a potential brain drain as direct result of local recruitment practices that would in effect steal valuable and talented employees way from the company.

It is based on this and the current expansionist strategy being implemented by Etisalat that this study will attempt to develop new ways in which an expanding company can manage its talent management processes in such a way that it would result in the creation of better employees that would be retained for a longer time within the company.

Scope and Limitations

The independent variable in this study consists of the academic literature that will be gathered by the researcher for the literature review while the dependent variable will consist of the responses gained from the talent management senior manager that will be recruited for this study.

It is anticipated that through a correlation between the researched talent management and employee retention data and the responses of the senior manager, the researcher will in effect be able to make a logical connection regarding appropriate/inappropriate practices currently conducted by the company and make specific recommendations in order to increase Etisalat’s competitive advantage.

Overall, the data collection process is expected to be uneventful; however, some challenges may be present in collecting data involving talent management and employee retention practices that are to be utilized in this study. Such issues though can be resolved through access to online academic resources such as EBSCO hub, Academic Search Premier, Master FILE Premier, Newspaper Source Plus, and AP News Monitor Collection.

Other databases consulted for this topic include Emerald Insight, Academic OneFile, Expanded Academic ASAP, General OneFile, Global Issues in Context, Newsstand, Opposing Views in Context, popular magazines as well as other such online databases which should have the necessary information.

Relevant books were also included in the review. Furthermore, websites such as The Economist.com have several online articles which contain snippets of information that should be able to help steer the study towards acquiring the necessary sources needed to justify asserted arguments.

It must be noted that the time constraint for this particular study only allows structured interviews with an unrepresentative number of people, and also a limited flexibility when conducting the interview. A general overview of multiple companies within the same industry is therefore not possible.

The main weakness of this study is in its reliance on interview results as the primary source of data in order to determine the general opinion of managers regarding current practices involving talent management at Etisalat.

There is always the possibility that the responses could be false or that the manager in question really does not know anything at all regarding the various methods involving talent management and job satisfaction improvement that will be indicated by the researcher. While this can be resolved by backing up the data with relevant literature, it still presents itself as a problem that cannot be easily remedied.

Review of Related Literature

Introduction to Literature

This section reviews and evaluates literature and theories on the use of talent management in order to attain a competitive advantage as well as methods that are often incorporated into talent management practices in order to retain employees and increase their overall performance. This section thus discusses various aspects related to motivational practices, the impact of talent management on developing a competitive advantage, management styles as well as current practices involved in creating job satisfaction.

Literature Review

When it comes to employee retention and performance, job satisfaction is the deciding factor behind several principles of corporate human resource development and, as such, should be examined from a multilevel perspective in order to ensure employees continue to perform adequately and stay longer with a company (Huang & Tansley 2012).

There are many ways in which this can be accomplished ranging from mentoring, continuous job training and other such factors which contribute towards increased job satisfaction. Yet, it must be questioned which particular process is the most suitable for corporations and which is the most preferred by employees.

As such, this section will conduct an investigation into the aforementioned processes which contribute towards job satisfaction in order to determine which is the most effective in talent management practices.

What you have to understand is that the reason such processes are important is due to the fact that they enable a company to acquire a distinct competitive advantage over their competitors within the same market. This can take on a variety of forms such as cost savings, fewer operational interruptions, higher levels of creativity and other such processes which improve the overall performance of the company.

Competitive Advantage

When examining current corporate methods of operation, it must be noted that companies that practice effective methods of talent management actually develop a certain degree of competitive advantage over their competitors within the same industry (Aime, 2010).

The reason behind this is actually quite simple, by retaining talented individuals and increasing their skills and competencies the company in effect creates a talent pool that can respond to a diverse amount of circumstances and develop methods of innovation that can enable a company such as Etisilat to surge ahead of its competition (Aime, 2010).

Not only that, it reduces the inherent costs related to the search and hiring process. All of this translates into the development of a significant competitive advantage for the company which enables it to outperform its rivals. In his study examining HR practices and their effects on corporate performance, it was noted by Aime (2010) that an employee based competitive advantage manifested itself in improved operational capacities resulting in reduced errors and greater levels of productivity (Aime, 2010).

Aime (2010) points out that HR talent management practices actually helps a company to conform to practices related to Six Sigma and other similar methods of increasing operational efficiency while at the same time reducing wasteful practices within the company in the form of hours spent lounging around instead of working. Similar studies such as those by Chavez (2011) point out that talent management practices creates a certain desire in employees to become better in their respective fields through constant training and experience.

As a result, this creates a pool of talented employees that can easily respond to the needs of the company in a quick and efficient manner (Chavez, 2011). From the perspective of Dawson & Abbott (2011), competitive advantages achieved through talent management manifests itself in the form of cost savings.

What you have to understand is that it is far easier for a company to develop an employee and manage their talent in a specific field than it is to hire externally and incorporate them into the company’s current operational infrastructure (Dawson & Abbott, 2011). It must also be noted that the period of time in between incorporating an externally hired new employee, guiding them on what the new position entails and helping them to ease into the company’s business culture consists of a considerable investment of time and monetary resources.

Not only that, during this particular period of time the company is unable to efficiently provision the necessary services that the vacant position is suppose to accomplish and, as such, this creates the potential for considerable financial loses. Lastly, externally hired employees have been noted by Kalman (2012) as having a greater likelihood to shift companies should a better opportunity present itself resulting in the time and effort spent in recruiting and managing this particular individual being wasted (Kalman, 2012).

When taking into consideration the sheer size of many of today’s multinational companies, the complex nature of particular positions and the loss in operational efficiency should a vital member of the company resign, this creates a substantial problem for hundreds of companies around the world.

It is based on this that applying effective methods of talent management along with sound job satisfaction practices results in a company developing a distinct competitive advantage over its rivals who rely almost entirely on external sources for employees for upper management and higher tier technical positions.

Despite the obvious advantages brought about by talent management, it must be noted that even the best talent management practices in the world need to take into consideration the level of motivation that an employee derives from their position.

such as those by Green (2002) indicate that talent management practices are increasingly taking into consideration methods of increasing employee motivation due to the likelihood of an employee resigning due to their dissatisfaction with their job despite all the time and effort the company placed in developing their talents (Green, 2002).

Motivation

Employees that lack sufficient motivation with their current position have been shown as being more likely to leave for “greener pastures” as compared to employees that have been sufficiently motivated by their company (Green, 2002). This can come in the form of reward programs, company policies or varying degrees of empowerment that in effect encourage employees to work harder and stay longer at their jobs (Huang & Tansley 2012).

Based on the work of Green (2002), it was determined that employee motivation played an important role in talent management practices due to its correlation in creating employees that are more motivated to work, more interested in their job and, as a result, stayed longer with their respective companies (Green, 2002).

Motivation, as stated by Green (2002), is a crucial aspect of talent management since no matter how well a company develops its employees through a plethora of training programs and seminars, if said employees find little willingness to actually apply what they were taught in a productive and enthusiastic manner then the training itself would have been a useless venture (Green, 2002).

The reason behind this is the fact that businesses do not operate within a vacuum and have to deal with an intense competitive environment on an almost daily basis (Höglund, 2012). As such, in order to meet these challenges company’s often have to retain employees by offering certain benefits while at the same time institute costly training practices in order to improve performance, these factors result in added costs for the company (Höglund, 2012).

For example, if a company wishes to expand into a new field of business to stay competitive it would need to train some of its current employees (Ghemawat, 2012). This is an important factor to take into consideration for companies since such programs increase employee performance levels (Ghemawat, 2012).

One example of this seen in modern day firms is the employee bonus program which rewards hard workers and those who fulfill certain standards of attendance. Another interesting point brought up by Downs (2012) are the assumptions on what drives an employee to perform better (Downs, 2012).

This comes in the form of varying models which emphasize that most individuals are goal direct, are driven towards intrinsic rewards and need such rewards in order to work better. Such models of behavior are important facilitators in understanding employee behaviors and, as such, are important in the creation of new policies and strategies in boosting employee performance (Downs, 2012; Andersson, 2012).

For example, when using such models of behavior a company may employ a rewards program for efficiency and productivity in order to encourage all employees to work harder as a result. Within the Santhoshkumar & Rajasekar (2012) study it was shown how motivation initiates, directs and sustains an employee’s performance to the job they are accomplishing (Santhoshkumar & Rajasekar, 2012).

When examining this particular aspect it becomes obvious that all employees need some form of motivating factor in order to work harder, without this there is no incentive to improve one’s performance. For example, if a company does not have any means of motivating its employees to work harder it is unlikely that their performance will improve and thus is an ineffective method of talent management (Andersson, 2012).

Management Styles

Another factor that should be taken into consideration when it comes to talent management are the types of management styles that company managers apply when managing and training their respective employees (Ji, et al., 2012). What you have to understand is that there are variety of management styles currently in practice today ranging from the militaristic, to the laid back and finally the open management style which focuses on developing an environment where the sharing of ideas is promoted.

Each type of management style results in different levels of employee reciprocity such as: their responsiveness to given situations, their ability to adapt to new problems and even their ability to improve themselves (Ji, et al., 2012). Companies need to take into consideration what management styles are currently in place and how do they relate to what they want in terms of talent management.

Do they want employees that are robotic and respond in a manner that is dictated step by step by the company? Or do they want employees that are creative and imaginative resulting in the development of possible solutions for current internal problems? It is questions such as these that bring up the issue of implementing proper management styles within a company in order to ensure that talent management practices are implemented in such a way that it is in accordance with what it wants its employees to become.

It must also be noted that some management styles unfairly use the situations of employees in order to derive every single ounce of performance out of them while at the same time paying them a mere pittance (Coget, 2011). The final points of interest in this section are instances where serious problems are overlooked in favor of having work continue as usual. This can come in the form of environmentally damaging practices or employee abuse (Höglund, 2012).

The reason this is important is due to the fact overlooking such factors is highly unethical and would reflect badly on the company if discovered. What you have to understand is that all the negative factors indicated within this section are indicative of company management practices that actually result in adverse effects on a company’s talent pool (Coget, 2011).

The more unethical a company’s internal practices are the more likely it is that performance levels would drop and the rate of employee churn would increase resulting in a considerable degree of talent loss for the company (Schuler, Jackson, & Tarique, 2011).

For example, practices which involve making an employee work harder than they should, employ ethically dubious methods of operation as well as other similar factors are actually detrimental to talent management practices since they either create a situation where employees are more likely to leave the company or the company would develop employees that are distinctly unethical in their own method of working (Coget, 2011).

It is based on this that any examination of a company regarding its talent management practices should involve the manner in which they treat their workers and nature of the ethical codes of conduct of the company. As explained by Höglund (2012) ethically sound companies are able to retain workers more effectively and develop better talent pools since such practices encourage employees to stay with the company due to the overall positive regard for the company’s practices (Höglund, 2012).

Job Satisfaction

This section is comprised of possible solutions to the issue of increasing job satisfaction among employees which is an important component of talent management practices.

Comprised of the concepts of mentoring and continuous development programs, this part of the paper delves into possible practices that could be implemented within a company in order to help employees transition into their respective roles and, as a resul,t develop in a fundamentally better manner as compared to simply leaving it to training and development initiatives.

Mentoring in the case of job satisfaction involves guiding an employee either through a team leader or an adjunct employee that is willing to “take them under their wing” so speak in order to help adjust to the various aspects of the job, teach them how to do it well and guide them as they advance (Swapna & Raja, 2012).

The advantage of this particular method is that it eliminates the dissatisfaction employees have with a job by enabling them to see “the bigger picture” and have them develop a development plan from which they can ascertain what they want out of their current job (Swapna & Raja, 2012).

It must be noted though that while this method is effective it hinges on the fact that the mentor will actually have time to address and guide the concerns of the person that he/she is mentoring (Zenger, Folkman, & Edinger, 2011). In instances where there is sporadic mentorship what often occurs is that employees fall back into old habits and job dissatisfaction occurs as a direct result (Garavan, 2012).

What must be understood is that mentorship is not as effective as a process/program instilled by a company that creates the necessary self-motivated interested within an employee and, as such, should not be considered 100% effective (Zenger, Folkman, & Edinger, 2011). It must also be noted that due to the size of certain organizations mentoring is at times not feasible and is limited because of this (Garavan, 2012).

Another method often utilized in order to increase job satisfaction is the use of continuous training and development programs for employees. This particular practice involves the development of employees in such a way that they are able to understand their intended path and role within the company.

Based on the work of Burroughs et al. ( 2011) it was noted that once an employee develops notions related to importance, acknowledgement and knowing that they will become an important aspect of the company, they become more interested in their respective positions and actually start to work harder and become more interested in their jobs (Burroughs et al., 2011).

When it comes to continuous training development programs, it is interesting to note that researcher such as Maltais (201), indicate that continuing to develop employees in order for them to accomplish multiple different tasks actually results in a greater degree of job satisfaction since it takes away factors related to repetitive actions that actually cause job dissatisfaction (Maltais, 2012).

From the perspective of Maltais (2012), an employee actually loses satisfaction with their job over time unless some degree of variability is included in order to make the job more interesting (Maltais, 2012).

For example, various studies in psychology that have attempted to use economic theories as a means of explaining certain types of human behavior state that a job can be construed as being similar to the concept of marginal utility wherein the more you consume a particular product the more likely you will consume less of it at a later date (Maltais, 2012).

The same can be said for doing the same job over and over again wherein it will eventually reach a point where the marginal utility derived from doing it will be negative thus resulting in job dissatisfaction (Schuler, Jackson & Tarique, 2011).

In order to avoid such an occurrence, it is recommended that continuous training development programs which allow employees to assume different job roles as well as sufficiently progress in their career are an optimum method for increasing job satisfaction since this enables them to “reset’ their marginal utility so to speak as they are placed into new roles (Burroughs et al., 2011).

This creates continued interest, the desire to learn and improve which in the end results in high degrees of job satisfaction (Schuler, Jackson & Tarique, 2011).

Overall, this section has highlighted the importance of incorporating job satisfaction, skills training, job interest, proper management and methods of employee motivation into talent management practices. Without these factors in place, even the best talent management programs in the world are at risk of employees simply leaving due to dissatisfaction with their current positions leading to increased costs related to having to hire, train and buildup their replacement.

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