Business strategy- 1800 words essay

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MGBF3684 Business Strategy Talent Management: Introduction

Dr Sarah Lindsay

MONASH BUSINESS SCHOOL

Definition of strategic talent management:

“Activities and processes that involve the systematic  identification of key positions which differentially contribute to  the organisation's sustainable competitive advantage, the  development of a talent pool of high potential and high  performing incumbents to fill these roles, and the  development of a differentiated human resource architecture  to facilitate filling these positions with competent incumbents  and to ensure their continued commitment to the  organisation.”

(Collings & Mellahi, 2009, p. 304)

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Practices to acquire, develop and deploy talent:

Talent pool Talent pipeline

Talent identification

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Talent Management viewed as a life cycle (Thunnissen, Boselie& Fruytier, 2012)

Genesis: “The war for talent” (McKinsey & Co, 1997)

• Demographic changes

• Increased mobility and globalisation

• Transformations in the business environment: • Shift away from product‐based economies • Complexity • Changes in organizational structure • Relationships

TALENT SHORTAGE!

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Talent Management in terms of a life cycle (Thunnissen, Boselie& Fruytier, 2012)

• Infancy • Undefined boundary • Unclear scope 

• Adolescence: Themes ‐

• Definitions • Benefits • Practices

US context dominant Private sector Large MNEs

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Maturity: Talent Matters report ‐ Deloitte University Press, 2017, pp.2‐3 

“To be in a position to reap the benefits that talent management

maturity offers, Organisations globally,

and in emerging growth markets, should instead view the talent experience

as a networked, customizable system individuals –

and their relationship with the organisation – at the centre.”

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Justification for the practice of Talent Management

• People, intellectual capital and talent are viewed as critical components of  strategic success irrespective of competitive and economic pressures (p. 2428)

• Enables firms to achieve competitive advantage

• A critical capability which distinguishes successful global firms

• Tied to the RBV of the firm – worthy of investment/competing demands • Alignment of talent changed strategic priorities • An increased focus on flexibility, quality, cost and innovativeness of talent 

to achieve strategy • Use of talent to support merger and acquisition activity • Challenges: associated with international organisational structural design

…. the dominant human capital topic of the 21st century (Cascio & Aguinis, 2008)

(Garavan, 2012)

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“The reasons for this continued investment primarily focused on  concerns about:

• The difficulties in attracting high potential talent • The challenge of retaining top performers • The need to have a strong leadership pipeline;

And, most important of all 

• the concern that business growth needed to be sustained.”

(TBL)(TBL)(Garavan, 2012, p.2443)

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Biggest risk to successful TM in MNEs: Implementation (Garavan, 2012)

• Innovation v costs

• Partnering (co‐ordination) v cohesiveness (control)

• Openness v compliance

• Diverse perspectives v strategic decision‐making 

• Building brand v costs

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As a component of strategic management, not (S)HR

• An exclusive practice focused on the development of a few high‐ performing/high performing employees considered strategically valuable  to the organization

• Personal and career development of a strategically valuable minority ‐ Not the entire workforce

• Doesn’t necessary mean others in the organization are overlooked, but it  can

• May propagate a culture of competition among employees

(Swailes, Downs & Orr, 2014)

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MGBF3684 Business Strategy Talent management: Research

Dr Sarah Lindsay

Acknowledgement: Professor Gavin Jack

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There are growing calls for rigorous research into the practice and “value” of TM;

for evidence to support the rhetoric

(Sparrow & Makram, 2015, p. 249) 

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Research directions which assume that TM is beneficial:

• Global talent management (GTM)

• Organisational & individual

• Employee experience

• Self‐initiated expatriates

There is also a growing interest in research which considers talent management

from alternative viewpoints

(Collings, Scullion & Vaiman, 2015) 

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Swailes et al. 2014: Counter-points:

• ‘Talent’ means different things across different cultures 

• ‘Talent’ not suitable to all organization types

• The exclusive version of TM is workable, but limited

Are these sufficient justifications for TM as an exclusive practice? If yes …

What might this mean for local talented employees in large western multinationals?

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Background to fully inclusive talent management (FITM) :

• ‘Talent’ as deliberately comprehensive

• Involves curiosity and open‐mindedness

• Infused with an egalitarian philosophy of mind;

• Shift the emphasis away from performance … to learning

• Inclusive in that it is concerned with deploying the talents of all employees (p.532)

• Draws from positive psychology, the capability approach & sustainability

• Economic benefit would be indirect effect, through the main aim of benefits to 

employees 

(Swailes et al., 2014) 

While, in large organisations, it’s not possible to have an ‘all star cast’ …

(TBL)(TBL)

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Fully inclusive talent management (FITM) :

A typology of Talent Management, defined by the scope of talent searching and 

employee inclusion:

• Partial exclusive talent management

• Partial inclusive talent management

• Fully inclusive talent management

• Elite talent management

(Swailes et al., 2014) 

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TALENT STATUS:

TO DISCLOSE OR NOT?

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MGBF3684 Business Strategy Talent Management – A critical diversity perspective

Dr Sarah Lindsay

Co-author: Gavin Jack

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• Talent Management in MNEs is typically  exclusive 

• The challenge presented to TM by  shifting workplace demographics is  recognised

• Implications for long‐standing questions  concerning organizational diversity

• Yet the issue of workplace equality  associated with the practice of TM is  under‐researched (exc. Gender)

In practice: Aspects of strategic HRM merged with workplace relations in a new joint function closely aligned with org strategy including the value of diversity:

TM & Inclusion - a paradox -

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The Business Case for diversity:

It might be unrealistic for these organisations to go much beyond legally mandated  discrimination and policy compliance – loss of profit at least in short term? (ROI)

or By its strategic position, workplace equality through inclusion might be given a fresh  mandate? (Triple Bottom Line ‐ Stakeholders)

Diversity = increased talent pool =  ‘better’ human capital = competitive advantage

We propose: current conversations around TM are paradigmatically limited

to a mainstream Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM) approach and could be developed

by considering other perspectives such as critical diversity perspectives (Lewis & Heckman, 2006, p.152)

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A 4-part conceptual agenda for CDP on TM:

• Context‐specific

• Power

• Intersectional

• The ‘lived’ experience

“What is required is for business schools to foster scepticism and act more like court jesters than cheerleaders for the corporate world”

stressing the need for students to develop the ability to assess critically the assumptions underpinning managerial actions

and the impact of those actions on others” (Bridgman, 2016, p. 737)

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Context-specific

• Gallardo‐Gallardo & Thunnissen (2016): need to consider context; local 

organisations have to adapt a western concept to their culture; 

‘One size doesn’t fit all’

• CDP:

• Taking the organisational context (and history) into account:

• National

• Industry

• Organisation type/size

• Ownership

• The notion that some have to adjust or are ‘tolerated’ implies power 

and the impact of power politics

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Power ‘On the radar’ ‘Informal’ ‘Intuitive’ ‘Political’ ‘Same opportunity for all’ ‘Result: Ad hoc, policy v practice’

• Assumption of universalism

• The role and influence of power is missing from our understanding of TM

• Critical diversity perspectives offer:  Discourses of the other – Foucault  Influence of social class – Bourdieu  Postcolonialism (conqueror and conquered, core and periphery)  Connell 

(2007) Southern Theory: south as data supporting knowledge developed in  the north

When power comes into play, what is it doing to the individual and what are the  organisational politics which come out of it?

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Intersectional

• Human experience isn’t neat (Van Buren, 2015)

• Social identity theory

• CDP very critical of social identity theory!

• Social identity complexity (SIC) (Roccas & Brewer, 2009): how multiple identities are 

subjectively combined to determine inclusiveness (Miller et al, 2009)

• SIC positively related to affirmative action, multiculturalism (Van Dommelen et al, 2015) 

What might the propensity for ingroup bias mean for decision‐making? Does it encourage a climate of inclusion?

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The lived experience

• Approach: emic field research 

• Applied to: experience of Talent & Inclusion to understand how the 

powerful and decision‐makers in organisations construct and include 

organizational diversity:

 espoused versus enacted organizational values

 rhetoric versus reality