TY  - JOUR
AB  - Purpose– This paper aims to address the following issues. The transactional view of workplace relationships has been challenged by discoveries of human behavior by neuroscience. Human beings are wired to have emotions and perceptions, and a workplace is no exception. Reframing the issue through a simple-yet-powerful framework, fundamentals of talent management can be restored, paving the way for a meaningful design of organizations. Design/methodology/approach– Using rigorous in-depth secondary research about current talent practices, the report offers a novel framework to unlock the drivers of employee’s motivation and performance. The framework serves as a diagnostic leadership tool to identify breakdowns and foster a meaningful conversation to restore the organization back to equilibrium. A holistic alternative that is agnostic to the rank of the employee, job role and geography offers promise over the current practice of dealing with employee issues in fragmented manner. Findings– The proposed framework helps identify the sweet-spot that lies at the intersection of three fundamental drivers: employee’s preferences on the type of work; employee’s core competency; and activities that are value-adding to the organization. The sweet-spot is the employee’s emotional wallet that the organizations must proactively capture to unlock the true drivers of motivation and performance. The proposed framework serves as a diagnostic tool to meaningfully tackle breakdowns and restore organizations to equilibrium. The sweet-spot provides the clue to design an effective organizational structure identify the enablers and catalyst that can unlock employee motivation and performance. Originality/value– Despite new organizational complexities, the fundamental focus for talent management is to unlock the value of its resource. Despite the pristine appeal of this fundamental tenet of talent management, it is ironic that HR has drifted its focus from its core. Reframing the issue through a simple-yet-powerful framework, fundamentals of talent management can be restored, paving the way for a meaningful design of organizations. This is a paradigm shift for talent management to get back to basics of what really matters to the organizations.
VL  - 28
IS  - 5
SN  - 1477-7282
DO  - 10.1108/DLO-06-2014-0046
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1108/DLO-06-2014-0046
PY  - 2014
Y1  - 2014/01/01
TI  - When talent management goes wrong: Employees are people not commodities
T2  - Development and Learning in Organizations: An International Journal
PB  - Emerald Group Publishing Limited
SP  - 24
EP  - 26
Y2  - 2024/04/24
ER  -