Talent management meta review: a validity network schema approach

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to critically assess the state of substantive, methodological and conceptual development of talent management (TM) within hospitality and business research and to identify gaps, examine debates and provide hospitality research direction.

Design/methodology/approach

After identifying 545 articles from 22 peer-reviewed journals from Google Scholar using “talent management,” only articles directly related to TM (n = 149) were analyzed using the validity network schema (VNS). The advantage of the VNS approach is in-depth analysis of the three research domains – substantive, methodological, and conceptual – and evaluation of the pathways between domains emerging in a unique hospitality TM perspective.

Findings

Substantive domain TM discourse analysis identified 12 general and 5 hospitality-related topics. The resulting research framework depicted how global trends, organizational, employee-specific factors and organizational-management tactics affect (1) organizational, (2) personal, (3) societal, and (4) customer outcomes. Methodological domain analysis revealed business TM research in the mature stage, while hospitality TM research is in the embryonic stage of development. TM researchers predominantly used observational, descriptive and industry-specific data, advancing the field with associated research frameworks. Conceptual domain analysis uncovered opportunities to advance theoretical foundations and test causal relationships.

Originality/value

VNS analysis identified the importance of conceptual, methodological and substantive domains of TM research. The comprehensive TM research framework was proposed with eight research pathways to guide future hospitality studies. This paper advances the unique hospitality industry-specific scholarship and practice, focused on employee well-being rather than solely organizational gain.

Citation

Shulga, L.V. and Busser, J.A. (2019), "Talent management meta review: a validity network schema approach", International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, Vol. 31 No. 10, pp. 3943-3969. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJCHM-10-2018-0876