Search results

This study aims to examine the spatial distribution and movement patterns of creative talent within the Yangtze River Delta Bay Area (YRDBA) and the factors that contribute to such trends.

The study examines data for the period 2006 to 2018 from the regions that constitute the YRDBA: Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui. Spatial distribution pattern analysis is adopted to interpret the flow tendency both spatially and chronologically and a Lasso regression model is used to investigate variables that influence this tendency.

It is found that creative talents in YRDBA are accumulating steadily in provincial capitals and financially advanced cities. Technology infrastructure, women’s rights, medical care amenities and housing affordability are major determinants of such spatial distribution. The talent spillover effect raises attention in talent saturated areas, while the surrounding regions should prepare to receive and retain the overflow.

Creative talents geography in China and the dynamism of creative talent in YRDBA are rarely discussed. Determinants of creative talents lack systematic pectination, literature that filters multiple determinants of creative talents migration is limited and discussion specific to the Chinese context is scarce. This case can, thus, provide insights into creative talents in developing countries and add to the current literature, bridge the gap of the current understanding of creative talents in YRDBA – the innovation and development center in China and provide a reference for policymakers when making macro decisions.

Reliance on individual talent and motivation renders creative professional service firms (PSFs) highly dependent on their ability to attract and mobilise the right individuals. This paper aims to build an integrated framework showing firstly how creative industry PSFs can differ in their strategy for growth, and secondly how these alternative strategies for growth can influence the firm's approach to organising and the type of talent required.

The findings are based on a series of interviews with managing directors, senior management and practitioners of architectural organisations in a single country, combined with an extensive literature review.

The authors' framework illustrates how the proposed growth strategies for creative PSFs are aligned to alternative professional talent profiles – a product portfolio strategy where the firm structures for efficiency aligned to a managerial talent profile, and an artistic competency strategy where the firm structures for creativity aligned to a technical talent profile.

The usual limitations apply in terms of generalisability of findings from case studies.

The authors' proposed framework represents a novel attempt to help management of creative PSFs to align their growth strategies with human resource practice to achieve the firm's objectives, and provide valuable practical advice to managers on achieving this “fit”.

By linking the firm's strategy and structure to identify the organisation's human resource requirements, the authors provide a novel framework for how creative PSFs can attract and retain the type of talent profile and motivational characteristics best suited to perform consistently and contribute to achieving the firm objectives.

The purpose of this paper is to share how a professional service firm transposed Richard Florida’s “Creative Class” concept from the urban environment into a corporate one for the purpose of organisational change. The validity of Florida’s concept is not here reviewed; rather, the paper is a case study on how his theory – that talent, technology and tolerance compose the high-value triptych driving a city’s growth and attractiveness – can be appropriated by HR to trigger profound changes in corporate governance and culture.

The paper provides a return on experience of a project that was implemented at Mazars, an international mid-cap of 20,000 people in 86 countries, over the course of one year. Approximately, 50 individuals participated in the initiative, lead by the firm’s HR leadership team, which used an under the radar approach based on a revamped version of Owen’s Open Space Technology. From an academic perspective, the approach is inspired by Argyris’ action science, and more specifically a derivation of the “double loop learning” where the initial intent of the research might be modified by intermediary findings.

The paper offers a model for identifying the members of the “creative class” in a corporate environment and a tested approach for integrating the “creative class” into the exclusive and institutional exercise of setting strategy. The cumulative effect of this “unofficial” operation is the creation of unique thought leadership and projects, some of which have now been officially adopted in the four-year strategic plan and institutionalized in the new governance system, results difficult to achieve through conventional approaches.

The case study, which is still in progress, has been implemented in a non-conventional organisation in a very specific industry.

To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first application of Richard Florida’s urban renewal theory in the corporate environment. This is an example of innovative HR management responding quickly and effectively to the digital, disrupted business landscape. It is designed in the modern managerial spirit of test-and-learn, structured as an agile initiative in an open-source world. It provides a prototype to be replicated and tested in other environments.

External inputs are critical for organisational creativity. In order to bridge different thought worlds and cross-organisational barriers, managers must initiate and motivate boundary spanning processes. The purpose of this paper is to explore how boundary spanners manage creativity projects across organisational boundaries.

The authors link to previous literature and present findings from a comparative case study of managerial practices for managing creativity projects. Data were collected through interviews, secondary materials, site visits and observation.

Three meta-practices used by managers to manage boundary-spanning creative projects are presented: defining the creative space, making space for creativity and acting in the creative space. These practices are detailed in seven case studies of creative projects.

The analysis focuses on boundary spanning as a management process rather than a capability for organisations to self-organise. It extends the “boundary spanning as practice” literature by focusing on boundary spanning as a managerial practice and brings the problems related to resource mobilisation across both organisational and departmental boundaries to the fore.

Understanding the managerial dilemma faced by creativity managers is a first step to finding solutions. The discussed practices may inspire managers both in resolving creativity management problems and through self-reflection.

The authors contribute to research on boundary spanning practices by linking to creativity research, and bridge to research on management and governance in distributed and less-defined organisations.

They call him the Intimidator: a manager who browbeats his employees, frightens his peers, stifles his department's creativity. His colleague, the Withholder, omits essential information from her superiors, peers, and team, damaging their productivity. Then there's the Stressor, whose chronic impatience and outbursts of temper affect everyone around. All of them are valued executives whose business results keep their companies satisfied despite their toll on the people around them.

Purpose: This chapter explores the strategic role of human resource development (HRD) as a function of talent management (TM) and discusses how HRD activities can help to facilitate more creative behaviours, in the international hospitality industry.

Approach: We focus on TM and HRD research exploring how these lenses are conceptually positioned given our current knowledge on creativity. We draw on the system-based approach to creativity and reconceptualise the creativity components by levels of flexibility/plasticity and outline how such approaches can help creative practice development.

Findings: We rationalise the existing conceptual approaches to creativity and propose a simplified model considering the developmental aspects of creativity. First, we theorise the TM/HRD strategies, such as training and development via learning, as a mechanism to connect TM/HRD to creativity in the organisational setting. We inform the current literature on whether and how creative processes emerge at work and affect creative flow in the bottom-top and top-bottom directions. Second, we advance the development of creativity theory by reconceptualising the established creativity components by degrees of flexibility/plasticity. Such re-conceptualisation allows for more nuanced examinations of organisational stimuli (i.e. training and development) on developmental conceptions of creativity.

Originality: This is the first piece of work that has investigated the fit between TM/HRD and creativity research. Our conceptual model illustrates that creativity can be promoted and developed at work by incorporating developmental initiatives such as TM/HRD.

Architecture is classified as one of the creative industries worldwide. However, it is plagued with a number of problems that confine its creativity towards developing innovative solutions that fulfil society needs. One of these pressing problems is the lack of creativity due to the non-utilisation of talented architects. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of lean talent management (LTM) as a novel approach to increase creativity in architectural design firms (ADFs).

In order to achieve the above-mentioned aim, a mixed qualitative and quantitative methodology is designed to accomplish three objectives. First, reviewing literature to investigate the concepts of creative industries, motivation, demotivation, talent management (TM), talents utilisation (TU), lean thinking (LT) and lean innovation (LI). Second, presenting and analysing five case studies to explore the integration between TM, LT and LI in real-life context to overcome barriers of creativity. Finally, analysing the results of a survey questionnaire conducted with a representative sample of Egyptian ADFs to evaluate their perception and application of TM as a facilitator for creativity.

The five barriers of creativity encompassed lack of motivation in ADFs and demotivation and lack of TU in ADFs and Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) industry. TM facilitated motivation and eliminated six demotivating factors. The seventh factor was eliminated through LT. In AEC industry, TU was achieved through LI with five considerations. In ADFs, TU can be achieved through LTM. However, two additional barriers have been identified for further investigation. Egyptian ADFs failed increasing creativity with TM solely. Hence, a LTM framework is required.

Although the study focussed on architecture as a case for creative industries and targeted Egyptian ADFs, the application of LTM is to be applied at any industry that is talent-based although barriers related to the design process could vary.

This paper presents an innovative approach through discussing the integration of lean concepts into TM towards increasing creativity in ADFs. This ideology has received scant attention in construction literature and is the first of its kind in the architectural field. The proposed ideas represent a synthesis that is novel and creative in thought and adds value to the knowledge in a manner that has not previously occurred.

This paper investigates how global talent management processes are adopted and implemented in a virtual organization to successfully address the challenges of global work arrangements and the sustainable human and social outcomes that can be achieved.

Adopting a single, exploratory and critical case study methodology, this paper analyzes a global distributed company, Automattic Inc., to provide in-depth and rich insights on successful business process management in the human resources (HR) domain.

The findings offer some exemplary and valuable lessons in sustainable human resource management for firms in all sectors on how to embrace global talent management in a more creative and sustainable way – and the benefits in terms of efficiency and effectiveness that can be derived – by identifying talent through auditions, recruiting by inspiring others to apply, developing talent by sharing the value of learning and retaining talent by having fun.

The study contributes a more rounded understanding of successful business process management in the HR domain. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this is particularly relevant and timely for all organizations (traditional or virtual) venturing into successful global work arrangements.

This paper aims to investigate the role of lean talent management (LTM) as a novel approach for optimising creativity in architectural design firms (ADFs) towards achieving divergent heritage sustainability (DHS).

To achieve the abovementioned aim, a mixed qualitative and quantitative methodology is designed to accomplish three objectives. First, investigating the relationship between heritage and urban development; types of heritage and the role of LTM in enhancing creativity in ADFs. Second, presenting and analysing six heritage-related case studies to assess the need for creative solutions based on extent of deterioration in three different places in Egypt. Third, outlining the results of a survey questionnaire conducted with a representative sample of ADFs in Egypt to investigate the role of LTM towards optimising creativity in ADFs for achieving DHS.

The extent of deterioration increased for modern heritage than old heritage. Conventional approaches adopted by ADFs failed to develop built environments that can bridge the gap between the diverse identities. Creativity was not optimised when talent management (TM) was integrated solely and architects failed to develop appropriate solutions. LTM use architects to allow expression of arts towards heritage sustainability through the built environment, in which they feel associated with physical heritage. Consequently, individuals’ intangible heritage is preserved in which they will less deteriorate the physical heritage. Hence, LTM is a paradigm shift that has a great potential for DHS.

The survey questionnaire and case studies focused on the Egyptian context because the region is in critical need for effective creative solutions and for such research that is unprecedented in investigating this gap. However, findings are absolute and could be used at any country sharing the Egyptian context and wishing to achieve a DHS approach.

The research work presented in this paper is novel in approach as it integrates two divergent fields and highlights the concept of DHS with its threefold approach. In addition, the concept of LTM is proposed as a novel paradigm shift in which it has received scant attention especially relating to heritage sustainability. The proposed ideas represent a synthesis that is novel and creative in thought and adds to the existing body of knowledge for future research in LTM and DHS.