Search results

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between the use of sophisticated talent selection processes such as gamification and training and development interventions designed to ensure that candidates can successfully navigate the talent assessment process. Gamification is the application of game elements to non-game activities through the adoption of gaming tools, and little is known about how candidates (“talent”) struggle to learn about the structural mechanics of gamification as they engage with the hidden rules of talent selection, such as goals, rules, “levelling up”, feedback and engagement in competitive – collaborative activities. The term “talent development gamification” is coined and used as an analytical tool to consider how young talent are supported by development interventions in their inter-subjectivity as they learn how to survive and win in talent selection games.

Studying hidden dynamics in development processes inherent in gamified talent selection is challenging, so a cult work of fiction, “Ender’s Game”, is examined to address the questions: “How do candidates in talent selection programmes learn to make sense of the structural mechanics of gamification”, “How does this make the hidden rules of talent selection explicit to them?” and “What does this mean for talent development?”

Talent development in selection gamification processes is illustrated through nuanced theoretical accounts of how a multiplicity of shifting and competing developmental learning opportunities are played out as a form of “double-consciousness” by potential organizational talent for them to “win the selection game”.

Using novels as an aid to understanding management and the organization of work is ontologically and epistemologically problematic. But analysing novels which are “good reads” also has educational value and can produce new knowledge from its analysis. In exploring how “Characters are made to live dangerously, to face predicaments that, as readers, we experience as vicarious pleasure. We imagine, for example, how a particular character may react or, more importantly, what we would do in similar circumstances” (Knights and Willmott, 1999, p. 5). This future-oriented fictional narrative is both illustrative and provides an analogy to illuminate current organisational development challenges.

The term “talent development gamification in selection processes” is coined to allow analysis and provide lessons for talent development practice in a little studied area. Our case study analysis identifies a number of areas for consideration by talent management/talent development specialists involved in developing talent assessment centres incorporating gamification. These include the importance of understanding and taking account of rites of passage through the assessment centre, in particular the role of liminal space, what talent development interventions might be of benefit and the necessity of appreciating and managing talent in developing the skill of double consciousness in game simulations.

The paper sets out to examine effective, practical and holistic people strategies that address key skills retention, employee engagement, employee motivation and attendance gaps, with a view to positively impacting on organization costs, productivity and business performance. The paper also seeks to examine the value of assessment and feedback in talent engagement and retention, and to look at developing employees via experience‐based development initiatives.

The paper commences with an assessment of a matrix of the “hot buttons” or “predictors”, which need to be consciously managed – with significant potential returns, where managed well. The paper examines a holistic matrix of nine employee engagement predictors: process; role challenge; values; work‐life balance; information; stake/leverage/reward/recognition; management; work environment; and product. Reference is made to a case study in which this matrix formed the basis of the organization's people management strategy.

Workplace context is key. Take a holistic view of the key elements of the business most likely to impact team engagement, motivation, attendance and retention, link individual assessment directly to the key drivers of the business, and recognize that key talent is likely to thrive on experience‐based career leverage opportunities.

Provides practical guidance to senior HR professionals and business leaders for developing a successful strategy for key skills retention and employee engagement.

There is a critical need to understand current talent development (TD) practices as well as developing a contemporary paradigm that will support a radically different future for TD. The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the existing literature on TD, explore the fundamental role of TD in organizations and identify gaps for future directions.

The paper reviews the literature on TD.

Following themes are identified in selected TD articles: varied TD definitions, theoretical perspective for investigating TD, TD practices and effects and implications on training and development. The literature review identifies two levels of TD practices: organizational level and individual level.

The field of TD is rapidly changing because of the accelerating integration of technology and information into daily work environment. There is a critical need to understand current TD practices as well as to develop a contemporary paradigm that will support a radically different future for TD. Scope and boundaries of TD need to be set, so that practitioners can apply the right practice at the right time.

The paper presents the conceptual boundaries of TD in the current existing literature and identifies the gaps.

This article investigates which definitions, indicators and instruments are used by the companies to identify and assess talented employee potential with successful performance on future pivotal positions.

Empirical data were collected in 2020–2021 in 45 local and multinational companies in Russia with well-established talent management functions using in-depth interviews with human resource (HR) managers and consultants.

The study found a diversity of approaches to identifying and assessing talent potential with a predominantly contextual approach but so far with little focus on company’s strategic objectives. It was also found that companies assessed cultural (values) fit, social intelligence and impact, engagement and commitment as predictors of managerial and leadership potential of talented employees for future strategic jobs, in addition to characteristics of personal resources. The search for new complex and validated tools and methods of potential assessment under budget constraints show that companies have taken the path of experimentation.

The results of this research can inform talent and human resource managers how to identify and assess potential of talented employees for future needs of their organizations.

The paper contributes to the existing research in three ways. First, it offers a classification of approaches to potential assessment and explores the underlying dimensions of high-potential talent for future needs of a company. Second, it provides an overview of the current state of potential assessment in the companies in a non-western context. Third, it points out the challenges HR professionals face in implementing potential assessment for identifying talents in a new situation of unprecedented changes and uncertain future.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a new approach to talent management that consists of averaging performance appraisal and assessment center ratings for in-depth identification of lawyers’ talents.

The approach’s adjustment was examined using a 61 senior-lawyer sample from a Portuguese law firm. Comparisons between assessment center and performance appraisal ratings were analyzed using paired-sample t-tests and a kernel density function, and predictive validity was assessed with Pearson correlations. Evidence of both a general performance factor and two additional factors was verified using principal component analysis. Varimax rotation was used to verify three broad factors with job profile’s three broad areas.

Results suggest support for the assessment center’s predictive validity. Its lower and more variable ratings overcome performance appraisal rating bias. Adjustment of the new approach to lawyers’ overall talent identification (the general factor) and each lawyer’s relative talents (three broad factors) was observed.

This study contributes to the body of knowledge regarding the substantive existence of a general performance factor, and adds to empirical research concerning talent management, which is lacking. However, generalizability requires broader samples and replication.

The approach is a methodology that informs career management, high-flyers’ identification, talent mapping, development, succession planning, team composition, and diversity analysis. For lawyers, objective feedback allows benchmarking talent and managing one’s career.

This study pioneers empirical research that develops methods for identifying talent in law firms, vital for firm sustainability.

In this chapter, Barbara Zesik draws on her experience as an HR Director in international businesses and on her empirical research with actors in talent situations across multiple industry sectors to explore the tensions between the rhetoric and reality of life in talent pools. Focussing on the relatively under-researched social and political aspects of managing talent and using seldom heard voices from people in talent programmes she illustrates how talent identification and management ‘really works’ and offers suggestions for better practice.

Managerial anxiety as a key obstacle to managerial capability, effectiveness and meaningful talent management is explored and organisational failures, such as the lack of development for managers and the persistent use of lag-measures, such as performance ratings, in talent assessment are analysed. Empirical research, conducted applying a social constructivist perspective, is relevant to academics and practitioners alike by offering a less theoretical, and perhaps more realistic perspective of talent management practices in organisations for academics and a more pragmatic, approachable and relatable viewpoint for practitioners.