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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 purpose of this study is to explore the diffusion of digital innovation for talent management in Italian learning organizations.

It has been implemented a qualitative methodology to collect data, interviewing 16 experts; a mix method analysis was applied to explore thematic categories and to analyze co-occurrences by a quantitative approach analysis using T-Lab software.

There are some relevant points to underline: digital technologies are meant as a support to human resource management (HRM), and there is often the reference to digital gamification or gamified processes implemented for talent management procedures. Learning is a central element both for employees’ point of view and for HR specialists who feel the need for a major and more specific training on digital technologies.

The limited size and composition of the sample put restrictions on the generalizability of results. The explorative nature of the study provides an in-depth consideration of digital innovation in learning organization, representing a first starting point for future quantitative investigations. From a practical point of view, this study emphasizes a learning organization culture as an essential attitude set to attract, select and retain top talents.

From a practical point of view, this study emphasizes a learning organization culture as an essential attitude set to attract, select and retain top talents.

Giving space and voice to HR and information and communication technologies experts has provided insights regarding the digitalization process in HRM in Italy, in particular, digital learning has been told as a necessary element for the competitiveness of the workforce.

Global talent shortages, new skill demand and rising numbers of unfilled posts are fuelling an increasingly challenging job market, exacerbated by economic uncertainty and transformational digital change. Seeking creative solutions in response, the authors examine talent management’s (TM) theoretical and conceptual foundations, specifically the identification and selection of talent and TM programme design to explore the challenges and benefits of side-of-desk projects as interventions.

Taking an inductive qualitative approach, questionnaires, focus groups and semi-structured interviews gathered data from three employee groups in a UK digital communications organisation.

The authors reveal inconsistencies in the definition and selection of talent, highlighting programme quality challenges to expose a direct correlation between participant experience and motivation and retention, along with the longer-term challenges of balancing talented human capital, shareholder expectations and sustainable workforce resourcing.

The authors' research extends existing knowledge concerning the effect of organisational culture, context and workforce demands upon TM programmes, providing theoretical and practical implications for leaders and policymakers in designing enrichment activities to motivate, develop and retain talent. The authors make recommendations to inform the future design of TM programmes, revealing new opportunities to develop hidden talent and presenting a realistic and sustainable toolkit for future practice in the form of an organisational logic model.

This study aims to provide empirical evidence on the impact of different appraisal methods for internal talent selection in talent management practices on non-high potentials' (NHPs) outcomes, including organizational commitment, job satisfaction and intention to leave, drawing on the attribution theory. Furthermore, it examines the moderation of public service motivation (PSM) on this relationship.

The authors conducted a scenario-based survey with a post-test experimental design to analyze the survey result using a sample of 245 NHPs from a public sector organization in Indonesia.

The appraisal methods affect NHPs' outcomes partially and in an unexpected way. Specifically, the “controllability” of talent selection measurement is not the primary driver in NHPs achieving expected outcomes, though it has been emphasized in the recent literature. PSM partially moderates the relationship between appraisal methods and NHPs' outcomes.

This study advanced the attribution theory by suggesting the “appropriateness” dimension unexplored in the literature, based on the unexpected results of the main relationship.

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the development of a broader, multi-dimensional approach to talent that helps scholars and practitioners to fully understand the nuances and complexity of talent in the organizational context.

The data were collected in two complementary research projects on the definition and identification of talented academics in the early stages of their careers. The first study focussed on defining and developing talent within university departments, in which the perspectives of management, policy advisors and talented employees themselves were taken into account. The second study investigated talent selection in the specific context of grant allocation by the Dutch Research Council (NWO).

The results suggest that the conceptualization of talent cannot be disconnected from its context. In particular, the perceptions of the different stakeholder groups in an organizational context have a major impact. Although talent is generally perceived as a combination of multiple components, this general outcome conceals the unilateral approaches to talent of the separate stakeholder groups. These unilateral interpretations of talent also affect the design of the talent management system. The paper describes the difficulties organizations are confronted within developing and implementing their talent programs.

This broader approach regards talent as a bundle of integrated components, and takes the impact of the organizational context and its interrelated stakeholders into account.

The highly unpredictable, complex, and dynamic business environment forces companies to innovate constantly. One organizational response to coping with environmental pressures is organizational ambidexterity, that is, the ability to pursue simultaneously the exploitation of existing capabilities and the exploration of new opportunities. It has an impact on the way of working, and consequently, organizations need to reevaluate their talent strategies. With this conceptual contribution, we first provide a fresh view on talent and talent management (TM) by suggesting an ambidextrous TM approach, including novel TM practices that have been rather neglected in the so far dominant traditional TM approach. It centers on the system-controlling element of an ambidextrous mindset. Second, in a theory-based framework, we explain how dynamic TM capabilities (hybrid, dual, and ambidextrous TM), which represent processes for deploying, developing, and shaping talent, can contribute to gaining competitive advantages in various ambidextrous structures reflecting the complexity and dynamism of and within human resource (HR) ecosystems. The authors advance the under-researched process perspective on TM by using the lenses of the HR ecosystems discussion, insights from a dynamic view on the person–environment fit, and dynamic capabilities. The authors conclude with a broad agenda for future research in TM in dynamic environments.

This paper examines antecedents to perceived injustice in exclusive talent identification practices.

31 in-depth interviews with individuals working in for-profit organizations in France were conducted and analyzed. Interviewees represented a variety of sectors such as transportation, aerospace, energy and telecommunications.

The use of exclusivity in talent identification influences perceived organizational justice through ambiguous advancement policies, support from hidden networks, lack of diversity in the talent identification process, frequent gender discrimination, and premature labeling of talent. These practices suggest breaches in procedural, distributive and interactional justice by allocating advantages to some employees over others. Exclusivity yielded frustration, jealousy and potential retaliatory behavior against those individuals deemed to be unfairly identified as talent.

The challenge of ensuring fair and equitable talent identification is a growing issue for organizations. For managers, it requires paying close attention to how some forms of exclusivity in talent identification may create unfair treatment of employees.

While organizational justice research focuses on the background and practices that promote justice, our research finds its originality in examining the sentiments of injustice that remain contextual, subjective and comparative.

The philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein once claimed that ‘what can be said at all, can be said clearly; and whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent’. When the term talent transformed from being a rigid term referring to a specific object, e.g. a coin, in the actual world into an empty signifier referring to multiple objects, e.g. individuality or gifts, in a possible world then talent became something that we could not talk about in a clear and unambiguous way; something that talent management then should have been silent about. The reason is that such an unambiguous and accidental use of the term has led to an arbitrary understanding of talent and subjective bias in talent identification, recruitment, and selection systems and to talent management becoming dysfunctional. Moreover, it has also led to an absence of work identity in talent management that inhibits the individual talent and the talent manager in identifying and talking clearly about the qualification and competencies of the individual as they pertain to the job requirements. This could further enhance subjective bias and reinforce the arbitrary understanding of talent and, in the end, lead to insufficient and ineffective talent management processes.