Search results

This chapter applies arguments advanced by Drnevich and Shanley (this volume) to the strategic leadership literature – an area of work where such multi-level analyses seem likely to be particularly appropriate. In an analysis of the relationship between managerial capabilities and firm performance, this chapter breaks from tradition in the strategic leadership literature by examining the interaction between three levels of analysis. In doing so, this chapter identifies the conditions under which leadership can be a source of competitive advantage for a firm, when labor markets will allocate managerial talent imperfectly across competing firms, and when managers will and will not be able to appropriate the rents their specific managerial talents might generate.

Talent management (TM) is underdeveloped and TM recognition is unclear in the context of Chinese private‐owned enterprises (POEs). As talent definition is the basis of TM practices, the purpose of this paper is to explore talent definition and TM recognition in the context of Chinese real estate POEs, in order to explore how Chinese cultural context and POEs' characteristics influence talent definition and TM recognition.

In total, 27 semi‐structured interviews were conducted in three case study companies.

Based on qualitative analysis, the paper finds talent definition is influenced by the important Chinese cultural factor “guanxi” and is quite different from existing Western TM literature. TM recognition is also influenced by the Chinese POEs' operation characteristics.

The paper finds a new talent definition criterion, “guanxi”, and identifies TM recognition in the context of Chinese POEs. The paper thus contributes to TM literature in China.

Talented managers arguably remain quintessential to firm value and performance. While the literature offers evidence for the long-term orientation of talented managers, there is a paucity of evidence on the short-term performance of managers. Here, we examine the relationship between managerial talent and working capital management (WCM).

This study primarily employs a panel fixed-effect method controlling for firm-year and firm-industry for non-financial and non-utility firms for the years 1980 through 2016. Also, the authors control of potential bias that may impact the result. These controls include social capital, financial constraints and tests for endogeneity and spurious correlation.

The authors find the association between managerial talent and WCM to be positive and significant. The results indicate that talented managers have a higher cash conversion cycle. The empirical evidence still holds after controlling for social capital, religiosity and financial constraints. Also, the evidence still holds by employing an interaction term between Tobin's Q as a proxy for investment opportunities and talented managers.

The finding may lend credence to executive contracts. Human nature, by default, is only vested on a net benefit for self-aggrandization. Self-aggrandization can be evident through structures in managerial contracts. These contracts usually tie consequences to long-term growths. If a benefit is offered based on short-term operational goals, talented managers may do more to the management of working capital.

In the managerial talent literature, talents reflect a holistic picture of one that can succeed in both the short-term and long-term goals of a company. Here, the authors show that talented managers are inefficient in meeting short-term goal – working capital management. Thus, the authors add to the research by providing evidence that talented managers are myopic.

Securing the managerial and executive talent that organizations need is a hot topic in the contemporary business community, but it is also an old challenge with a long and varied history. Contemporary observers are typically surprised to discover first how much the practices from the 1920s look like those that are dominate in the more innovative industries a century later and second how much more sophisticated the plans and systems for managing talent in corporations were in the 1950s than now. The research community interested in human resources often sees the 1950s practices as something like a dominant paradigm; they have in fact already been in sharp decline for almost a generation. For researchers and instructors interested in the practices of “talent management” at the managerial and executive level considered broadly – including subtopics like management development, career planning, succession planning, etc. – it is important to see the roots of contemporary practices and how they have and are changing over time as doing so reinforces the basic notion from contingency theory: practices respond to changes in context. The important aspects of context that drove changes in the design and execution of managerial careers over time has to do with the structure of corporations and how they responded to their competitive environment. The fact that changing business needs led to different corporate structures, business models, and, in turn, different approaches for managing the leaders of corporations also gives us perhaps the best guidance as to where practices in these areas will be in the future. For researchers, starting with this historical perspective is also the best way to develop a macro perspective on the more micro practices and outcomes associated with these talent management questions.

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.

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.

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.

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.

This paper aims to investigate the importance of talent management (TM) as a fundamental component of management philosophy and practice to auger contemporary competitiveness in Chinese organisations, which have forged transformational synergies with traditional forms of political intervention and capital investment.

A pluralist design was used, in which the quantitative and qualitative assessment was adopted with Chinese decision-making executives of corporations operating in the global arena. By using managerial responses, this paper offered a more nuanced and grounded understanding of TM in general.

Although the results revealed that the concept of TM gained a significant footprint in the studied organisations, the influence of cultural nuances and organisational structural processes restrict the practice of TM, and, indeed, there is a need to have a Chinese characteristic.

This research underlies the importance of intensifying critical scrutiny of the relativity of TM, organisational practices and cultural heritage when developing future organisational leaders.

The instruments for assessing the phenomena of TM and related concepts encourage legitimacy to extend the limited empirical research with more industries across different geographical regions in China.

This paper addresses an under-researched area of world importance, namely, the critical role of TM, which is to optimise these scant resources in the worthy pursuit of economic and political stability in both the domestic and global contexts.

To examine the association between talent management (TM) and perceived subsidiary performance. Focus is given to the development of one key talent group – line managers – in subsidiaries of multinational corporations (MNCs). Specifically, the paper examines: whether there is a positive relationship between Management Development (MD) and perceived subsidiary performance; and whether national context mediates any link between MD and perceived subsidiary performance.

A multi‐respondent survey was undertaken generating a sample of 143 UK‐owned MNCs. For each organisation, interviews were completed with the Head of HR at corporate Head Quarters; the HR Manager/Specialist and a line manager in both the domestic and foreign subsidiaries of the sample organisation. A total of 5 respondents per organisation is used in the analysis.

The link between the MD variables and perceived subsidiary performance is consistently positive and robust in all of the models estimated. HR having a strategic role in the organisation is positively associated with perceived subsidiary performance; the interaction between strategic HR and the level and extent of MD and perceived subsidiary performance is also highly significant and positive. National context significantly mediates the relationship between MD and perceived subsidiary performance.

Investing in talent management, specifically the development of the key talent group of line managers, is positively associated with perceived subsidiary performance. The national context in which this investment is undertaken is found to affect the associated returns. The sample analysed is for UK owned MNCs only and, thus, the potential for “country of origin” effects is not examined.

In previous economic downturns, training and development budgets have often been drastically reduced. While any such slashing in MD budgets will reduce expenditure – given the positive association found in this analysis between the level and extent of MD and perceived subsidiary performance – this approach is likely to only have short‐run benefits and could jeopardise future competitive advantage. Continued investment in talent is likely to be pivotal for sustained competitive advantage.

The multi‐respondent and multi‐location methodology used is highly original and the findings contribute to the expanding literature on the relationship between MD and performance/perceived performance of organisations.

The purpose of this study is to test the relationships of learning, organizational commitment and talent retention across managerial generations in Europe.

Hypotheses are developed to explain the influence of learning and organizational commitment on talent retention across generations. A total of 1,666 European managers completed a survey on these issues. Depending on year of birth, they were categorized into four generational cohorts. Their answers were analyzed with statistic procedures.

Findings reveal that younger generations are less willing to remain in the same organization and have lower organizational commitment. The youngest generations (Early and Late Xers, born 1960 and after) show stronger learning orientation and lower organizational commitment than older generations (Early and Late Boomers, born 1946‐1959). Learning orientation predicted the intention to remain in the same organization for Early Xers and Late Xers. Organizational commitment mediated this relationship. For Late Boomers and Early Xers, it mediated the relationship between specific leadership development intentions and intention to stay.

Managerial, job‐related learning is confirmed as an important antecedent for the intention to stay/leave one's current organization. The differential meaning of learning and commitment across generations needs to be better understood in order to develop effective strategies for the retention of talent in all generations. In particular, differences in the psychological contract between organizations and their managers need to be understood.

The findings suggest an approach of generation‐specific HR practices for talent retention.

The study is one of the first to date to address leadership development and learning orientation in the context of talent retention, as well as one of the first to address the discussion of generational challenges in Europe and across the specific population of people in managerial roles.

This study aimed to investigate the impact of e-commerce capabilities on agricultural firms’ performance gains through organizational agility.

A survey was used to collect data from 280 managers of agricultural firms. The proposed model was tested via structural equation modeling.

The empirical results indicated that organizational agility plays a mediating role in conveying the positive influences of e-commerce capabilities on agricultural firms’ performance gains. Specifically, managerial, talent and technical capabilities have different effects on market capitalization and operational adjustment agility, with talent capability performing the most important role. Market capitalization and operational adjustment agility have positive impacts on financial and nonfinancial performance gains, respectively.

This study provides a new framework to understand the relationships between e-commerce capabilities, organizational agility and agricultural firms’ performance gains.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the perception of skills shortages, namely, skills scarcity and skills deficiencies among managers, and its relationship with organizational characteristics.

The study used a quantitative approach and data were collected from 243 managers working in China. Multivariate analysis of variance and box plots were employed for data analysis.

The results revealed that organizational characteristics were found to have a significant positive impact on managers’ skill levels, and hard-to-fill vacancies caused by skills shortages were found in all types of organizations. Existing and deficient skills were also identified as affecting all organizations.

The results suggest that organizations would benefit from the adoption of a system supporting internal retention, training and development and external recruitment to close the skills gaps.

This is an empirical study that provides an insight into the skills shortages from a multi-organizational context. It highlights the effects of organizational characteristics in relation to skills shortages and provides a foundation to support the skills needed in the context of national and global organizations.