Toward Mature Talent Management: Beyond Shareholder Value

• Author: David G. Collings
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/hrdq.21198
• Date: 01 September 2014
• Published date: 01 September 2014

HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT QUARTERLY, vol. 25, no. 3, Fall 2014 © Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com) • DOI: 10.1002/hrdq.21198 301

INVITED FEATURE ARTICLE

Toward Mature Talent Management:

Beyond Shareholder Value

David G. Collings

Talent management has become one of the most prevalent topics in the fi eld

of people management and development for practitioners and academics

alike. However, while managers do appear to appreciate the importance

of talent management, they often fail to manage it effectively, and the

linkages between talent management and organizational performance

remain unclear. In this invited feature article, I argue that the failure to

effectively manage and develop talent can be traced, in part, to a narrow

conceptualization of performance in much thinking on talent management.

At an organizational level, this means that performance is generally

considered solely in terms of shareholder returns while ignoring other

stakeholders. This translates into HR systems that fail to effectively align

individuals and organizations in the generation of value. This article

foregrounds employees as stakeholders and argues that organizations

that are defi ned by a sense of purpose and that prioritize employees

as stakeholders generally have higher levels of alignment between

organizational and employee goals with more highly motivated employees

and ultimately more sustainable performance. Some implications for

research on talent management are developed.

Key Words: talent, talent management, stakeholder value, pluralist,

alignment, human resources, human resource management, human

resource development

Introduction

Talent management, which broadly refers to management and development

of high-performing and high-potential incumbents in critical organizational

roles, has become one of the most prevalent topics in the fi eld of people man-

agement and development for practitioners and academics alike (Al Ariss,

Cascio, & Paauwe, 2014; Dries, 2013; Scullion, Collings, & Caligiuri, 2010;

302 Collings

HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT QUARTERLY • DOI: 10.1002/hrdq

Sparrow, Scullion, & Tarique, 2014). Arguably, the discourse of talent man-

agement has brought issues around the management of people to the attention

of senior organizational leaders to a far greater degree than has been the case

in the past. For example, 66% of CEOs identifi ed developing the leadership

and talent pipeline as a key priority (PricewaterhouseCoopers [PWC], 2012).

Indeed, talent was identifi ed as the top priority on CEOs’ agenda for human

resources (HR) in a recent study by Cornell University (Wright, Stewart &

Moore, 2011). However, despite the rhetoric, it appears that while managers

do appreciate the importance of talent management, they often fail to man-

age it effectively (Collings, Scullion, & Vaiman, 2011; Schuler, Jackson, &

Tarique, 2011), and the linkages between talent management and organiza-

tional performance remain unclear (Collings, 2015).

Given the focus of human resource development (HRD) on “develop-

ing and unleashing expertise for the purpose of improving individual, team,

work process and organizational system performance” (Swanson & Holton,

2009, p. 4), there is clearly much resonance between the fi elds of talent

management and HRD (Iles, Preece, & Chuai, 2010; Kim & McLean, 2012).

Indeed, building on Ruona’s (2000) study of core beliefs associated with

HRD, Swanson and Holton (2009) suggest that the fi eld holds strong beliefs

about learning and development as avenues for individual growth, that orga-

nizations can be improved with human expertise, that we want to see people

and organizations be healthy and growing, and that there is a commitment to

people and human potential, as well as a passion for learning and productiv-

ity. This reinforces the importance of talent management for HRD researchers

because many of these core beliefs and philosophical assumptions are con-

sistent with the arguments being made in this article in the context of talent

management.

In this invited feature article, I argue that the failure to effectively man-

age and develop talent can be traced, in part, to a narrow conceptualization

of performance in much thinking on talent management (see Callahan, 2007,

more broadly on HRD research). At an organizational level, this means that

performance is generally considered solely in terms of shareholder returns.

This translates into HR systems that fail to effectively align individuals and

organizations in the generation of value. This is refl ected in the conceptu-

alization of talent management in unitarist terms where the agenda is set

by management and perspectives of other stakeholders are not recognized

(Thunnissen, Boselie, & Fruytier, 2013).

In contrast, those companies that are defi ned by a sense of purpose and

that prioritize employees as stakeholders generally have higher levels of align-

ment between organizational and employee goals with more highly motivated

employees (Birkinshaw, Foss, & Lindenberg, 2014). This facilitates employees

coming together to do something they believe in and is likely to create far

greater value than the unquestioned pursuit of shareholder value. Such an

approach refl ects a more pluralist understanding of talent management where