Executive Summary
Talent management in any institution is a key concept that should be totally differentiated from human resource management. This is because proper talent management leads to increased productivity and loyalty among the employees. The article “Strategic Talent Management: A review and research agenda”, Human Resource Management Review, 19: 4, 304–313” by Collings, D.G. and Mellahi, K. (2009) helps to shed light on the issue of talent management and human resource management.
The following report analyses the views and issues raised by the authors by looking at the validity and reliability of the research methods used by the authors, the credibility of the authors and the relationship between what other authors in the field have come up with. Applications of the article have also been put into considerations to try to analyze the significance the article has in the current business world.
- Introduction
This report dwells on the critical analysis of the article ““Strategic Talent Management: A review and research agenda”, Human Resource Management Review, 19: 4, 304–313” by Collings, D.G. and Mellahi, K. (2009). The analysis is achieved by checking on the validity of the solutions proposed and the issues raised by the authors. The paper outlines a theoretical framework to guide researchers in this field and for managers to apply in their effort to handle talents. The first section of this report highlights the relevance of the topic in the current business world. Then a section on the validity and relevance of the issues raised follows. The conclusion deals with the merits and limitations that the authors failed to consider in their work and critically analyzing the recommendations made.
- Relevance of the topic in the current world
Generally, talent can be termed as a rare ‘commodity’. However, the ability to do something should not be taken as reflecting the existence of talent. To be talented, individuals have to be exceptional in whatever it is that they undertake. The issue of scarce talent arises in a situation where it is hard to match the right individuals with the right jobs. For optimal productivity, perfect matching of talent to a job is a prerequisite. A mismatch could prove costly to a firm or organization. The issue of talent scarcity is further compounded by a dynamic environment. Each day, exceptional changes are inculcated into the workplace. As such, available talent should be molded to encompass the human resource capital of an organization. On this note, human resource capital in an organization is composed of the various individuals offering their services to the organization. Several issues play a role in influencing the resultant performance of the management and employees. Some of these factors include those encompassing demographic and societal trends.
In this perspective, some resultant demographic factors such as gender, age and ethnicity have been seen to influence how employees view human resource management. Employees who tend to be discriminated upon in their workplace end up being less motivated and their performance is dismal. At times, the issue of ethnicity can be termed as a contributing factor to workplace discrimination. As such, it emerges as a key issue that should be addresse. Accordingly, human resource managers should have the right skills to handle such kind of scenarios; so that the various talents available in the organization do not end up going to waste.
However, there should exist a balance between talent and experience. Older employees should not be dismissed at the expense of new talent . This is based on the fact that experience allows them to handle challenging situations. A research conducted in the UK indicates that there could be some these demographic factors could be advantageous to institutions. The researcher suggests that aging employees could be retained by the institution. This would aid in the development of younger employees in realizing their potential and serve as a motivation.
With respect to the articles, the authors can be deemed as having recognized that the struggle for talent. In this recognition, the authors notice that even the management have been caught in the middle of this fight for talent. The main problem with this is that the boundaries of their role in this has not been exactly defined (Lewis 2006). This results in a risk that managers may end up concentrating on the top performers and ignoring the other workers; in the respective institution. Categorically, researchers have recognized the fact that human resource managers should also be concerned with the well-being of average performers (Scullin 2010).
- Article Analysis
3.1 Credibility
3.1.1 Journal
However, the sources that the authors used were extremely old thus putting the applicability of the materials in jeopardy. It can be deemed as risky in utilizing extremely old research in solving a present issue. Over time, there has been significant changes in the industry making their work become obsolete. For instance, human resource managers have been trained to identify key positions in their respective institutions to make sure they remain on ahead of the pack.
3.1.2 Authors
In analyzing the credibility of the paper, the writers’ credibility play a major role in determining the extent of its trustworthiness. One of the authors, David Collings, is a professor of human resource management at Dublin City University. He has unrivaled experience in the field of human resource management. Additionally, he has had an exceptional career laden with varying personal writings and contributions. The second paper is a product of Professor Kamel Mellahi. He is a professor of Strategic Management at Warwick Business School. Over the years, the professor has produced many manuscripts. As such, the respective author’s experiences contribute to adding weight and making the paper be of a more credible nature.
Institutions have intensified the scramble for employees. These renewed efforts have been aimed at getting the right employees with the ability of aiding a firm to gain a competitive edge (Cappelli 2008). On a global scale, efficient human resource management has made the human resource managers apply strategic human resource management to identify pivotal positions in organizations and select the right personnel to fill up the positions. Research indicates that a combination of several factors can severely influence human resource management. There are societies where the inequality based on one's gender is unusually large resulting in one gender especially women not fully achieving their job positions in the workplace which limits their performance.
Finally, some researchers in this area point to the fact that for firms to achieve their competitive advantage, they must focus more on the human capital. Institutions that are not fully embracing the issue of talent management in the key positions of the institution end up limiting their speed of growth. In their research, the writers established the main issues influencing the performance of employees. This are employees' ability abbreviated as ‘A’ , motivation (M) and opportunity (O) that results in a framework known as AMO framework; which is one of the key theoretical approaches for analyzing employee performance (Bosilie 2005). However, the authors have made the assumption that the institutions involved have a significant number of employees that would require the services of a human resource manager. In small-scale enterprises, there are few workers that in most cases wouldn’t require to be managed by a human resource manager. The authors have also assumed that worker's job qualifications don’t take center stage in defining strategic business positions. For instance, an IT expert plays a significant role in the business but would of little or no impact promoted to a senior managerial position.
5.0 Limitations
Several issues come up that the authors either failed to tackle on or were generally overlooked. First, there is the role of human resource manager. He/she is usually a well-trained and qualified individual who usually oversees the human resource of the institution. The paper overlooks his role in talent management in that they fail to recognize the effort that human resource managers play. When it comes to talent management, they can be remarkably efficient at it as they have the training and knowledge to identify and develop such talents. Rather, than involving the CEO’s in this process, they can change their strategies in the way, they handle employees and job positions to determine the ones so that in their selection of candidates they can be able to identify the most appropriate ones.
The other issue was on differentiated human resource architecture. The writers suggest that institutions work on having several sections of the human resource department. This is not fair to all the employees in the organization as some may get better positions while others do not. This is because the department section handling talent management may end up receiving the most skilled employees who seem to be more productive than the others making their chances of being allocated to better positions of the organization high. Those who will not make to be part of the talent management section will not enjoy these benefits, and they may end up being sidelined.
- Conclusion
Upon analyzing the article “Collings, D.G. and Mellahi, K. (2009) “Strategic Talent Management: A review and research agenda”, Human Resource Management Review, 19: 4, 304–313 “the following key issues can be concluded. The authors have studied and researched extensively on the topic and came up with a comprehensive paper. The concept has been developed properly and in a coherent manner. The paper would serve as a good starting point for researchers conducting research in the field. This is because as, at the time, it was written many changes have occurred in the field. Other business practices such as mergers and acquisitions may make it hard for the change of environment and new managers to identify talents among the employees. These are among the issues that future researchers should incorporate in their studies.
In my opinion, the paper was able to capture all the issues at hand as at the time it was written. It covered the various issues concerning human resource management and specifically; those of exceptionally performing employees. However, much of the points have become obsolete as technology and workplace scenario changes. Future research can focus more on how talent management should be handled on a global scale and try to anticipate significant factors that may affect human resource management.
- Recommendations
As such, some of the recommendations that can be arrived at include the following:
- The document is well researched and developed making it a reliable source of information for others. In this perspective, the document can be utilized in the study of Human Resource Management, and act as a reference point for shaping their human resource policies in firms.
- The limitations put forward in the review should also be addressed in further research to make sure that all the emerging concerns in the profession are addressed accordingly.
Bibliography
Arthur, M.B. "The boundaryless career." Journal of Organizational Behavior, 1994: 295-306.
Aswathappa, K. Human Resource and Personnel Management. Vol. 4e. Tata McGraw-Hill Education, 2005.
Baterman, Organ. "Job satisfaction and the good soldier: The relationship between affect and employee citizenship." Academy of Management Journal, 1983: 578-595.
Bohlander, George, and Scott Snell. Managing Human Resources. Cengage Learning, 2009.
Boselie, Graham Dietz,Boon. "Commonalities and contradictions in HRM and performance research." Human Resource Management Journal, 2005: 67-94.
Bosilie.Paul, Graham Dietz, Corine Boon. "Commonalities and contradictions in HRM and performance research." Human Resource Management Journal, no. 3 (2005): 67-94.
Boudreau, Ramstad. Beyond HR: The New Science of Human Capital. Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 2007.
Cappelli. Talent on Demand. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press, 2008.
Cheese, Thomas and Craig. The Talent Power Organizations: Strategies for Globalization. London: Kogan Page, 2008.
Conger, Ready. Make your company a talent factory. Harvard Business Review, 2007.
De Cieri, Helen, and Peter Dowling. "Strategic international human resource management in multinational enterprises: Developments and directions." Handbook of research in international human resource management , 2006: 15-35.
DeFilippi, Arthur. "The Boundaryless career: A competency-based perspective." Journal of Organizational Behavior, 1994: 307-24.
Dublin City University. DCUBS Prof David Collings. 2013. http://www.dcu.ie/info/staff_member.php?id_no=4569 (accessed March 25, 2013).
Economic Intelligence Unit. "The CEO's role in talent management." In How top executives from ten countries are nurturing the leaders of tomorrow. London: The Economist, 2006.
Edwards. International Human Resource Management. Pearson Education, 2007.
Fey, Carl,Ingmar Bjorkman, Antonina Pavloskaya. "The effect of human resource management practice on firm performance in Russia." International Journal of Human Resource Management, 2000: 1-18.
Fiona, Edgar, and Geare Alan. "Employee Demographics in Human Resource Management Research." Research and Practice in Human Resource Management, 2004: 61-91.
Frank, Finnegan , Taylor. "The Race for Talent: Retaining and engaging workers in the 21st century." Human resource planning, 2004: 12-25.
Hambrick, Donald. Upper Echelons: The Organization as a Reflection of its Top Managers. Academy of Management Review, 1984.
Handfield-Jones, Michaels, Axelrod. The War for Talent. Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 2001.
Hugh Scullin, David Collings. Global Talent Management . Taylor & Francis,, 2010.
John, Lawler, and Hundley Greg. The Global Diffusion of Human Resource Practices: Institutional and Cultural Limits. Emerald Group Publishing, 2008.
Lepak, Snell. The human resource architecture: Toward a theory of human capital allocation and development. Academy Management Review, 1999.
Lewis, Heckman. Talent Management: A critical review. Human Resource Management Review, 2006.
Pollitt, David. Diversity in the Workforce. Emerald Group Publishing, 2006.
Practice, A Handbook of Human Resource Management. Michael Armstrong. Kogan Page, 2006.
Warwick Business School. Professor Kamel Mellahi. 2013. http://www.wbs.ac.uk/about/person/Kamel-Mellahi/ (accessed March 25, 2013).
