Demystifying the concept of global talent
An introduction
Global talent and the concept of talent can be found in common parlance, sometimes as a buzzword, but mostly for its significance to organisations and economies at large. According to Ilian Mihov, Dean at INSEAD Business School, one of the worldâs leading and largest graduate business schools, talent is now increasingly seen as a currency (Adecco Group, 2015) and as a competitive advantage that is sought after by organisations, cities, regions and nations:
We live in a world where talent has become the core currency of competitiveness â for businesses and national economies alike. Businesses and governments need new kinds of leaders and entrepreneurs, equipped with the skills that will help their firms and countries to thrive in the global knowledge economy.
Undoubtedly, a lot has been written and is still being written about talent, considering how important talent is to organisations, businesses and national economies. We look at the concept and its definitions in greater detail next in order to frame the foundations of this text.
Talent and globalisation
One of the big five global management-consulting firms, McKinsey and Co., provides the most cited and widely accepted definition of talent through a seminal study compiled by consultants Ed Michaels, Helen Handfield-Jones and Beth Axelrod â The War for Talent (Michaels et al., 2001).
Talent is âthe sum of a personâs abilities ⌠his or her intrinsic gifts, skills, knowledge, experience, intelligence, judgment, attitude, character and drive. It also includes his or her ability to learn and growâ, Michaels et al. argue (2001: xii). Twenty one years on, the study is still relevant in defining and contextualising the notion of talent in the world of work.
However, within a world of unprecedented challenges, industry demands new kinds of talent, which can âlearn and growâ (Michaels et al., 2001) and quickly adapt to a range of macro-level political, environmental and societal trends and developments which are occurring on a global scale. These macro-level trends include globalisation, constant technological innovations and demographic developments, emphasising the need to prepare future-ready and globally-aware talent.
Professor Ian Goldin, of Oxford University, argued in his book that âglobalisation is an increase in the impact on human activities of forces that span national boundariesâ (Goldin and Reinert, 2013: 2). The forces of globalisation, together with rapid technological advancements, require a forward-thinking workforce â global talent with the dexterity and expertise to think and work globally.
Global talent and the wider management literature
Since The War for Talent, a plethora of texts have discussed the concept of global talent. This extant literature has covered important interrelated concepts and developments that go hand in hand with global talent, including:
- the management of global talent (Schuler et al., 2011; Stahl et al., 2012)
- the competition for global talent (Beechler and Woodward, 2009)
- global perspectives of talent management (Scullion and Collings, 2011)
- global talent mobility (Welch and Zhen, 2008)
- the conceptualisation of talent (Adamsen, 2016)
- global talent policy (Allan, 2006)
- the global talent supply pipeline (Gordon, 2009).
Directly relevant to our work is Gordonâs (2009) critical account of the challenge in developing a well-rounded future workforce, which draws particular focus to the education to employment link in his book, Winning the Global Talent Showdown: How Businesses and Communities Can Partner to Rebuild the Jobs Pipeline. He contends that the education system is outdated and broken, and fails to prepare students with the skills they need to thrive in the rapidly changing workforce and workplace of the future. Similarly, Adamsenâs (2016) Demystifying Talent Management: A Critical Approach to the Realities of Talent is pertinent in its conceptualisation of talent, albeit without a global dimension to it. In Global Talent Management, Scullion and Collings (2011) provide a discussion on recent theoretical contributions in the area of global talent management, key challenges and opportunities facing the field and emerging developments around global talent management in key economies such as China, India, the Middle East and Eastern Europe.
Specifically, HR management students and professionals may be interested in exploring further texts that specifically discuss talent management (see, for example, Brewster et al., 2011 and Scullion and Collings, 2011). Also pertinent is Johnsonâs work (2014) which advances our understanding of how organisations can prepare for and capitalise on major global talent trends. In their âGlobal Talent Managementâ chapter in The Routledge Companion to International Human Resource Management, Vaiman and Collings (2014) put the spotlight on organisational approaches to global talent management and provide a critical discussion on the global context of global talent management. Scullion and Collings (2011) discuss emerging trends in global talent management in emerging economies such as China, India, the Middle East and Eastern Europe.
This textbook builds on these works by providing a comprehensive and more integrative perspective on global talent management and does not focus merely on the HR aspects of talent management.
International perspectives on talent tend to focus on the issues and challenges related to mobility and migration specifically. For example, Cerna (2016) provides a comprehensive account of the interplay between the highly skilled migration of global talent and immigration policy in her book Immigration Policies and the Global Competition for Talent. Through the adoption of a global talent policy perspective, the author provides a critical account of high-skilled immigration policies of countries seen as hubs for global talent. Gender, Migration and the Global Race for Talent by Boucher (2016) reflects on international country-level policy and practice in skilled migration with a particular focus on gender. The author provides an in-depth discussion of the rationale behind governmentsâ decision making to adopt gender-aware skilled immigration policies for global talent. Similarly, Duncan (2012) provides a comparative account of the legal and political efforts and challenges in managing the recruitment of high-skilled global talent in the text Immigration Policymaking in the Global Era: In Pursuit of Global Tale...
