Digitalised Talent Management

Navigating the Human-Technology Interface

Sharna Wiblen

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• Topic: Business
• eBook ISBN:
  9780429560460
• Subtopic: Business General
• Index: Business

This book focuses on digitalised talent management—the use of information technologies in talent management. The book affords theoretically, methodologically and empirically informed insights that are especially salient given the need for executives and organisations to balance the role of humans and technology, while ensuring competitiveness in this interconnected and increasingly digital world. In doing so, the book will shape and contribute to academic and industry-based conversations about the role of technological innovations in enabling organizations to transition towards digital ways of organising talent, as well as the associated implications for the who, what, where, when, and why of talent management as stakeholders decide which aspects of talent management can be delegated to technology, and those that require human agency.

This book adds value by assembling subject matter experts currently siloed within traditional research domains whilst also highlighting the complexity of managing talent. By synthesising content from world-leading academics who herald from various backgrounds, the book will instigate, shape and contribute to conversations about both the promises and perils of digitalised talent management and the extent to which judgments and decisions about an organisations most valuable asset—it's talent—should be delegated to non-human agents.

This book will be of interest to researchers, academics and students in the fields of talent management and organisational design, especially those interested in digital ways of working, managing and leading.

1 Digitalised Talent Management

An Introduction

Sharna Wiblen

Talent management and digitalisation are top priorities for organisations and senior executives (PwC, 2019, 2020). Talent management rhetoric positions talent as an organisation’s greatest asset (Boudreau, Ramstad, & Dowling, 2002; Cushen & Thompson, 2012; Davenport, Harris, & Shapiro, 2010) worthy of proactive management and investment. At the same time, however, talent is potentially an organisation’s most considerable expense (Davenport et al., 2010). Significantly, talent is essential to operational needs and strategy execution, because strategies are actualised (or not) because of the actions (or inactions) of the workforce. Organisations, regardless of size, industry, or value proposition, must ‘act on their talent.’

The talk about digitalisation occurring in parallel is equally compelling. References to digital transformation pervade the corporate lexicon. Developments in Information Technologies (IT)—both the hardware and software—afford organisations with various options for structuring workflow processes and ways of working with ‘little doubt that technology will have profound impacts on how work gets done’ (Vaiman, Collings, Cascio, & Swider, 2019). Digitalisation raises many questions about human-machine work combinations and the benefits of automating tasks and occupations (Jesuthasan & Boudreau, 2018).

Talent management and technology, while salient topics in their own right, are inherently interrelated. Technology is used to manage workforces and shapes workforce structures and compositions. Newer technological innovations result in new approaches to managing talent (Wiblen, Grant, & Dery, 2010) and impact workers, jobs, and careers (Jesuthasan & Boudreau, 2018). Inversely, talent availability influences whether organisations select and deploy specific technological innovations. Neither talent nor technology, therefore, is useful in its own right. Effective talent management—the management of valuable individuals and groups of individuals—requires strategically aligned decisions and practices. Data, information, and knowledge should inform talent-based decisions and practices. Data and information are captured, stored, and analysed in conjunction with an information system—whether a pen and paper, an Excel file, a standalone or integrated human resource system (HRIS), or some other technology. Digital transformation, Davenport and Redman (2020) state, requires talent in four key areas: technology, data, process, and organisational change. A holistic perspective is vital because digitalisation occurs within broader systems. Appreciating both domains provides a context for reciprocity, mutual understanding, and collegiality. Thus, the talk about talent must occur with the recognition of technology as an actor that shapes talent management.

This book, Digitalised Talent Management, highlights the interrelationship between talent management and technology in an era of increasing digitalisation and automation. The book showcases how information technologies, technology-embedded and enabled frameworks, and outputs could, should, and do influence talent management. This book represents the first comprehensive discussion of the field of Digitalised Talent Management (DTM)—the use of information technology in talent management—on the market. The book frames Digitalised Talent Management in a broad sense and editorialises that it is where talent management and technology intersect. Synthesising content from various backgrounds illuminates both the promises and perils of DTM and where and when judgments and decisions about an organisation’s most valuable asset—its talent—should be delegated to non-human agents, based on technologically enabled outputs or enacted via digitalised and automated processes.

Contextualising Talent Management

Talent management begins with talk about talent. Informed understandings of what talent is (or is not) are foundational to talent management strategies, policies, and practices. Organisations, via relevant stakeholders, attribute meaning to talent in many ways. Dominant understandings frame talent as (1) all workers and employees whereby everyone is talent, (2) specifically designated individuals, (3) specifically designated skills and capabilities, and (4) pivotal roles and positions (Wiblen, 2016; Wiblen, Dery, & Grant, 2012; Wiblen & McDonnell, 2020). Deciding who—which individuals and groups of individuals (talent pools)—and what—the defining characteristics of a talent subject (think skills, capabilities, attributes, actions)—is complex and fraught with tension. Complexity arises because talent and talent management phenomena are both socially and discursively constructed concepts with social groups deciding—and socially constructing—what talent means within the context of their social history. Organisations create and establish what talent is within the context of operational imperatives and strategic goals.

Complexity heightens as relevant stakeholders seek to reconcile inherent tensions. Tensions include whether talent is rare or everywhere; individuals are born with their talent or it can be developed; the focus should be on intelligence or competency; talent is stable or fluid; talent is about performance or potential; talent is about homogeneity (sameness) or heterogeneity (difference), and whether talent is transferable.

Further complications arise when reflecting on what talent looks like in practice. From my perspective, talent is best framed as a verb rather than a noun. Dictionaries define talent as a noun—a special aptitude; general intelligence; a person of talent or group of persons of talent in a field; or a characteristic feature, aptitude, or disposition of a person whereby an individual ‘has’ talent. Talent from the perspective of a verb, however, it acknowledges that we ask individuals to ‘act out’ their ability and illustrate their value by performing a certain way. Talented subjects (i.e., the individuals), for example, may be asked to perform above expectations and at a level higher than their peers. Talent, therefore, is a performative construct rather than a set of attributes.

Talk about talent management reinforces the prevailing talent tensions. Research within Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM) and talent management is undoubtedly contested terrain as various texts focused on establishing (arbitrary) boundaries between the two research areas. Regardless of semantic and definitional differences, a more informed understanding of talent and talent management phenomena is required, as the two terms frequently feature in the corporate lexicon, with Table 1.1 offering suggestions of a few distinguishing factors.

Table 1.1 Key Distinguishing Factors between Human Resource Management and Talent Management

Aspect	Human Resource Management	Talent Management
Who	Entire workforce	Part of the workforce
Key concepts	Procedural justice and Distributive justice	Workforce differentiation
Subjects	Everyone	Someone
Easy way to remember	Human Resource Management is about doing the same thing to everyone.	Talent Management is about doing something (a practice, resource allocation) to someone (a specific individual).

Talent management advocates agree that workforce differentiation is key to talent management (see reviews of Gallardo-Gallardo & Thunnissen, 2016; McDonnell, Collings, Mellahi, & Schuler, 2017) where part of the workforce is of higher value because of their evaluated performance and/or potential. Specifically designated individuals or groups of individuals (talent pools) warrant investment through disproportionate resource allocation. Most scholars frame talent management as a set of practices focused on pivotal positions (Claussen, Grohsjean, Luger, & Probst, 2014; Collings & Mellahi, 2009; Jones, Whitaker, Seet, & Parkin, 2012; Sidani & Al Ariss, 2014). Proponents of this perspective specifically advocate for the ‘systematic identification’ of critical positions (as per Collings & Mellahi, 2009:304) or the ‘systematic attraction, identification, development, engagement/retention, and deployment of high performing and high potential employees’ (as per Gallardo-Gallardo & Thunnissen, 2016:50). Talent management systems, which prioritise consistency, are most often framed as best practice and are considered the most effective (Berger & Berger, 2003; Collings & Mellahi, 2009; Iles, Chuai, & Preece, 2010; Jooss, Burbach, & Ruël, 2019). The promulgation of systematic approaches promotes procedural and distributive justice (Gelens, Hofmans, Dries, & Pepermans, 2014; Greenberg, 2002; O’Connor & Crowley-Henry, 2017) and (perceived) fairness in evaluating an individual’s performance and/or potential.

Wiblen (2019:154) suggests an alternative perspective by proposing that talent management is:

A judgment-orientated activity where humans make judgments about the value of other humans. These judgments, while mediated by various contextual factors and variables (such as technology), should be informed by and aligned to, current and future strategic ambitions and goals.

A judgment-based definition recognises that stakeholders use talent management—whether talent identification, talent development, or talent retention—to decide which individuals warrant additional investment. Stakeholders make judgments about the value of individuals within their workforces; relevant stakeholders then make decisions based on judgments of value; decisions about resource allocations are based on prior judgments of value.

Talent and talent management are contextually with each organisation required to decide who and what talent is and how to identify, mobilise, develop, and manage talent subjects via a set of practices within the context of their strategy. Part of this decision-making includes determining what, where, when, and how technology will feature.

Contextualising Digitalised Talent Management

Digitalised talent management—the use of information technology in talent management—permits access to pre-designed and pre-configured systems to manage workforces and talent. Since the 1990s, the terminology for HRM-focused information technologies has changed regularly as technological innovations have advanced.

Older HRIS (Human Resource Information Systems) created centralised systems that: collected, stored, and processed human resource management information (Ceriello & Freeman, 1991; Marler & Dulebohn, 2005; Stone & Dulebohn, 2013); aimed to increase HRM process and cost efficiencies (Bussler & Davis, 2001; Farndale, Paauwe, & Hoeksema, 2009; Gueutal & Stone, 2005; Ruël, Bondarouk, & Van der Velde, 2007); and promoted process consistency through automation (Benders, Batenburg, Hoeken, & Schouteten, 2006; Grant, Hall, Wailes, & Wright, 2006). Further advancements introduced internet-based self-service capabilities heralding the notion of electronic Human Resource Management (eHRM) (Marler & Fisher, 2013).

Newer technologies, as expressed through references to DTM, human capital technology, and e-talent (Wiblen, 2019), emerged alongside the rise of cloud-based technology. These innovations allow organisations to deploy specialised software at a lower cost. An added benefit is the removal of the requirement to maintain and pay for in-house IT expertise or resources (Wiblen et al., 2010) as the vendor provides such skills as pa...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• Acknowledgements
• Editor Biography
• Contributors
• 1 Digitalised Talent Management: An Introduction
• 2 Anthropology, Culture, and Ethnography’s Value in Understanding Digitalised Talent Management
• 3 Empowering the Workforce for Digital
• 4 Competencies in an Era of Digitalised Talent Management
• 5 People Analytics Maturity and Talent Management: Linking Talent Management to Organisational Performance
• 6 Talent Management in the Gig Economy: A Multilevel Framework Highlighting How Customers and Online Reviews are Key for Talent Identification
• 7 Artificial Intelligence and Talent Management
• Index