Human talent is one of the major assets an organization can have. Individuals present different talents in the modern business and organizational worlds, which require good management to be successful. Over the past decades, talent managements has become one of the commonly talked about topics in the corporate world. Many organizations in the world comprises of people from different cultures. These people are committed to promoting worth using established industry methods, novelty, customer service, as well as other crucial processes. As industries or corporations struggles to meet its objectives and goals, it must ensure a rich flow of integrated and continuous methods for recruiting, training, supporting, motivating, and recompensing these people. According to Stewart and Harte (2010, p.506), talent management should not be considered as a new concept but it is the process and art of repackaging particular aspects of existing human resource management exercises. There have been several descriptions for talent management by different sources. For the essay, the paper adopts the definition of CIPD (2009), which perceives talent management to be the desirability, recognition, improvement, and maintenance of people with promising abilities who can take the business to a more advanced level (Christesen & Rog, 2008, p.745). On the other hand, career development refers to a lifetime practice of managing learning and work. Furthermore, Baer et al., (2008) asserted that an individual’s career development includes the growth and change transformations from childhood, formals career education in a learning institution and the overall maturation process that takes place in a working environment through to retirement. In comprehensive way, the paper will talk about the concept of talent management and career development. Moreover, it will give examples by evaluating two cultural perspectives of the Americans and the Germans.
It is with no doubt that many organizations in the world recognize the value of talent because it is a crucial tool in navigating through the complex global economy (Hatum, 2010). Besides understanding the importance of hiring, improving, and retaining talented individuals, corporations must consider talent management to be a crucial resource in attaining competitive results in the global market. Even though talent has been considered an asset, numerous studies have indicated scarcity of talent in various organizations. Talent gaps have been found to exist in different managerial levels and ranks. Therefore, while striving to compete in the highly globalized world, corporations must manage the available talent to the fullest potential (Cappelli, 2008).
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The trends of the economy have prompted particular organizations to cut down their workforces to meet specific demands. However, managers should be asked to be careful when conducting layoffs because talent can be very limited when the economy recovers. As stated before the concept of building talents is not new. However, the past five years have seen industries assign talent improvement to human resource departments. Currently, this is not the case because talent management encompasses the entire organization and it is taken seriously.
During a conference board of 2007 under the title CEO challenge study, CEO’s ranking concerning “looking for managerial talent” increased by ten percent unlike earlier studies conducted the previous year (Rudis, 2007). In 2008,a study conducted by Development Dimensions International(DDI) as well as the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) showed that around 50% of executive levels respondents admitted to poor performance in their companies due to scarcity in leadership and talent. The concentration put on talent management is unavoidable because a majority of industries are currently spending a third of their profits on staff personnel motivation as well as compensations. Simply, the capacity to successfully employ, retain, and absorb talent is the real mark of competitive benefit that any company can be proud to have.
Talent management encompasses several factors. The Development Dimensions International (DDI) considers talent improvement as a significant goal that enables organization to have competent individuals to assist in the achievement of the existing business goals. Talent improvement concept encompasses critical features of the employees’ life such as hiring, development, performance management, and retention. The primary factors involved in effective talent management process include several factors that can be summarized using eight points. First, effective management will need a precise comprehension of the corporation’s existing and future business strategies (Whelan, 2011, p.675). Secondly, the management should be capable of successfully identifying the difference between their current talent and needed talent to make their enterprise attain its maximum potential. The third point is generating a sensible talent improvement framework built to deal with the differences. These plans must align with the business strategies and plans. Moreover, companies should conduct accurate personnel selection and promotions decisions. The fifth factor to enhance effectiveness is to integrate individual’s and team goals with the company’s objectives and provide clear prospects and responses to tackle performance (Gibbons, 2006). The sixth point is to improve talents to promote performance in the existing position. This factor is also crucial when preparing the transition of employees to the next level. Lastly, corporations or organizations should ensure they conduct an assessment on the workforce to measure the effectiveness of the implementation.
Many people may question the urgent emphasis on the need to practice talent management. Several factors drive this particular need for take talent management (Meyers &Dries, 2013, p310). For instance, a positive relationship exists between good talent management and business processes. Recently, there has been an increasing need for organizations quantify their profits on their investment in talent. A research conducted by IBM indicated that civic corporations with effective talent improvement approaches had higher chances of increasing their profits as compared the small enterprises with less operational talent improvement. Secondly, talent is a significant source in creating value. In most occasions, it is common to find innovative companies hiring individuals with high intelligence and technical abilities. On the other hand, media and film production companies are more likely to employ personnel talented in arts and other respective fields. Thirdly, the need for talent management is crucial because the current business context is more of a complex system than a dynamic framework.
The increased competition in the global market makes it challenging to maintain a competitive advantage for long. The changing dynamics in business require constant and continuous innovation, which in most cases needs talent. The technology levels have also enabled increased access to information forcing companies to keep up with the rising demands. Fourthly, the changing expectations of employees have forced companies to focus more on talent management. In the contemporary business world, employees today are becoming more interested engaging in meaningful work and in which they experience challenge. Moreover, it is common to find employees becoming interested in their career areas or professions as compared to the organizations in which they work. Majorities of employees are more concerned with their career development; hence, organizations should strive to offer a learning environment for the employees. Furthermore, the workforce demographics continue to evolve. For instance, companies known to be multicultural are more successful as compared to enclosed companies. Having diverse companies with employees from different cultures ensures a competent working environment.
According to Baruch (2004, p 58), there are six factors that affect the corporate culture and human resource management when it comes to talent management. These include rapid business change, shift towards the emerging markets, modernized methods of leadership, and the increased competition for talent. On the other hand, Shuler et al., (2011, p. 513) state that the factors affecting talent management include globalization, the knowledge economy, demographic changes, and technology.
When it comes to career development, today’s employees have become more alert than ever. Many of them are demanding for personal growth and development. Studies have established that companies failing to give their employees a chance to grow will end up losing their employees. This means that organizations with poor career development face the challenge of retaining employees. Normally, employee turnovers can have negative effects on organizations. As argued by Brolin and Loyd (2004), positive career development depends on the staff motivation. It is crucial for companies to recognize the different sets of needs of employees. When the employees satisfy their respective needs, the level of job satisfaction increases, which in turn enhances the performance of the employees ( Farndale, Scullion & Sparrow, 2010, p.165 ). Organizations that are capable of understanding the differences among individuals promote career development. When managers understand these differences, a good working environment will be created for the employees to realize career growth. Career development can explained using the Abraham Maslow’s theory of motivation (Maslow, 1943, p.370). Maslow asserted that the lower needs at the pyramid must be achieved before attaining self-actualization. Career development offers an opportunity for workers to realize dreams and assume the best strategies to achieve their personal objectives. If organizations are able help the employees to satisfy their needs, their goals will be easily realized. This process will ensure that the employees achieve their career goals as well as help companies be competitive in the global world.
Studies have indicated that career development depend on three factors, which include career guidance, service training, and career expertise training. Career guidance refers to the most logical aspect in career development. According to Turok (2004), career counseling program helps companies to identify employees with high performance potential as well as helping them to identify realistic career opportunities. In proficiency-in-service, training ensures that employees are updated on the current happenings of the organization including the present job responsibilities. On the other hand, career specialty training provides a chance to improve knowledge and techniques required in job performance. Moreover, it is a platform for workers to discover additional areas of interests, which might improve their career development.
A majority of scholars have engaged in debates whether talent is innately acquired or dependent on external factors. The first explanation can be acquired from the implicit person theory. Even though some individuals in an organization may believe that “individuals are who they are” and that the probability of transforming is limited, others possess the belief that individuals are fundamentally motivated by past experiences, and they have higher chances of changing in future (Heslin et al., 2005). Whether managers or groups of managers believe in one or the other, talent management practices will be affected. Moreover, the implicit person theory talks about the effect of path dependency consequences, which states that once an employee blinds themselves from seeing the potential of a client then they are less likely to change their mind.
The second factor associated with the talent acquisition debate is culture. While conducting her philological evaluation of the term talent based on a history and linguistics, Tansley (2011) discovered that European languages such as English and German focused on the in borne aspects of talent. On the other hand, the Eastern languages like Japanese saw talent to be attained only after many decades of hard work and struggles. A critical evaluation of Tansley’s study results reveal that cultural clusters such as ability, and knowledge were associated with talents among the Americans and the Germans. From the studies, the Germans associated effort and willpower to be major components of talents. These included factors such as hard work, strong-mindedness, and enthusiasm to learn new things. Germans were found to relate talents to innate gifts and abilities that lead to the achievement of excellence. Besides the Germans exhibited passion when expressing talent and talent improvement skills.
Conversely, Americans concentrated on talents as a personal calling to a career or vocation. According to their cultural beliefs, talent was highly associated with innovation, creativity, art, and learning. In both countries, there were no major differences in culture and talents when it came to concerns about realizing growth or having a fixed entity. In both cultures, talents stand a fifty chance percent of developing and improving (Draes et al., 2014, p 15).
In conclusion, a positive relationship exists between talent management and career improvement. Organizations engaging in these two concepts are more likely to realize success as well become competitive in the global market. On the other hand, culture is an important aspect when dealing with individuals in these two areas. People are diverse and come from different cultural backgrounds. Managing the diversities ensures successful implementation of talent management as well as career development. It is indeed true that many organizations in the world recognize the value of talent because it is a crucial tool in navigating through the complex global economy. Besides understanding the importance of hiring, improving, and retaining talented individuals, corporations must consider talent management to be a crucial resource in attaining competitive results in the global market.
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