Inclusive talent development as a key talent management approach: A systematic literature review

Over the past decades, organizations have faced challenges in retaining good employees due to market competition and talent scarcity, thereby forcing leaders to improve their human resource strategies. Organizations often source exclusive talent development instead of nurturing talent inclusively. Exclusive refers to organizations' tendency to hire top talents outside their organization when needs arise, or if they have to look for candidates within the organization, only those identified as performers within their elite pool are selected. Literature suggests that inclusive talent development (i.e., career development via training for all employees regardless of individual performance) can complement management for employee retention. The present study carries out a systematic review of articles published from 1997 to 2020 pertaining to talent development, particularly inclusive nurturing, to enable frugal human resource management, i.e., developing human resource inclusive talent development (ITD) in a resource constrained environment. We address three major questions: to what degree is talent development (TD) represented in the wider talent management (TM) literature?; how does ITD contribute to individual talent growth and organizational performance?; and what are the limitations of current research on ITD? A total of 48 articles on TD, with 13 articles on ITD, are analyzed to provide theoretical and practical insights. This review presents research gaps on inclusive TD, and highlights future research directions, such as wider coverage to develop a more comprehensive scope, TD for low performers to improve their individual growth and organizational performance, application of frugal innovation through ITD, and association with resource-based view – valuable, rare, inimitability, and organized model (RBV-VRIO). While ITD coupled with other TM activities has significant effect on individual growth and organizational performance, the evidence for and discussion of this concept remains scarce. The research contributes to existing HRM literatures: (1) TD is a limited area of research and has minority representation within TM literature; (2) ITD is becoming increasingly crucial for individual talent growth and organizational performance towards a sustainable competitive advantage as primed by the RBV – VRIO model; and (3) key limitations of research on TD include one-sided perspectives to TD, lack of balance between individual talent growth and organizational performance, and other methodological weaknesses.     

Human Resource Management Practices and Trust in Public Organizations

Abstract

Trust has been acknowledged as a valuable managerial resource within organizations. Working as a lubricant of organizational functioning, trust reduces opportunistic behaviours while it increases voluntary compliance to organizational norms and rules as well as enhancing individual and organizational performance. Considering the importance of trust, it is worthwhile to explore what factors may help build trust within organizations. This research investigates whether perceptions of several human resource management (HRM) practices are associated with trust in government organizations. According to social exchange theory, HRM practices signal management's commitment to employees which in turn leads to greater trust in the organization. Using data from an employee survey conducted for the Georgia Department of Transportation in 2007, this research tests how employee perceptions of HRM practices are related to trust in three distinct levels of management in a large department of state government: trust in department leadership, trust in one's leadership team, and trust in one's supervisor. Binary logit analyses suggest that perceptions of HRM practices focusing on autonomy, compensation, communication, performance appraisal, and career development are associated with trust in public organizations. According to the result, those practices present variation in their leverage on trust in leadership at different levels.     

Managing careers in downsizing firms

The literature on managing careers has traditionally been based on the twin assumptions of organizational growth and increased opportunities for individual advancement. Large-scale layoffs in the 1980s and continued downsizing in the 1990s, however, have left organizations questioning how to develop the careers of their employees under conditions of diminished resources and have left employees wondering how to manage their own careers under conditions of diminished opportunities. This article examines the issues involved in managing careers in downsizing firms from both the organization's and the individual's perspective. In addition, it explores not only short-term tactics for handling career disruptions which occur at the time of downsizing but also longer-term strategies for managing careers during times of little or no organizational growth. © 1996 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Evaluating the employability paradox: When does organizational investment in human capital pay off?

Abstract

The paper explores the notion of the employability paradox which notes that while organizations investing in the career and competency development of their workforce can benefit from higher performance, they also risk losing more employable staff to competitors. Building on contributions from social exchange theory and signalling theory, we develop a model exploring the circumstances under which investment in career development benefits employees and organizations. We test our model in a longitudinal study following graduates entering the labour market. Our results show that when organizations signal that they care about employees by investing in their career development and individuals are receptive to such signals and proactively seek to manage their careers, investment in career development has a positive impact on organizational commitment and intention to stay with one’s employer. Our findings indicate that the idea of the employability paradox is simplistic and lacks theoretical and empirical support.     

Understanding the Change–Cynicism Cycle: The Role of HR

Employee change cynicism is an unintended consequence of organizational change, which can undermine the effectiveness of change initiatives. Based on social information processing theory, we examine the impact of two human resource roles (administrative expert and strategic change agent) on the relationship between the quantity of organizational change and employee change cynicism. Using multilevel data from 1,831 employees in 70 organizations, we find employees who are exposed to more organizational change report higher levels of change cynicism. However, the strength of the organizational change–cynicism relationship is affected by the role of HR in the employees’ organizations. When HR undertakes an administrative expert role, change is more likely to generate change cynicism. When HR undertakes a strategic change agent role, change is less likely to generate change cynicism. Our results suggest that organizations need to think carefully about the role of HR during organizational change and encourage HR to adopt a strategic change agent role. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

The relationships between person-organization value fit and employee attitudes in a Korean government sector

Abstract

While person-organization (P-O) value fit and its influences on organizations have been widely studied, there is a lack of research focusing on the P-O value fit of employees in a government sector in Korea, and the impact on their attitudes. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationships between P-O value fit and employee career and job satisfaction, and organizational commitment in a government sector. Based on the data collected from 1211 employees at government agencies in Korea, this study utilized polynomial regression and response surface analyses, and the results demonstrated that P-O fit on all of the values in the study had positive relationships with employees’ career satisfaction. Among the five different values, P-O fit on autonomy had a positive relationship with career and job satisfaction, and organizational commitment. Based on the results, this study also provides theoretical and practical implications for future research.     

Career Change and the Iron Cage: Organizations and the Early Labour Market Experience of Professional Managers

Although it is often acknowledged that organizational structure and career outcomes are related, developed theory on how formal features of the design affect inter‐firm job mobility is incomplete. I focus on organizational size and structural differentiation and relate them to ideas about internal labour markets, organizational senescence, bureaucratic complexity, and resource endowments. Analysing data on the early career histories of professional managers, I find that the negative effect of organizational size on quits weakens with organizational age while a firm's elaborate hierarchy monotonically increases quits in all but very large firms. I interpret these effects as potential mechanisms for linking demographic processes between and within organizations and as a basis for integrating research in corporate demography and career mobility.     

社会交换视角下组织支持感跨界增益的情感性路径研究

随着经济的快速发展,员工在追求事业成就的同时,也越来越关注工作与家庭的平衡。过往有关工作领域支持性角色资源跨界影响工作-家庭增益的研究中较少关注个体对资源的情感性评估和给个体心理资源带来的改变。本文采用问卷调查法获取了443名在职企业员工的样本数据,探讨了组织支持感影响工作-家庭增益的情感性路径。结果表明:组织支持感显著正向影响工作-家庭增益;组织认同和核心自我评价分别在组织支持感与工作-家庭增益的关系中起部分中介作用,诠释了组织支持感跨界增益的多重中介路径。本文为管理者从社会交换视角理解工作家庭正向互动的过程提供了理论借鉴。管理者应将“组织、员工、家庭”视为一个更大的资源交换系统,从组织支持角度去促成员工工作与家庭的积极关系。     

A cross-national comparison of cultural value orientations of Indian,Polish, Russian and American employees

This study examines the cultural value orientations (VOs) of employees (managerial and non-managerial) working in three categories of organizations (professional, technical and local services) in India, Poland, Russia and the USA. The analysis is conducted at both the national and organizational levels. The paper hypothesizes cultural differences at the country level and cultural similarities among employees working for professional and technical oriented organizations and divergence in the VOs of employees working for local services organizations. It also hypothesizes differences in the VOs of managerial and non-managerial employees in the four countries. The investigation has been conducted with the help of a questionnaire survey of 1,852 respondents. The outcomes of the analysis show that there are both cross-country cultural differences and similarities among the VOs of employees of the four nations. Further, significant cultural convergence emerges in the VOs of employees working for both professional and technical organizations, however, no significant cultural similarities or differences are observed for employees of service-based organizations in the four countries. There are some similarities emerging between managerial employees in the research countries. The research contributes to the fields of cross-cultural management, international management and international human resource management.     

Beyond managerial talent: ‘key group’ identification and differential compensation practices in multinational companies

With the maturation of strategic human resource management scholarship, there appears to be a greater call to move from monolithic workforce management to a more strategic and differentiated emphasis on employees with the greatest capacity to enhance competitive advantage. There has been little consideration in the literature as to whether organizations formally identify key groups of employees based on their impact on organizational learning and core competences. Using survey evidence from 260 multinational companies (MNCs), this paper explores the extent to which key groups of employees are formally recognized and whether they are subject to differential compensation practices. The results demonstrate that just in excess of half of these MNCs identify a key group. There was considerable differentiation in the compensation practices between these key groups, managers and the largest occupational group in the workforce. The results give rise to questions worthy of future investigation, namely whether the differentiated approaches used lead to improved performance outcomes.     

Mutual Gains? Health‐Related HRM,Collective Well‐Being and Organizational Performance

Research on the effects of HR management on employees’ psychological well‐being has yielded inconclusive results. Moreover, prior works remain unclear on whether human resource practices specifically aimed at enhancing employee well‐being also benefit organizational performance. Building on signaling theory and conservation of resources theory, our study investigates the relationship between health‐related human resource management (HHRM), employees’ collective well‐being (in terms of collective emotional exhaustion and collective engagement) and organizational performance. Results from a multi‐source field study of top management team members, HR representatives, and 15,952 employees in 88 organizations reveal a positive indirect relationship between HHRM and employees’ collective well‐being, which is mediated by employees’ positive stress mindset. In addition, we find this positive indirect association to depend on the level of transformational leadership climate in organizations. Finally, our findings also show a positive indirect relationship between HHRM and company performance, mediated by employees’ positive stress mindset and collective engagement.     

Career success after stigmatizing organizational events

This article examines the effect of six types of stigmatizing organizational events on employees' career moves to another employer: criticism of the organization in the media; resignation of key individuals from the organization; downsizing; a drop in net income; lawsuits launched by the Securities and Exchange Commission, competitors, or customers; and lawsuits launched by employees. Stigmatizing events that signal the decline of corporate performance are the most devastating for professional career success. Outsiders, on the other hand, are less sensitive to an organization's involvement in lawsuits launched by public authorities or employees. Stigmatizing events affect the career success of every professional in the organization, irrespective of his or her hierarchical level. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

The role of assessment centers in job satisfaction and organizational commitment: a case of the Korean government

While many studies have shown how assessment centers affect employees’ career success or job performance, these studies do not demonstrate how employees’ attitudes are affected by their perception of assessment centers. This study aims to investigate the influence of employees’ perception of assessment centers on their job satisfaction and organizational commitment, which are the key elements in predicting working behaviors, such as job performance, job involvement, and turnover intentions. To analyze the nature of the influence, 306 employees who had been evaluated by an assessment center in the Korean Rural Development Administration (KRDA) were surveyed. Regression analysis revealed that although there is no influence on their organizational commitment, employees with a positive perception of assessment centers experience higher levels of job satisfaction (p < .01). These results suggest that the positive perception of assessment centers affects the general feeling of organizational members about their work even though it does not affect their emotional attachment to the organization or dedication to organizational values. Thus, assessment centers can be used as a tool not only to select capable candidates but also to yield positive effects on organizational members’ job attitudes.     

Caring human resources management and employee engagement

Research on employee engagement has demonstrated that human resource management (HRM) practices and systems are positively related to employee engagement. However, it is not clear what HRM practices or system of practices is most important for employee engagement or the theoretical mechanisms that intervene and explain the link between HRM and employee engagement. In this paper, I provide answers to these two important questions by developing a model of caring HRM and employee engagement based on the engagement, organizational climate, and strategic HRM literatures. The model indicates that a system of caring HRM practices (job design, training and development, flexible work arrangements, work-life balance, participation in decision making, health and safety, career development, and health and wellness programs) will result in an organizational climate of care and concern for employees that employees will respond to by caring for the organization which they will enact with higher levels of engagement. This model provides many avenues for future research and practice on HRM and employee engagement and introduces the notion of a caring HRM system and an organizational climate of care and concern for employees to the literature on employee engagement.     

The role of line managers in employee career management: an attachment theory perspective

Line managers increasingly play a key role in organizational career development systems, yet few studies have examined the nature of this role or its implications for employee career attitudes and behaviors. In two studies, we used attachment theory to explore this issue. In Study 1, in-depth interviews (N = 20) showed that employees viewed career management as a relational process in which line managers are expected to act as ‘caregiver’ to support individualized career development. Study 2 was a large-scale international survey (N = 891). Participants scoring higher on attachment avoidance in their line manager relationships reported more negative perceptions of career growth opportunities, lower participation in organizational career development activities and higher turnover intentions. Trust in the organization partially mediated the relationship. Theoretical and practical implications for HRM are discussed.     

Are there major differences in the attitudes and service quality of standard and seasonal employees? An empirical examination and implications for practice

Despite the increased use of seasonal employees by organizations, few studies have been completed on the attitudes and service quality of seasonal office workers. Using Lautsch's classification model, we analyzed the organizational context in which the standard and seasonal workers in this study were employed. Hypotheses were developed based upon the organizational analysis and social exchange theory. Results from archival data obtained from a web‐based organizational survey of 205 clerical and professional workers indicated contrary to expectations, standard and seasonal employees did not significantly differ in terms of perceptions of overall job conditions, perceived organizational support (POS), or job engagement. However, seasonal employees did report significantly fewer opportunities to work on challenging tasks, less comfortable physical working conditions, and less job security than the standard workers. As predicted, standard employees reported significantly higher levels of service quality performance than seasonal employees. Additionally, job engagement mediated the relationship between POS and service quality for both the standard and seasonal employees. Implications for managing seasonal employees are discussed.     

Shared values make a difference: An empirical test of corporate culture

Is the recent popular management literature on corporate culture and cultural values just a passing fad or is it highlighting some fundamental organizational realities? The results from a recent nationwide survey of American managers shows, we are convinced, that clearly articulated organizational values do make a significant difference in the lives of employees, as well as in their organization's performance. This article is an effort to integrate this broad-based data on individual managers' values with the reported experience of successful organizations that pay careful attention to their culture. It also offers ideas on how human resource managers can facilitate the alignment of personal and organizational values.     

员工多样性对组织绩效的积极作用

员工是组织发展的关键,随着经济全球化的发展,组织招聘的员工愈加多样化,员工多样性成为了组织管理中的一大重点。国内外越来越多的学者探究员工多样性对团队绩效的作用,但尚未得到一致的结论。论文分析了员工多样性的含义、对组织的积极意义、当前组织管理中存在的挑战以及发挥员工多样性优势的创新性措施。     

Integration or disintegration? Human resource implications of a common corporate language decision in a cross-border merger

The primary purpose of introducing a common corporate language in cross-border mergers is to integrate two previously separate organizations and facilitate communication. However, the present case study of a cross-border merger between two Nordic banks shows that the common corporate language decision may have disintegrating effects, particularly at organizational levels below top management. We identify such effects on performance appraisal, language training and management development, career paths, promotion and key personnel. Our findings show that top management needs to work through the consequences of the language decision upon those who are expected to make such a decision work.     

Sustainability and ideology-infused psychological contracts: An organizational- and employee-level perspective

In this paper we explore sustainability-based ideology-infused psychological contracts (IPCs) from both organizational and individual-level perspectives. Better knowledge about how and when IPCs operate and the role of the organization's human resource management in that process is beneficial to firms that wish to capitalize on the positive outcomes resulting from IPCs while avoiding the creation of ideological obligations that they are unable or unwilling to meet (Rousseau & McLean Parks, 1993; Thompson & Bunderson, 2003). Organizations may show they care, through sustainable HRM strategies, and encourage ideological currency exchange in order to recruit and retain quality employees, increase organizational commitment, increase citizenship behaviors, strengthen identity, increase job satisfaction, and maintain a positive public perception and reputation. On the other hand, if an organization fails to fulfill an IPC it may lead to negative behaviors and consequences. We extended our arguments beyond the individual-level focus common to psychological contract theory, to include firm-level context. In doing so, we explain how an organization's efforts towards being more sustainable can connect employees to the organization through their IPCs, and moreover, through their IPCs, employees can connect to corporate goals. Finally, we advance current theory by exploring the underlying motivations that drive organizations and individuals to develop IPCs.