Discussion
Organizational Leadership
John Bratton
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Part 3
Managing people and leadership
2
Talent management and leadership
Chapter 10
3
Learning outcomes
After completing this chapter, you should be able to explain and evaluate:
The nature of talent and the complexities and organizational challenges surrounding talent management.
Leaders and line manages roles in talent management and capacity building.
The value and limitations of talent collaborations, and.
The critical research that challenges the mantra of talent are our most valuable asset.
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The nature of talent and talent management (TM)
Early conceptualization of TM focused on human resource planning and recruitment activities.
Meyers and van Woerkom (2014, p.192), argue that TM comprises the systematic utilization of human resource managementactivities to attract, identify, develop, and retain individuals who are considered to be talented reflects the potential scope of TM, which often extends to HRM practices such as employer branding (to attract talented people), training, rewards, employee engagement designed to motivate and retain talent and, where recognized, engage with trade unions.
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The nature of talent and talent management (TM)
Contemporary definitions of TM encompass a complex range of policies and practices that often pervade every aspect of the employment journey from the point of entry attracting and recruiting talented people through to ensuring high performance, commitment and retention and ultimately long-term growth through work.
Crowley-Henry and Ariss (2018) depicted that managers must first agree how to define talent in order to create a framework for shaping TM.
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Who are talent?
The extent to which an organization relies upon its ability to recruit high-quality candidates from its external labour market (Swailes et al., 2014)
The extent to which it needs or wishes to grow its own talent and develop employees more organically from within the organization (Swailes et al., 2014)
The nature of talent and talent management (TM)
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Exclusive and Inclusive Talent Management
Exclusive targets people within the organization based on either their current high performance or predicted high potential to fulfil critical roles
Inclusive targets everyone within the organization through providing fair and equal access to career development and progression opportunities to all employees (Swailes et al., 2014)
The nature of talent and talent management (TM)
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Leading and managing talent
Avedon and Scholes (2010, p.92) note that Nothing defines success better than when the talent management practices are so ingrained in the organization that they are part of the management culture. This illustrates the importance of both senior leaders and line managers of mobilizing and managing an organizations talent, especially through their daily actions.
Workforce planning leaders know what is lacking and required to fill the gap.
Talent attraction quite depending on the reputation of an organization plus a strong employee value proposition (EVP) to attract the people who are likely to perform best within its culture.
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Leading and managing talent
Performance and reward management a process utilized to identify, rate and reward talent and high potential, and to formulate learning and career development plans that are reflective of performance ratings.
Talent development investing in talent training and development in order to update employee skills, improve job performance, and develop the competencies and dynamic capabilities that employees need to meet the strategic objectives of their organizations.
Talent mobilization to facilitate continuous development and mobilization of talent applicable as required.
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Collaborative talent management
Within an organization (intra-organizational collaboration) or it may span two or more independent organizations (inter-organizational collaboration).
Advantages:
Facilitate the sharing and generation of new knowledge and innovation
Improve the efficacy of working practices through pooling resources such as technology, facilities and finance indirectly avoiding unnecessary duplication and improving the end-to-end journey of the customer or service user
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Critiquing the talent management debate
Much of HRM research did not adequately emphasize structured antagonisms and contradictions (Thompson and McHugh, 2009).
Mainstream HRM and TM researchers have routinely neglected or marginalized those most directly impacted by HR policies and practices the employees (e.g. Delbridge and Keenoy, 2010; Thunnissen et al., 2013).
Many mainstream HRM researchers have largely failed to subject HR practices to a critical scrutiny of unintended consequences and paradox theory (Bratton and Gold, 2017), or the collateral damage, resulting from their application (Delbridge and Keenoy, 2010, p.803).
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Critiquing the talent management debate
Leaders need to address the question of talent for what? (Thunnissen, 2016).
There has been a failure to critically scrutinize the unintended consequences and, in particular, how the talent paradox plays out between the actors (Daubner-Siva et al., 2018, p.75).
13 Organizational Leadership
John Bratton
Part 3
Managing people and leadership
2
HRM and leadership
Chapter 9
3
Learning outcomes
After completing this chapter, you should be able to:
Define human resource management (HRM) and its relation to organizational leadership.
Appreciate the scope and functions of HRM.
Explain and evaluate the different theoretical approaches to studying HRM.
Assess the contribution of HRM to individual and organizational performance.
Critique assumptions found in mainstream HRM literature.
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Introduction
Organizations are dependent on suitably talented people who have knowledge and skills, working with physical and financial resources, which will add value and create a viable business or service.
By understanding the role of HRM, it helps to provide a framework understanding subsequent chapters on managing and developing people and leading change (Chapters 12-17).
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The nature of HRM
The early studies exposed soft and hard versions of HRM (Legge, 1989):
Soft approach highly relevant to leadership as it emphasizes human interactions, focusing on motivation, development, communications and thus, the quality of leader-follower relations.
Hard approach – views people as a commodity or human resource that has a price (wage) and needs to be managed in the same way as other factors.
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The nature of HRM
Bratton and Gold (2017) defined HRM as:
A strategic approach to managing employment relations which emphasizes that leveraging peoples capabilities and commitment is critical to achieving sustainable competitive advantage or superior public services. This is accomplished through a distinctive set of integrated employment policies, programmes and practices, embedded in an organizational and societal context (p. 5).
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The nature of HRM
This definition:
emphasises the goals that underpin the processes, that applies organizational behaviour (OB) and leadership knowledge to leverage peoples potential capabilities to enhance individual and organizational performance.
conceives HRM as embedded in a capitalist society and its associated ideologies and global structures.
remind leaders that human knowledge and skills are a strategic resource that needs investment and adroit management.
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Scope and functions of HRM
Managing employment relationships in the workplace is the core of HRM.
3 major subdomains of HRM knowledge were identified (Boxall et al., 2008):
Micro (MHRM) largest subdomain, managing individual employees and small work groups.
Strategic (SHRM) revolves around the processes of linking HR strategies with business strategies and measures the effects on organizational performance (see Chapter 2).
International (IHRM) focuses on the management of people in global companies operating in more than one country.
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Micro HRM activities
Key MHRM:
Workforce planning
Recruitment and selection
Performance appraisal
Training and development
Rewards
Employee relations
HR strategy and leadership
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Theorizing HRM
Models are important because they provide an analytical framework for studying HRM.
The Michigan Model of HRM (Fombrun et al., 1984)
Focus: selection, appraisal, training and rewards.
The Harvard Model of HRM ( Beer et al., 1984)
Focus: situational factors, stakeholder interests, HRM policy choices, HR outcomes, long-term consequences and a feedback loop through which the outputs flow directly into the organization and to the stakeholders.
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Theorizing HRM
The Storey Model of HRM (Storey, 2007)
Focus: beliefs and assumptions, strategic qualities, critical role of managers and key levers.
The Ulrich Business Partner Model (Ulrich, 1997)
Focus: strategic partner, change agent, administrative expert, employee champion.
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HRM & leadership
How does HRM contribute to the leadership process?
Does HRM make a difference to individual and organizational performance?
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Critiquing the HRM discourse
Ambiguities in the soft and hard schools of HRM (Legge, 2005).
Selection best HR practice has tended to be viewed in terms of standardizing and objectifying the selection process (Townley, 1994).
Conflict is structured into the management of pay.
Trust relationships between managements and workforces are typically lacking observes Hutton (2015, p. 181).
HR practices have given rise to a shift from long-term relational employment contracts between the employer and the employee towards short-term transactional and precarious contracts, which contradicts the goal of follower commitment and cooperation and relational leadership values.
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