David G. Collings

Talent management decision making

Purpose – The paper sets out to understand the key issues that emerge in the context of decision making.Design/methodology/approach – The paper is a literature review.Findings – First, the authors review debates around talent management decision making. Second, they examine some of the main factors currently influencing decision making in talent management. Third, they seek to identify some future research areas that will inform future decision making in talent management.Practical implications – The paper will be of interest to practitioners in designing and developing talent management decision systems.Originality/value – The paper presents a state of the art review of talent management decision marking.

Global staffing: a review and thematic research agenda

This paper provides the context for the current special issue on global staffing and provides an up to date review of the state of the art in the literature in the area. We explore the key role played by global staffing in strategic international human resource management, with a particular focus on innovation, organisational learning and corporate integration. We then consider the evolution of global staffing research over time. Finally, we point to a number of key contemporary issues which could help to guide future research in global staffing.

European perspectives on talent management

While talent management has gained a central place in the managerial discourse, academic research in the area has lagged behind. This paper considers talent management with a particular focus on the European context and sets the scene for the special issue which it precedes. Given that much of our understanding of talent management is premised on work by North American colleagues, the paper and special issue are intended to provide a European contribution to the field. We hope that through empirical insights from the European context combined with the theoretical approaches adopted in the various papers, we will at minimum provide a point of departure for the field of talent management in the European context.

SEVEN MYTHS OF GLOBAL TALENT MANAGEMENT

The challenges associated with managing talent on a global scale are greater than those faced by organisations operating on a domestic scale. We believe that the former relate to the fact that a number of key myths regarding talent management may undermine talent managements contribution to multinational corporation effectiveness and retard the development of management practice in this regard. Our aim is to unpack some of those myths and offer some suggestions for advancing the practice of talent management on the basis of insights from both practice and academic thinking in this area.

Managing talent in knowledge-intensive settings

Purpose – This paper seeks to explore the processes and channels through which valuable knowledge from outside the firm reaches those employees who can exploit that knowledge for innovative purposes. It seeks to identify the specific talents exhibited by the key individuals involved in facilitating these important knowledge flows. It also aims to detail the interventions which management can adopt to harness knowledge flow talents. Design/methodology/approach – The methodology used was a single case study of a medical devices R&D group, incorporating social network analysis and semi-structured interviews. Findings – It was found that it is now rare for a single individual to possess all the talents necessary to effectively acquire and disseminate external knowledge. Owing to the prevalence of information and communication technologies, a small number of uniquely skilled individuals specialize in acquiring valuable external knowledge, while an altogether different set of individuals specialize in disseminating that knowledge internally. Originality/value – There is a dearth of literature in the knowledge management field directed towards understanding how the unique talents of those employees who are integral components of knowledge networks can be harnessed. Building on concepts of talent management and the technological gatekeeper, the specific talents exhibited by these individuals are explored. Then some organizational level interventions are pointed up, which can facilitate knowledge-intensive organizations in fully exploiting their resources to maximize innovative capabilities.

The cross‐cultural adjustment experiences of self‐initiated repatriates to the Republic of Ireland labour market

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the self‐initiated repatriation experience of native professionals as they return to the labour market in the Republic of Ireland of their own volition and without the support of an employer.Design/methodology/approach – A mixed methodology was employed to gather the data. In total, 40 responses were received from an initial open solicitation calling for research participants. Following a short survey receiving 34 responses, individuals who had returned without the aid of an employer to the Republic of Ireland and were willing to participate in further research were invited to participate in either a focus group discussion or in‐depth individual interviews. Ultimately, there were seven participants in the focus group and eleven individual in‐depth interviews.Findings – The study found that the experiences of those in this study returning of their own volition and those of the more traditional repatriate do not seem to differ significantly across the facets...

Between Boston and Berlin: American MNCs and the shifting contours of industrial relations in Ireland

Drawing on detailed qualitative case studies and utilizing a national business system lens, we explore a largely underrepresented debate in the literature, namely the nature of change in a specific but critical element of business systems, that is the industrial relations (IR) institutions of the State and the impact of MNCs thereon. Given the critical mass of US investment in Ireland, we examine how US MNCs manage IR in their Irish subsidiaries, how the policies and practices they pursue have impacted on the Irish IR system, and more broadly their role in shaping the host institutional environment. Overall, we conclude that there is some evidence of change in the IR system, change that we trace indirectly to the US MNC sector. Further, the US MNC sector displays evidence of elements of the management of IR that is clearly at odds with Irish traditions. Thus, in these firms we point to the emergence of a hybrid system of the management of IR and the establishment of new traditions more reflective of US business system.

Multinational Corporations and Industrial Relations Research: A Road Less Travelled

While there is a large body of academic debate surrounding human resource management issues in multinational corporations (MNCs), industrial relations (IR) issues often fail to receive the same degree of attention. This paper attempts to move the debate forward by critically reviewing some of the key debates surrounding IR in an international context. First, some key themes surrounding the comparison of industrial relations across borders and IR in multinational companies are delineated and defined. Then, the reasons why an international IR (IIR) perspective has been under-represented in the literature to date are considered. The paper then explores the contribution which an IIR perspective can bring to the study of management practices in MNCs. This is discussed in terms of IIRs potential contribution as an alternative analytical approach and also differences in its substantive coverage. The impact of IR systems on MNC location and relocation decisions, key issues for employees, trade unions and managers of MNCs, is then discussed as an example of the former. The potential for, and evidence of, international collective bargaining as a potential counter-balance to the power the MNC in the global environment is then considered as an example of a differing area of substantive coverage of IIR. Finally, some avenues for potential study are outlined.

Contemporary debates and new directions in HRM in MNCs: introduction

This paper focuses on the debates about globalisation – its nature and impact – and the significance of multinational companies in the global economy. Introduces the special issue of the International Journal of Manpower, based on selected papers presented at the 7th Conference on International Human Resource Management hosted by the University of Limerick in June 2003, which focused on the issue of HRM and its transferability in such corporations. The MNC is viewed as the vehicle by which dominant HR policies and practices are transported across national boundaries and the papers shed light on the likelihood of, and limits, to this transfer. In order to contextualise the debate, the paper begins by outlining the extent to which human resource management remains a key issue for multinational corporations and, in advance of introducing the five papers in this special issue, summarily charts some of the key research trends emerging in the literature on international human resource management (IHRM).

New directions in the roles and responsibilities of the HRM function

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to introduce the special issue, which brings together five papers exploring the changing anatomy of HRM at organisational level. Design/methodology/approach – This overarching paper briefly contextualises the theme and introduces the five selected empirical papers. Findings – The findings in this paper vary according to the core theme of each of the five contributions. The first paper highlights whether the mix of distributed HR activities between the HR department and internal/external agents may be understood to be less a product of contextual influences and more a matter of corporate choice. The second paper establishes that role dissonance is a very real issue for middle managers with HR responsibilities. The third paper unearths the complexities and challenges involved in changing existing HRM procedures and practices in a post-merger scenario. The fourth paper provides an understanding of the management of human resource supply chains and outlines five, empirically derived, generic models of HR outsourcing. The final paper finds that human resource IT diffusion and take-up is primarily fuelled by interpersonal communication and network interactions among potential adopters. Originality/value – Combined, the papers offer insights on the changing anatomy of the HRM function against the backdrop of a dynamic contemporary organisational landscape and showcase cross-national research on the theme.