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Defining Talent, Talent Management and Talent Mindset
Talent can be defined as « a recurring pattern of thought, feeling or behaviour that can be productively applied” (Buckingham & Coffman, 1999). These authors continue to explain that the emphasise lies on the fact that these thoughts, feelings and behaviours must occur frequently, therefore stating that an individual’s talents are the behaviours that he or she will often show. As people we view our environment through “mental filters” that allows us to take notice of some stimuli and to let others pass us by. That which we choose to see and remember instinctively is our talents (Buckingham & Coffman, 1999). The unresolved issues around the definition and academic boundaries of the concept talent management have been one of the main challenges that have been experienced in an attempt to establish its academic merit. These issues complicate the attempt to define the concept, to explain the scope of practice and to understand the overall goals of talent management (Scullion, Collings & Caliguiri, 2010). Having said this, many researchers have attempted to define talent management in such a manner that the importance of the construct could be enhanced and be better understood. Some of these definitions will be used and explored to convey the meaning that managing talent effectively and efficiently might have for organisations.
McArdle and Ramerman (2008) define talent management as a construct that revolves around the concept of a leadership mindset. The latter source further reveals that it is a culture that contributes to and unleashes passion, commitment, and performance of people, which in turn contribute to the organisation achieving its mission, vision, and business goals. In other words, talent management is about an individual’s behaviour, thoughts and actions that constantly form the culture of the organisation (Morton, 2004). Lewis and Heckman (2006) identify three streams of thinking, which explain and categorise the meaning of talent management. The first stream is mostly limited to Human Resource (HR) practices, which include recruitment, leadership development, succession planning and all the elements relating to these topics. The second stream builds more on previous research conducted on manpower planning and succession planning literature and therefore focuses on the development of what they call “talent pools” and it emphasises expressing employee’s needs and managing the growth and development of employees by means of moving them through positions. Lastly, the third stream focuses on managing talented employees. As per Smart (1999), this means that organisations should fill themselves with “A performers” or “top grading” employees and constantly move poor performers out of the organisation (Scullion et al., 2010).
Collings and Mellahi (2010) do not fully agree with the latter statement as it goes against their definition of identifying the key positions rather than the talented employees. They are of the opinion that you cannot fill an organisation with only “A performers” as it will result in devoting too much time and money in roles that are not that key to the success of the organisation. These authors added a fourth stream by identifying the key positions in the organisation that have the ability to drastically influence the competitive advantage of the organisation. Considering these four streams Collings and Mellahi (2010), explain that the “talent management strategy of an organisation is viewed as the activities and processes that include the identification of key positions that in their own way contribute to the organisation’s sustainable competitive advantage, and develop a talent pool that consists of high performing employees that fill these key roles, while also developing the HR architecture in such a manner that it facilitates filling these positions with competent employees and ensure their continued commitment to the organisation”. Note however that the positions referred to in this definition do not only apply to top positions or management positions, but they include positions across all the functions within the organisation (Collings & Mellahi, 2010).
Talent Mindset and Biographical Variables
Given the significance of talent mindset to both the individual and the organisation it is important to investigate the influence of biographical variables on the construct. One recent South African research focused on the relationships between talent management practices, perceived organisational and supervisor support and Generation Y’s intention to quit the organisations (Du Plessis, Barkhuizen & Stanz, 2010). Results of this research showed that the manner in which talent management practices are applied the organisations is a statistically significant predictor of generation Y’s intention to quit the organisation. In this research, respondents perceived that talent management practices are only fairly applied in the organisation, which may explain why they are most likely to quit the organisation.
Another South African research focused on the relationship between Talent Management and Professional Employee’s Intention to Quit in an Electricity Supply Company (Barkhuizen & Veldsman, 2012). Findings in this research showed that significant differences exist between Middle Management, Supervisory Staff and Operation Staff in terms of their perceptions of the Talent Mindset of the organisation. Middle Management perceived that the leaders of the company do not apply Talent Management Practices as effectively compared to the rest of the groups. Middle management was also more likely to quit the organisation because of a low Talent Mindset compared to the other two groups.
Another study among academics in South African higher education institutions showed that academics also differed significantly in their perceptions as to how the Talent Mindset of Leaders creates a demanding and enabling working environment (Nagel, 2012). The results showed that the academics differed significantly in terms of their perceptions of Talent Demands and Talent Enablers. The results showed that Coloured and White ethnic groups experience a higher level of talent demands than the Black ethnic groups. The effect was large. The results showed that Associate Professors experienced a higher level of talent demands than Junior Lecturers. The effect for Talent Demands was medium. Others Results showed that academics experience more Talent Demands if they are working for the Higher Educational Institute (HEI) between eleven and twenty years than less than ten years. The effect was small. Finally the results showed that academics between the ages of thirty and forty experience higher levels of Talent Demands than those aged between twenty and twenty-nine. The effect for Talent demands was medium.
Organisational Energies
Energy is a finite resource, thus the manner in which individuals live their lives will have a huge impact on how energised they feel (Gardiner, 2008). The energies model developed by Tosey and Llewelyn (2002) was explored in an attempt to understand the characteristics of organisational energy by means of seven energies namely inspiration, integration, meaning, community, control, activity and existence. The above-mentioned model of Tosey and Llewelyn (2002) is based on the ancient chakra frame-work. These authors’ aim was to approach the human experience holistically, therefore they used the chakra system, which explains the multiple dimensions and facets of human experience like the “rational and the irrational, material and spiritual, emotional and intuitive as well as the aesthetic and pragmatic” (Tosey & Llewelyn, 2002, p. 54).
Tosey and Llewelyn (2002) explain chakras as the Sanskrit word for “wheel”. They continue by explaining that the system in its simplest form consists of seven wheel-like centres of energy that are located in the body. Each one of these centres is alleged to have a physical existence, and energy flows around it that can be sensed. The chakras have conceptual significance that is associated with different qualities of experience and consciousness. Although the chakras represent levels of vibration where the “higher charkas” represents higher frequencies, it is not a rigidly hierarchical system. Therefore, the root charka is not less meaningful or less spiritually significant than the crown charka. The same is true for activities within the organisation i.e. a task may be mundane but it may still have spiritual aspects. This framework makes it possible to understand people and organisations as flows of energy (Tosey & Llewelyn, 2002, p. 55).
This energies model of Tosey and Llewelyn (2002) assists people to “create a language through which participants can identify and discuss their self-experience, and can (so far as they choose to) inquire into their organisation’s energies”. Hence the purpose of the model is to equip individuals with the ability to identify and compare their experience, their perception and their reality. These energies of organisations are described in a more heuristic manner due to the fact that the model is designed to guide the exploration of an individuals’ experience of organisations and not as a representation of what organisations are really like. It can be said to be “a synchronous arrangement showing the multiple ‘currents’ of energy of which human experience and organisational life consists of” (Tosey & Llewelyn, 2002). According to Tosey’s model, the extent to which energy is manifested or blocked is the important matter at hand. The reason being that if energy is blocked in any of the seven dimensions, it provides useful information on how to manage the “health” of the organisation (Tosey & Llewelyn, 2002).
Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY
1.1 INTRODUCTION
1.2 BACKGROUND AND SETTING OF THE PROBLEM
1.3 MOTIVATION FOR THE STUDY
1.4 DEFINITIONS
1.5 VALUE ADD OF THE STUDY
1.6 PURPOSE STATEMENT
1.7 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
1.8 HYPOTHESES
1.9 RESEARCH METHOD
1.10 DATA ANALYSES
1.11 CHAPTER LAYOUT
1.12 CONCLUSION
Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 INTRODUCTION
2.2 TALENT MINDSET
2.3 ORGANISATIONAL ENERGY
2.4 WORK WELLNESS
2.5 RELATING TALENT MINDSET, ORGANISATIONAL ENERGY AND WORK WELLNESS
2.6 CONCLUSION
Chapter 3: RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS
3.1 INTRODUCTION
3.2 RESEARCH DESIGN
3.3 RESEARCH HYPOTHESES
3.4 DATA COLLECTION
3.5 RESEARCH PROCEDURE
3.6 DATA ANALYSES
3.7 ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS
3.8 CONCLUSION
Chapter 4: RESULTS
4.1 INTRODUCTION
4.2 PHASE ONE – RESULTS OF THE MEASUREMENTS
4.3 PHASE TWO – TESTING OF HYPOTHESES
4.4 CONCLUSION
Chapter 5: DISCUSSION OF RESULTS
5.1 INTRODUCTION
5.2 KEY EMPIRICAL FINDINGS
5.3 PHASE TWO: RESULTS RELATING TO THE HYPOTHESES
5.4 CONCLUSION
Chapter 6: CONCLUSION, LIMITATIONS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS
6.1 INTRODUCTION
6.2 BRIEF OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY
6.3 CONTENT OF THE STUDY
6.4 CONCLUSIONS FROM LITERATURE
6.5 CONCLUSIONS FROM STATISTICAL ANALYSIS
6.6 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY
6.7 CONTRIBUTION OF THE STUDY
6.8 RECOMMENDATIONS
6.9 FINAL COMMENTS
