How do MNCs establish their talent pools? Influences on individuals’ likelihood of being labeled as talent

Addressing the research question of what influences the likelihood of an individual being labeled as ‘talent’ in MNCs, this paper seeks to understand the decision processes involved in the identification of MNC-internal talent. We develop a framework suggesting that the decision to include an employ...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of world business : JWB 2010-04, Vol.45 (2), p.134-142
Main Authors: Mäkelä, Kristiina, Björkman, Ingmar, Ehrnrooth, Mats
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Human resources
International market
Multinational corporations
Multinational enterprises
Personnel management
Recruitment
Skilled workers
Talent identification
Talent management
Talent management Multinational corporations Talent pools Talent identification
Talent pools
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Summary:Addressing the research question of what influences the likelihood of an individual being labeled as ‘talent’ in MNCs, this paper seeks to understand the decision processes involved in the identification of MNC-internal talent. We develop a framework suggesting that the decision to include an employee in a corporate talent pool is a two-stage decision process in which mostly experience-based (on-line) performance appraisal evaluations are used as an input in largely cognition-based (off-line) managerial decision making. Consequently, talent pool inclusion is determined not only by performance appraisal evaluations, but also a number of factors that influence the decision making in the second stage of the talent identification process. Using empirical insights from an in-depth case study as illustrations, we identify three such factors—cultural and institutional distance between the locations of a potential member of the talent pool and the decision makers; homophily between the individual and the decision makers; and the network position of the person in question.
ISSN:1090-9516
DOI:10.1016/j.jwb.2009.09.020