What is the meaning of ‘talent’ in the world of work?

TL;DR: In this article, the authors provide an in-depth review of the talent concept within the specific context of the world of work, and propose a framework for its conceptualization, and identify dynamics existing within and between them, as well as implications for talent management theory and practice.

About: This article is published in Human Resource Management Review.The article was published on 2013-12-01 and is currently open access. It has received 405 citations till now. The article focuses on the topics: Talent management.

Summary

THE MEANING OF 'TALENT' IN THE WORLD OF WORK 3

• An online search was conducted across several databases-i.e., Science Direct, Business Source Complete, Emerald, and Google Scholar.
• 'Talent' and 'talent management' were the keywords used.
• The authors supplemented their review of the academic literature with a search into the linguistic origins of the term talent, using 10 different reference books published by Oxford.

The Etymological History of the Term 'Talent'

• One need only take a look at the headlines of newspapers, journals, and magazines, to see how often the term is actually used-a Google search reveals nearly six hundred million hits.
• According to Howatson (2011) , before proper coinage, Greek units of money carried the same name as units of weight since the weights of precious metals (mostly silver, occasionally gold) were used to represent a sum of money (Knowles, 2005; Howatson, 2011) .
• The parable talks about a wealthy man who, before going on a long journey, gives his three servants one, two, and five talents respectivelybased on his perception of each of their abilities-for safekeeping.
• By the nineteenth century, according to Tansley (2011) , talent "was viewed as embodied in the talented-hence, a person of talent and ability" (p. 267).
• Another use of the term talent can be situated in the 1940s among British servicemen, who quite commonly used the term 'local talent' to refer to the good-looking people of a certain area (Cresswell, 2009) .

Approaches to Talent in the World of Work

• When looking up 'talent' in Contemporary English Dictionaries the authors see that in this day and age 'object' and 'subject' approaches to the conceptualization of talent coincide (see Table 2 ), which possibly contributes to the confusion about what talent is, exactly.
• -Insert Table 2 about here -Taking into account the linguistic evolution of the term talent, described earlier, the authors infer that the original meaning of the term talent refers to personal characteristics (talent as object).
• Rather than corresponding to 'normal' ability, talent is considered a special ability that makes the people who possess, develop, and use it rise out above the rest of their age peers in the specific area THE MEANING OF 'TALENT' IN THE WORLD OF WORK 7 of their talent (Gagné, 2000) .
• Likewise, managers frequently refer to their workforce as the talent of the organization, so as to stress the fact that people are the organization's most important assets (Ashton & Morton, 2005) .
• The subject approach to talent-which is historically 'newer' than the object approach (see also Tansley, 2011 )currently coexists with the object approach, also in the HRM literature.

Object Approach-Talent as Characteristics of People

• Many peer-reviewed publications conceptualize talent as exceptional characteristics demonstrated by individual employees.
• (For a more in-depth discussion of the nature-nurture debate in talent management, see Meyers, van Woerkom, & Dries, this issue) .
• Most HRM scholars and practitioners seem to believe that THE MEANING OF 'TALENT' IN THE WORLD OF WORK 8 talent is innate, at least to some extent.
• Conceptualizing talent as a natural ability has important repercussions for how talent can (and cannot) be managed.
• According to Gagné (2000) , the difference between competence and talent is that competence corresponds to levels of mastery ranging from minimally acceptable to well above averagei.e., below the threshold for 'talented' or 'expert' behavior, which he operationalizes as belonging to the top 10 percent of performers in a certain domain.

Talent as commitment.

• In the former meaning, talent is conceptualized as something intrinsic to a person that directs focus, attention, and dedication (Pruis, 2011) .
• In addition, the talent construct is seen as being related to will, perseverance, motivation, interest, and passion (e.g., Weiss & MacKay, 2009) .
• In their review, there were no publications stating that talent equals commitment.
• The fit approach is essential to the discussion of talent management as it emphasizes the importance of context, implying that the meaning of talent is relative rather than absolute, and subjective rather than objective (González-Cruz, Martínez-Fuentes, & Pardo-del-Val, 2009; Jericó, 2001) .
• The organizational context is critical since people can be expected to perform above or below their normal level depending on their immediate environment, the leadership they receive, and the team they work with (Iles, 2008) .

Subject Approach-Talent as People

• Within the subject approach, the authors find both inclusive (i.e., talent understood as all employees of an organization), and exclusive approaches to talent (i.e., talent understood as an elite subset of an organization's population) (Iles, Preece et al.,, 2010) .
• An inclusive approach guarantees an egalitarian distribution of resources across all employees in an organization rather than a focus on a small subset of elite performers, this way avoiding a drop in the morale of loyal employees who are not considered 'superstars' (Groysberg, Nanda, & Nohria, 2004) .
• Some authors operationalize talent as a select group of employees who demonstrate high levels of potential.
• This raises questions as to the validity and utility of identifying only a small number of employees as talented since Pygmalion effects have the potential to be beneficial to all employees-also mediocre performers (Eden, 1992) .

Discussion

• Another conclusion is that the literature on talent management, although diverse in terms of underlying concepts, is rather normative.
• In fact, the assumptions underlying the different approaches to talent discussed in this paper are often 'sold' as objective facts, even though little empirical evidence of their accuracy has been provided by academics and/or HR practitioners to date.
• With the aim of integrating the viewpoints found in the existing literature in a straightforward manner, in Figure 1 the authors offer a framework for conceptualizing talent within the world of work.

Implications for HR practice

• Within the object approach, talent is conceptualized as exceptional abilities and attitudes demonstrated by an individual.
• Pragmatists might even argue that the nature-nurture debate comes down to semantics (Tansley, 2011) .
• More specifically, a talent management strategy grounded in workforce segmentation (Becker et al., 2009) , based on the identification of select pools of high performers and/or high potentials, seems to be the most common approach (Dries & Pepermans, 2008) .
• Strength-based approach to talent management, as well (e.g., Buckingham & Vosburgh, 2001) , it remains unclear to what extent an inclusive approach to talent makes sense, considering that the term 'talent', inherently-considering its etymology-implies above-average ability or performance (e.g. Gagné, 2000) .
• Which approach is 'better' is likely to be determined by an organization's mission and culture (Garrow & Hirsch, 2008) -see the examples of the luxury hotel industry versus the call center industry, discussed earlier in this paper.

Avenues for Further Research

• What the field needs first and foremost is more theory (Collings & Mellahi, 2009; Lewis & Heckman, 2006) , both in the way of in-depth literature reviews (that might borrow from a range of disciplines-see also Dries, this issue) and conceptual development.
• Differences might be examined at the organizational, departmental, sectorial, country, and/or cultural level, using multilevel designs.
• Interviews with HR managers and CEOs complemented by organizational-level surveys across a range of contexts might help unveil the organizational rationale underlying specific talent management decisions (Dries & Pepermans, 2008; Iles, Chuai et al., 2010) .

Figures

Table 2. Definitions of Talent in Contemporary English Dictionaries

Figure 1. Framework for the conceptualization of talent within the world of work.

Table 3. Terms Commonly Associated with ‘Talent-as-Object’ in the Literature

Table 1. Different Definitions of Talent in the World of Work

Frequently asked questions

Q1. What are the contributions in "Running head: the meaning of ‘talent’ in the world of work" ?

The aim of this paper is to contribute to the literature on talent management by offering an indepth review of the talent concept within the specific context of the world of work, and proposing a framework for its conceptualization. Finally, the authors discuss different avenues for further research aimed at developing the talent—and consequently, the talent management—construct further. 

Q2. What have the authors stated for future works in "Running head: the meaning of ‘talent’ in the world of work" ?

One of the aims of the current paper was to offer specific suggestions for what the authors see as the most pressing topics for future research on the topic of talent in the context of the workplace. Below, the authors discuss different avenues for future research aimed at developing the talent—and consequently, the talent management—construct further. A second avenue for further research is to examine differences in the conceptualization and implementation of talent management. 

Q3. What is the meaning of talent management in the world of work?

Proper talent management is considered a critical determinant of organizational success (Beechler & Woodward, 2009; Iles, Chuai, & Preece, 2010), and imperative for the livelihood and sustainability of organizations (Lawler, 2008). 

Q4. What is the second meaning of talent in contemporary English Dictionaries?

The second meaning of talent found in contemporary English Dictionaries refers to aperson or persons of talent (talent as subject)—i.e., people possessing special skills or abilities. 

Q5. What is the way to address this gap?

Multilevel research designs, possibly combined with pre-and post-intervention measurement (e.g., in organizations implementing a change in their approach to talent) are well suited to tackle this particular research gap, as are comparative case studies. 

Q6. According to Tansley (2011), what is the meaning of talent in the New English Bible?

According to Tansley (2011), since the New English Bible translates the Greek word talent into the word capital, this parable can be seen as one of the causes for HRM scholars using the term human capital as synonymous to talent. 

Q7. What is the common approach to talent management?

More specifically, a talent management strategy grounded in workforce segmentation (Becker et al., 2009), based on the identification of select pools of high performers and/or high potentials, seems to be the most common approach (Dries & Pepermans, 2008).