Reflective Journal on Talent Management and Leadership

Reflective Journal 1
People, Culture and Contemporary Leadership
Name
Course
Tutor
University
Date

Reflective Journal 2
Theories
Talent management constitutes an organizations dedication to recruit, hire and retain the
best talent available in the market. I have come to understand that talent management plays a
critical role in managing the most significant asset of a company which is the employees. Also, I
understand that businesses need to manage their employees to develop a team that will be
efficient in its operations. My studies suggest that various theories inform the philosophical
perspective of the need to manage employees. Among the theories that I leant include Egalitarian
and elitist theories. Egalitarian theory suggests that talent management involves managing skills
and capabilities of the employees. On the other hand, I learnt that elitist theory states that high
performing employees tend to differentiate themselves from other employees as a result of their
added value.
In contrast, elitist view of talent management assumes that talent in management context
refers to skills that are not matched by anyone but are in demand by a particular organization. In
my view, Egalitarian approach is the best theory that explains talent because an organization will
seek to recruit people who are specialized in a number of areas that they need. Therefore, it is
challenging to compare individuals with talents and those whose talents are significant to an
organization. One example that resonated with me from these two theories is that leaders should
play a key role in inspiring others to become better at their responsibilities (Grint, Jones and Holt
2016).
My strength as a leader include offering motivation and reducing pressure by challenging
others to dream more, learn more, do more and become better people. My other strengths are
commitment and passionate. From the module I have learnt that am always committed to
perform my duties and responsibilities. Furthermore, the passion that I have as leader contributes

Reflective Journal 3
in boosting my morale and encouraged me to perform better at my duties. My weakness as a
leader is micromanaging employees. This is because I tend to monitor each and every activity for
purposes of ensuring that every task is linked to the overall objective. I intend to improve this
area by providing clear and direct instructions as well as allowing employees to offer suggestions
feedback and opinions
Online Resources
The module provided me with online resources such as videos, podcasts and textbook
that focus on people, culture and contemporary leadership. These resources played a crucial role
in increasing my knowledge about topics such as talent managements and processes involved in
recruitment. The sources were crucial in offering multidimensional perspective of the topics that
I have learnt in this module. For instance, I learnt different talent management practices such as
relying on recruitment dimension, talent identification dimension, practice is talent development,
career management and retention planning. These practices added to my knowledge the steps
that are taken to recruit and manage employees.
I was able to understand that employers or human resource managers in a firm tend to
recruit employees based on the needs of the job and qualification of the individual employee.
Furthermore, age is one of the most considered factors during recruitment (Smedley, 2017). As a
result, recruitment process is structured to target applicants that are considered to be qualified in
the areas that are being sought by an organization. Once these employees are recruited, they are
monitored to determine their strength and weakness. Consequently, training and development
activities take place and an organization retains most qualified and let’s go of other who failed to
meet a particular criteria that is determined by an organization.