Talent Management: Analyzing Workplace Theories and Practices through Erin Brockovich Case Study

Running head: TALENT MANAGEMENT
Talent Management
Student’s name:
University:
Author’s note:

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Executive summary
The following paper answers a range of questions related to the field of talent management. The
concept of talent management is a rising issue in the field of management, through which
organizations could anticipate their requirement of employee skills, knowledge and expertise. To
understand the concept better, the issue is discussed in the context of a famous Hollywood movie
“Erin Brockovich”. The movie is an excellent example of workplace theories and practices. This
is based on true events, where a woman named Erin enters the professional arena with almost no
experience or knowledge relevant to the job. However, through hard work, resilience and
dedication she manages to prove her as an indispensable asset to the organization. The following
paper deals with different aspects of talent management and workplace practices following the
case study of Erin Brockovich.

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Table of Contents
Introduction....................................................................................................................................5
Emotional Intelligence..................................................................................................................5
Analyzing Erin’s Growth and Development of Emotional Intelligence..............................6
Employee Management...............................................................................................................7
Managing Erin............................................................................................................................7
Erin’s adverse influence on other employees.......................................................................8
Affording a Maverick.................................................................................................................8
Not having a Maverick in the organization............................................................................8
Managing the Maverick............................................................................................................9
Strategies for Managing a Maverick......................................................................................9
Personality......................................................................................................................................9
Erin’s Personality Characteristics.........................................................................................10
Big Five Personality Traits.....................................................................................................10
Strengths and Weaknesses..................................................................................................11
Erin’s Character Development..............................................................................................11
Motivation.....................................................................................................................................12
Erin’s levels of motivation......................................................................................................12
Changes in Erin’s motivational level....................................................................................12
Motivation theories..................................................................................................................13

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Career development...................................................................................................................13
Job Description and Job Specification.....................................................................................14
Job Description for Legal Assistant......................................................................................14
Job Specification.....................................................................................................................15
Knowledge, Skills, Abilities and other Personal Requirements for the Job...................15
Behavioural Interview.................................................................................................................17
Interview Template......................................................................................................................17
Importance of behavioral type interview..............................................................................17
Performance Agreement............................................................................................................18
Performance Assessment Template........................................................................................19
Five dimensions of the Job Characteristics Model of Hackman and Oldham...................20
Locus of control...........................................................................................................................21
Work-Life Balance.......................................................................................................................22
Work Engagement Theory.........................................................................................................23
Erin’s level of engagement as per the work engagement theory....................................23
Organizational Culture................................................................................................................24
Comparing the organizational culture of the two law firms...............................................24
Employee relationship and development phases..................................................................25
References...................................................................................................................................26

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Introduction
Talent management is the process of anticipating the requirements of the human
resource of an organization and strategizing accordingly to meet those needs. The
notion of talent management emerged from the McKinsey’s research (Cappelli and
Keller 2017), followed by then popularity of the scholarly literature The War for Talent
(Ulrich 2015). The practice of talent management involves various aspects of
psychology, sociology and management. The following paper tries to explore different
aspects of talent management through the exploration of the movie Erin Brockovich.
This movie is a classic example of workplace practices, theories and management.
Therefore, by identifying the key components of talent management in the plot, the
paper will try to provide a comprehensive account of various questions pertaining to the
field.
Emotional Intelligence
Emotional intelligence is described as an individual’s capability of recognizing his
or her own emotion and that of the others, distinguishing different emotions and identify
them appropriately, using various emotions to guide behavior and thoughts, as well as
adjusting those emotions to adapt to difficult environments and achieve personal and
professional goals (Serrat 2017).
The theory of emotional intelligence was developed and popularized by Daniel
Goleman. He propounded that non-cognitive skills such as emotional intelligence (EI),
also have a significant role in professional success. As described in his work, Goleman