Strategic Human Resource Management: Talent Management Challenges

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This report delves into strategic human resource management and talent management, highlighting their importance in the current global landscape. It explores various talent management theories, including Theory X, Theory Y, and Theory Z, and emphasizes the significance of effective talent management practices. The report analyzes the strategic challenges organizations face, such as manpower shortages and the need to attract and retain employees. It also examines how changes in HR practices, including relocation management, forecasting, staffing, training, and performance evaluation, impact talent management strategies. The report concludes with recommendations for improving talent management and adapting to evolving business needs.
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Table of Contents
Introduction
......................................................................................................................................1
Importance of Strategic Talent Management at the Current Global Trend
.....................................2
Talent Management Theories
..........................................................................................................3
Effective Talent Management Practices
..........................................................................................4
Strategic Challenge Faced with a Talent Management Approach
...................................................6
Changes in HR practices and Policies
.............................................................................................7
Strategic Challenges due to relocation and location management
...............................................7
Forecasting and planning
.............................................................................................................7
Staffing
.........................................................................................................................................8
Training and developing
.............................................................................................................. 8
Evaluation of employees performance
.........................................................................................8
Recommendations
............................................................................................................................9
Conclusion
..................................................................................................................................... 10
References
......................................................................................................................................11
Appendices
.................................................................................................................................... 13
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Introduction
Strategic human resource management is considered an important process of connecting the

functions of human resources with the strategic objectives of the organizations. This will be done to

improve the significant performance of the organization as well as human resources. In strategic

human resource management, strategic talent management plays an important role in making it

successful in its objectives. In this paper, we will discuss the strategic talent management under the

presence of different theoretical approaches. This will enhance our significant knowledge about

aspects of talent management and its practices necessary to follow for gaining competitive

advantage in the potential market. Strategic talent management is an important and significant

processes that contain the systematic identification of key positions which differentially contribute

to the sustainable competitive advantage of organizations, development of human resource

architecture to facilitate filling available positions, and development of a talent pool with high

skilled individual incumbents to fill these roles (
Al Ariss, 2014). Strategic talent management
approach ensures that an organization has the quality and quantity of people in place to fulfill their

future and current priorities. On the other hand, it is a combination of different key components

such as a clear understanding of the future and current strategies of the organization, and the gap

between the talent in place and the talent required to drive business success. Thus, it can be said that

talent management not only helpful in gaining a competitive advantage but also helpful in

managing the capabilities of organizations.

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Importance of Strategic Talent Management at the Current Global
Trend

Generally, it can be said that strategic talent management has more importance than innovation and

leadership in organizations. A large number of analysts agree with the statement that leadership

and innovation have great importance than talent or capability management. But, it is not true. In

today global scenario talent management is vitally important than innovation and leadership. They

all prove meaningless if talent management is not present in a particular business organization. It

proves a real jewel in the crown of different organizations. In today scenario effective quality and

culture are most important (
Alamri, 2015). In the absence of talent management, both cannot
provide to customers and employees. Apart of this, talent management has following importance in

today global trend:

Gaining competitive advantages: Talent management practices mainly focuses on the talent
of organizations; the most experienced and skilled individuals. Developing, attracting, and

retaining talent is fundamental to every organization for remaining ahead of its

competition. Thus, it can be said that talent management is required for gaining competitive

advantages over competitors.

Attracting talented employees: One of the main reason behind the popularity of talent
management is the demographical trend happening in the developed countries. Talent

management in those countries is required to removing the shortage of talents in the near

future. As per the report of World Economic Forum, by 2030 the United States required 25

million more skilled workers to sustain economic growth, and Europe will require more

than 24 million employees for maintaining economic growth (
Farndale, 2014).
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In reality, with talent management concept the organizations also need to adopt adequate
acquisition strategy. If the organizations are able to attract good talent with talent management

strategy, they can also be able to retain them for a long time by acquisition strategy. Thus, it can be

said that strategic human resource management and talent management is an important function for

a startup as well as large business organizations.

Talent Management Theories

Talent management can utilize in a large number of ways. Most often, it is utilized as a mean to

highlight the strategic importance of an HR specialty (development, recruitment, and selection)

without addition to the practice and theory of that specialty (
Meyers, 2014). Generally, talent
management is a combination of a large number of undermined models or theories. These theories

are known as talent management myths. These myths and theories are following:

Theory X

Theory X is a combination of such employees who hate work and if they can slack off, they will.

This arises from conservative and Western philosophy which views humans as fundamentally

flawed (
Cooke, 2014).
Theory Y

This theory of talent management descends from Maslow, and now it is represented by the

strengths movement. This theory combines such person who loves work, self-actualize and likes to

work on building their strengths and grasp future growth opportunity (
Shields, 2015). This theory
of talent management sticks its head in the sand and concludes that alignment can be done in every

possible situation. On the other hand, theory y is considered as a reflection of thinking-wishful

Boomer ideology than reality.

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Theory Z
Theory Z of talent management attempted to capture the differentiation elements of Japanese

lifetime employment theories with respect to theory Y and X (
Farndale, 2014). It mainly operates
on the idea that organizations can utilize their vast resources to satisfy individual non-work

aspirations to stem attrition.

The Only-the-Best Theory

This theory of talent management depicts that bad person working with a good process and good

people working with a bad process every time. According to this theory, the management of the

organization tries to hire those people who are smarter than themselves (
Skuza, 2013). By
following this philosophy, management of organizations can easily enhance their reputation and

gain competitive advantage.

Thus, it can be said that talent management theories have been driven by the assumption that

enhancing the talents of employees is a source of sustained competitive advantage. On the other

hand, it can be said that talent management becoming extensively linked to practices of human

resource management in the hope of enhancing business performance.

Effective Talent Management Practices

After analyzing the case "Creating a talent management strategy to drive engagement in China," it

can be said that the pharmaceutical organization in the case faces a lot of challenges in formulating

effective talent strategy (
Festing, 2015). These challenges by the organization can only remove by
following effective talent management practices. On the basis of the current situation of the

organization in case the following talent management practices are suggested to it:

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Align Organizational and individual objectives and effectively track their performance
Pharmaceutical organization in the case faced a big challenge in the alignment of talent

management practices with the future business goals. This challenge can successfully resolve by

following alignment strategy of talent management. Aligning goals is an effective talent

management practice (
Tatoglu, 2016). With the help of this TM practice, the organization can
effectively communicate changes that influence organizational objectives to everyone who has a

linked individual objective. On the other hand, this TM practice also helps the management in

tracking the employee's performance on a regular basis. This maintains high flexibility and

visibility in organization environment and progress (
Dries, 2015).
Invest in Performance-based development

The pharmaceutical organization is also suffering from the challenge of developing talent and

establish diverse and strong bench strength. This problem can successfully resolve by investing

some part of its profit in performance-based development (
Stahl, 2016). By offering a successful
training program, it can successfully improve the knowledge and skills of its employees. By doing

this, it can significantly develop talent which can utilize to gain future opportunities in an effective

manner.

Have a succession Plan

This talent management practice depicts that the organization should have a succession plan in

advance (
Festing, 2014). By creating a succession plan, it can prepare itself for unforeseen
activities. Moreover, by adopting this practice, the organization can significantly gain commitment

and leadership engagement.

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Thus, it can be said that above-mentioned talent management practices not only resolve its business
problem but also helpful in developing high skill employees.

Strategic Challenge Faced with a Talent Management Approach

Generally, the management of an organization suffering from huge challenges while managing

talent. This will not only influence the strategic capabilities of the organization but also affects their

competitive advantage. Some of them are following:

Shortages of manpower: It is a most important challenge which is facing an organization
nowadays. Shortages of manpower limited the talent management strategies of

organization (
Festing, 2014). On the other hand, in such type of condition an organization
not able to find skilled employees in large quantity. Due to this, the whole working of the

organization influences badly and affect the productivity of organization in a negative

manner.

Attracting and retaining employees to fulfill the requirements of inorganic and organic
growth: Another significant challenge arise during talent management is attracting and

retaining employees. A lot of organization facing talent crunch due to many problems. So,

nowadays it becomes the most important challenge to attract and retain employees (
Dries,
2013)
.
Creating and developing a robust leadership pipeline: It is considered the biggest threat to
the growing organizations. The management of the organization needs to select the best

leader from the among available talent pool. This creates a big issue for the management.

Every single mistake brings huge losses to management.

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Thus, it can be said that strategic challenges present in the talent management approach bring huge
problem in front of the talent management team. So, it requires huge attention and care from

management. Apart of this, they need to tackle on an immediate basis so that their effect can

balance as soon as possible.

Changes in HR practices and Policies

It is necessary for an organization to change its HR policies and practices with the change in

competitive environment. This helps the organizations in managing their competitiveness in their

potential markets. Changes in HR policies and practices requires the talent management team to

build new strategies to deal with the changing environment. The organization faces lots of

strategic challenges due to change in HR practices and policies. Some of them can understand by

reading below-mentioned headings.

Strategic Challenges due to relocation and location management

Talent management strategy highly influenced by the location management. If an organization is

managing international talent, it requires strategies according to international employees. On the

other hand, if an organization is managing domestic talent it needs to build strategies according

to it (
Armstrong, 2014). Due to location management, an organization faces lots of strategic
challenges like language, cultural barriers, training and development, and others.

Forecasting and planning

In today's talent-based economy, planning and the forecasting are arguably most important

tangible asset of most organizations. They faced a lot of strategic challenges in planning or

forecasting workforce. The first and foremost challenge is time framing. Planning of human

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resources should be done as per required time manner. If it is not focused it will bring the
problem of manpower shortage.

Staffing

Staffing policy changes influence the talent management strategy in a greater manner. Change in

staffing policy brings alteration in overall talent management strategies. In that situation, it

becomes difficult for the management to manage flow and consistency in their practices

(
Collings, 2014). On the other hand, it becomes difficult to hire the staff in required manner with
necessary skills.

Training and developing

Changes in training and development processes bring huge challenges in front of talent

management staff. Due to the changes policies, it becomes very difficult for the staff member to

track the performance of current employees. On the other hand, training and development

efficiency cannot measure in the absence of progress evaluation. This becomes very challenging

to prepare a staff with the required skills and knowledge.

Evaluation of employees performance

Every organization has their own evaluation processes to maintain talent and progress of their

staff members such as some organizations facing 360-degree evaluation, and others are ranking

method. Changes in performance appraisal techniques bring confusion and record cannot manage

in an effective manner (
Cooke, 2014).
Thus, it can be said that changes in HR practices and policies bring huge challenges in front of

the talent management team. Thus, they should take appropriate initiatives so that challenges can

resolve immediate basis and brings visibility in employee performance.

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Recommendations
Effective talent management is required by every organization. So, it can be recommended to

them that they should develop their talent management strategies. Developing talent management

strategies help them in identifying talent challenges and solutions based on their business goals.

Furthermore, they should also enforce integration strategies which further helpful in linking

talent processes with the organizational goals. This will help them in gaining a competitive

advantage on their competitors. On the other hand, organizations need to follow the roadmap of

building integration. By doing this, they can successfully integrate their business strategies with

the organizational goals.

Conclusion

After studying all this, it can be concluded that talent management has never been more of an

immediate concern than it is right now. For fulfilling the current positions the organizations need

not run fast and become void, they should be careful and implement strategies and initiatives after

implementing well-crafted solutions. Furthermore, they should follow all the theories and models

of talent management as suggested above. On the other hand, careful planning proves helpful in

developing sound talent management strategies that are highly connected to the business strategies

of the organization (
Jackson, 2014). Moreover, strategic challenges can handle through effective
planning and follow all necessary talent management principles and theories. Thus, it can be said

that talent management approach has an own identity in the strategic human resource management.

This identity makes it different from other strategic human management approaches.

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References
Al Ariss, A., Cascio, W.F. and Paauwe, J., 2014. Talent management: Current theories and future

research directions.
Journal of World Business, 49(2), pp.173-179.
Alamri, M.A., 2015.
Talent management challenges in Saudi Arabia (Doctoral dissertation,
Brunel University London).

Armstrong, M. and Taylor, S., 2014.
Armstrong's handbook of human resource management
practice
. Kogan Page Publishers.
Collings, D. G., 2014. Integrating global mobility and global talent management: Exploring the

challenges and strategic opportunities.
Journal of World Business, 49(2), 253-261.
Cooke, F.L., Saini, D.S. and Wang, J., 2014. Talent management in China and India: A comparison

of management perceptions and human resource practices.
Journal of World Business, 49(2),
pp.225-235.

Dries, N., 2013. The psychology of talent management: A review and research agenda.
Human
Resource Management Review
, 23(4), pp.272-285.
Dries, N. (2015). Designing talent management practices that work: Secrecy or transparency?.

Farndale, E., Pai, A., Sparrow, P. and Scullion, H., 2014. Balancing individual and organizational

goals in global talent management: A mutual-benefits perspective.
Journal of World
Business
, 49(2), pp.204-214.
Festing, M., & Schäfer, L., 2014. Generational challenges to talent management: A framework for

talent retention based on the psychological-contract perspective.
Journal of World Business, 49(2),
262-271.

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Festing, M., Kornau, A. and Schäfer, L., 2015. Think talent–think male? A comparative case study
analysis of gender inclusion in talent management practices in the German media industry.
The
International Journal of Human Resource Management
, 26(6), pp.707-732.
Festing, M., & Schäfer, L. (2014). Generational challenges to talent management: A framework for

talent retention based on the psychological-contract perspective.
Journal of World Business, 49(2),
262-271.

Tatoglu, E., Glaister, A. J., & Demirbag, M. (2016). Talent management motives and practices in

an emerging market: A comparison between MNEs and local firms.
Journal of World Business, 51
(2), 278-293.

Jackson, S.E., Schuler, R.S. and Jiang, K., 2014. An aspirational framework for strategic human

resource management.
The Academy of Management Annals, 8(1), pp.1-56.
Meyers, M. C., & van Woerkom, M., 2014. The influence of underlying philosophies on talent

management: Theory, implications for practice, and research agenda.
Journal of World Business,
49
(2), 192-203.
Stahl, G.K., Bjorkman, I., Farndale, E., Morris, S.S., Paawe, J., Stiles, P., Trevor, J. and Wright, P.,

2016. Six principles of effectice global talent management.
IEEE Engineering Management
Review
, 44(Third Quarter), pp.112-119.
Skuza, A., Scullion, H. and McDonnell, A., 2013. An analysis of the talent management challenges

in a post-communist country: The case of Poland.
The International Journal of Human Resource
Management
, 24(3), pp.453-470.
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Shields, J., Brown, M., Kaine, S., Dolle-Samuel, C., North-Samardzic, A., McLean, P., Johns, R.,
Robinson, J., O'Leary, P. and Plimmer, G., 2015.
Managing Employee Performance & Reward:
Concepts, Practices, Strategies
. Cambridge University Press.
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Appendices
Roadmap to Integration

Source: (
Meyers, 2014)
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