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Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources (2012) 50, 391–398

doi:10.1111/j.1744-7941.2012.00035.x

Guest editors’ note: Talent management in the Asia Pacific Talent management has entered the management mainstream in recent years, emerging on the back of strong practitioner discourse. Publications stemming from management consultancies and professional organizations have strongly endorsed the importance of talent management (e.g. Boston Consulting Group 2007, 2010; CIPD 2007). The academic community has been somewhat slower to engage in the area but recent contributions have advanced the debate significantly (Cappelli 2008; Collings and Mellahi 2009; Groysberg 2010; Lewis and Heckman 2006; Scullion and Collings 2011). The initial focus of talent management centred on worsening demographics and the talent shortages that were emerging in the United States (Chambers et al. 1998) but more recently there has been a growing consideration of the global context (Beechler and Woodward 2009; Collings, Scullion and Vaiman 2011; McDonnell et al. 2010; McDonnell, Hickey and Gunnigle 2011; Schuler, Jackson and Tarique 2011; Scullion, Collings and Caligiuri 2010; Skuza, Scullion and McDonnell 2012). Papers on talent management in the Asia Pacific have also started to emerge (see Cooke 2011; Preece, Iles and Chuai 2011) but overall there is considerable need for further research and development in the field of talent management, particularly in the global context (McDonnell, Stanton and Burgess 2011). Boudreau (2005) observed that globalization, changing demographics, increasing merger and acquisition activity, labour shortages, simultaneous expansion and downsizing by organizations are among the main factors that have driven the increasing priority of talent management. The view that talent is a key contributor to competitive advantage (e.g. Pfeffer 1998), while not a new idea, seems to have also gained renewed impetus in recent times. However, the extent to which this is realized in practice versus organizational rhetoric remains open to question. The following quote is illustrative of this stream of thinking. Talent management is not just about systems and processes but what you do with these and how you implement them so that you achieve a talent mindset across the organization. A talent mindset means that line managers will recognize their responsibility to manage talent effectively, just as they are expected to manage other resources. Directors or chief executives will review talent as critically as they review the organization’s finances. Individuals will actively seek to develop or update their own talents. (Caplan 2011, 7)

There has been much commentary around the conceptual and definitional ambiguity surrounding the topic of talent management (Collings and Mellahi 2009; Lewis and Heckman 2006; McDonnell 2011). This has also been reflected in the practitioner field with many organizations operating without a specific view or definition of what talent management means in the context of their corporate objectives (CIPD 2006; Pricewaterhouse© 2012 Australian Human Resources Institute

Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources 50

Coopers 2011). By failing to identify what talent management means to them, firms are in danger of being unable to recognize who their key talents are. One implication of this failure is the potential for turnover of key talents as they seek opportunities elsewhere. Given the ongoing concerns around recruiting top talent in a tight labour market, this is a significant challenge for organizations. For example, two-thirds of global chief executive officers (CEOs) responding to a recent PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) global CEO survey (2011) reported that not having the right mix of skills is their biggest talent concern. Thus, it appears that, in spite of the global financial crisis and a rise in unemployment levels across much of the developed world, talent management continues to be a critical issue. For example, just over a quarter of respondents in research undertaken by the CIPD (2009) found organizations changed their approach to talent management as a result of economic conditions. The evidence suggests that organizations continue to struggle with talent challenges (see also Mellahi and Collings 2010). There have been a number of different perspectives (see Lewis and Heckman 2006 for a review) put forward to conceptualize and contextualize talent management, including: talent management does not represent anything different to HRM; all individuals have talent and should be treated accordingly; organizations should fill all roles with A players; and organizations should develop talent pools of high potential individuals. More recently, Collings and Mellahi (2009) have sought to improve the conceptual boundaries of the field by proposing a model of strategic talent management. They call for organizations to firstly identify their pivotal positions (i.e. those that contribute disproportionately to corporate objectives), then identify and develop a pool of high potential and performing incumbents to meet these needs and finally, develop appropriate HR architectures to facilitate retention and continued high performance. This special issue considers a number of different elements of talent management from a variety of contexts with a focus on the Asia Pacific region. Prior to introducing the individual contributions of this special issue we briefly consider the Asia Pacific context and the talent management issues and challenges particular to that region. The Asia Pacific context The universal phenomenon of globalization is supported by the growth paths of the Asia Pacific region over the last few decades. Indeed, the Asia Pacific region and in particular the emerging Chinese and Indian economies have and continue to be the focus of much of the global economic growth in a time when the financial crisis has negatively affected much of the developed world. The expanding markets of the Asia Pacific region offer significant opportunities for businesses while simultaneously raising particular human resource issues. The region continued to demonstrate growth in gross domestic product (GDP) in 2009, increased exports and imports by US$200 billion between 2008 and 2010, and also had the lowest unemployment rate in the world in 2009 (Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) 2011). A recent report of global CEOs by PricewaterhouseCoopers (2011) found that 90 per cent indicated that their key operations in Asia would continue to 392

© 2012 Australian Human Resources Institute

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grow. Further, these countries are increasingly producing organizations that are effectively competing with established multinational enterprises (MNEs) from the mature countries such as the United States, United Kingdom and Japan. Many of these emerging global organizations, especially from China, Russia and Brazil are state owned (4 of the largest 10 global corporations are state owned), which in itself raises governance issues. However, it also has implications for talent development – organizations may have global aspirations but different goals and time horizons for individually listed corporations (The Economist 2012). Sixty-one per cent of the world’s population (4.2 billion people) reside in the Asia Pacific region (ESCAP 2011). The region encompasses the only two countries in the world, China and India, that have populations in excess of one billion. Of some concern to the region is the ageing population, owing to significant changes in birth and death rates – an issue also apparent in many other countries. Specifically, the number of people in the region aged 65 or older is projected to rise threefold by 2050, from 420 million to 1.3 billion (ESCAP 2011). These changing demographics will continue to create talent challenges. Further, from a labour quality perspective, there are more illiterate adults in the region than anywhere else in the world (ESCAP 2011). However, in discussing the Asia Pacific region, it is important to be cognisant of the variation in geography, economies, cultures, populations and management approaches which make understanding talent management challenging. In respect to India, there have been great concerns expressed over the availability and retention of knowledge workers (Bhatnagar 2007), a challenge which persists after the global financial crisis (Doh, Tymon and Stumpf 2011). Research by the McKinsey Group found that HR practitioners in MNEs would consider hiring only between 10 and 25 per cent of the nation’s 14 million university graduates (Farrell et al. 2005). Such issues are especially worrying considering the continued growth rates of the economy and the increasing levels of foreign investment. Doh, Tymon and Stumpf (2011) highlight that organizations in India have been quite enthusiastic in adopting talent management practices, particularly those employed by successful foreign MNEs, consequently they view them as ‘best practice’. Similarly, Budhwar and Bhatnagar (2009) concluded that most foreign organizations and increasing numbers of domestic firms in India are judiciously implementing formal talent management systems. However, as pointed out by Doh, Tymon and Stumpf (2011), there is little research on the impact of such practices on performance, something which the last paper of this special issue considers. Asian economies, including India and China, are also faced with the loss of their home-grown talent in the form of emigration as qualified and experienced professionals and executives move to foreign-owned MNEs, or to offshore appointments, rather than remain employed in domestic firms and in the domestic economy (Cooke 2011). While lower labour costs in China and India offer cost advantages, the higher salaries and packages offered by European and North American firms become an inducement to attracting local talent into these firms. The issue of migration and emigration is a challenge that Asia Pacific economies cannot escape, considering the high levels that occur within the region. Data from ESCAP (2011) suggests that one-quarter of the world’s entire migrant population live in the Asian © 2012 Australian Human Resources Institute

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and Pacific countries. In spite of considerable investment in training and education in China, there remains a shortage of managerial talent which represents a major challenge to further economic development (e.g. Zhu et al. 2005). A McKinsey group report in 2005 projected that those Chinese organizations pursuing global growth would require 75 000 leaders with the abilities to work in global contexts over the next two decades. The report suggested the 2005 stock was in the region of 3000 to 5000 (Farrell and Grant 2005). The demand for managerial talent will increase as trade, investment and production expand in the region. Linked to this expansion is the emergence of new corporations, many of which have global aspirations. Hong Kong has emerged as the largest global market for new company share listings, with the largest new global listings over the past few years being Chinese state organizations (The Economist 2012). Similarly, the mining boom in Australia has seen over 100 new companies listed every year over 2009–12. Research on 11 500 Asia Pacific employers by Manpower in 2009 suggested that it was organizations in Taiwan, Japan, Australia and New Zealand that were having the greatest difficulty in attracting the right talent for jobs (Manpower Australia 2009). In Australia, professional and skilled trade jobs were proving the greatest challenge for organizations rather than managerial talent per se. The issue of attracting engineers to the rail industry in Australia is considered in the fourth paper of this special issue by Wallace, Lings and Cameron illustrating some of the key industry-specific dynamics in the debate. The challenges of multiculturalism are also of note and something which organizations need to effectively manage (Briscoe, Schuler and Claus 2009). For instance, in Australia, 44 per cent of the population were either born outside of the country or have at least one overseas-born parent (Wilson 2010). This, coupled with increasing female participation in the labour force, makes effective diversity management an increasingly critical issue that should be intrinsically incorporated into organizations’ talent management systems (Strachan, French and Burgess 2010). A special issue that considers talent management in the Asia Pacific is timely considering the significance that the region now holds in the global economy. It is also a region that acts as an interesting counter-balance to research from more mature regions. For example, MNEs from the Asia Pacific region tend to be quite recent to internationalization (Chang, Wilkinson and Mellahi 2007) with Indian and Chinese firms especially noted for being among the new wave of emerging market MNEs. We now turn to the five papers that encompass this special issue. The contributions of the special issue This special issue contains empirical papers covering a variety of aspects related to talent management. The papers are derived from data collected in the Indian, Vietnamese and Australian contexts. The first paper by Jones, Whitaker, Seet and Parkin explores the nature of talent management as viewed by senior HR practitioners and executives across a range of organizations in Australia. They find considerable heterogeneity in how talent management is 394



approached in organizations ranging from it being HRM in differently named guises to more strategic perspectives whereby pivotal positions are identified and differentiated HR architectures are found. They conclude that most participants indicated an individualistic approach to talent management rather than a systems-level, strategic perspective is adopted. The second contribution by Wiblen, Dery and Grant is also based on research from Australia but the focus here is an in-depth case study of a professional services organization and how technology is being utilized for talent identification. The authors apply a social constructivist lens to comprehend the ways technology shapes our understanding of talent management. In spite of the more objective evaluations that technology systems provided this organization, subjective assessments of individuals with ‘talent’ were more commonly used by management. They conclude that the full potential offered by talentrelated technology and the talent identification program in the organization has not been realized. The third paper of the special issue is by Chadee and Raman who explored the contribution of talent management practices on the performance of offshore IT service providers in India. The paper highlights that a shortage of IT professionals has been identified as a major threat against the continued growth of the offshore IT service sector. Their empirical study of 68 organizations found that both external knowledge and talent management are positively related to organizational performance. Further, the paper highlights the mediating effect of talent management on the impact of external knowledge on firm performance. They suggest that the findings indicate offshore IT service providers need to consider talent management as a mechanism through which their knowledge resources can be better exploited to improve performance. The penultimate paper by Kim, Froese and Cox explores the issue of applicant attraction to foreign organizations in Vietnam, and specifically the attraction of Vietnamese students to working in Japanese MNEs. The results demonstrate that individual values had direct and indirect effects on their attraction to working in Japanese owned organizations. Specifically, individuals who were work-centric, financially oriented and had a collectivist view were more attracted to these foreign owned firms. Individual values also moderated the relationship between organizational characteristics and applicant attraction. The findings are important in that they provide some support for the attraction–selection–attrition framework and person–organization fit theory in the Asian context. Finally, we have the paper by Wallace, Lings and Cameron which is focused on the issue of attracting talent to industries and organizations with low appeal or profile. The paper utilizes brand equity and signalling theory in assessing graduating engineers’ perceptions towards a career in an industry that struggles with its brand – rail. The results indicate a mismatch between what attracts graduating engineers to particular industries or organizations and what they perceive the rail industry offers as a career. They suggest that recruitment and marketing initiatives need to provide unambiguous, reliable and credible information to potential employees. This may lead to a stronger employer brand position. © 2012 Australian Human Resources Institute

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Acknowledgements We would like to thank Timothy Bartram and Malcolm Rimmer for their assistance in bringing this special issue together. We would also like to thank each of the reviewers who gave their time in providing feedback to the papers submitted for consideration. Anthony McDonnell (University of South Australia, Australia) David G Collings (Dublin City University Business School, Ireland) John Burgess (Curtin University of Technology, Australia) Guest editors References Beechler S and C Woodward (2009) The global war for talent. Journal of International Management 15, 273–285. Bhatnagar J (2007) Talent management strategy of employee engagement in Indian ITES employees: Key to retention. Employee Relations 29(6), 640–663. Boston Consulting Group (2007) The future of HR: Key challenges through 2015. Boston Consulting Group, Dusseldorf. Boston Consulting Group (2010) Creating people advantage 2011: How companies adapt their HR practices for volatile times. Boston Consulting Group, Boston, MA. Boudreau JW (2005) Talentship and the new paradigm for human resource management: From professional practices to strategic talent decision sciences. Human Resource Planning 28(2), 17–26. Briscoe D, R Schuler and E Claus (2009) International human resource management, 3rd edn. Routledge, London. Budhwar P and J Bhatnagar (2009) The changing face of people management in India. Routledge, London. Caplan J (2011) The value of talent. Promoting talent management across the organization. Kogan Page, London. Cappelli P (2008) Talent on demand: Managing talent in an age of uncertainty. Harvard Business School Press, Boston, MA. Chambers EG, M Foulon, H Handfield-Jones and E Michaels (1998) The war for talent. McKinsey Quarterly 3, 44–57. Chang YY, A Wilkinson and K Mellahi (2007) HRM strategies and MNCs from emerging economies in the UK. European Business Review 19(5), 404–419. CIPD (2006) Reflections on talent management. CIPD, London. CIPD (2007) Research insight: Talent management. CIPD, London. CIPD (2009) The war on talent? Talent management under threat in uncertain times. CIPD, London. Collings DG and K Mellahi (2009) Strategic talent management: A review and research agenda. Human Resource Management Review 19(4), 304–313. 396



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Scullion H, DG Collings and P Caligiuri (2010) Global talent management. Journal of World Business 45(2), 105–108. Skuza A, H Scullion and A McDonnell (2012) Talent management in the infancy stage of development in post communist countries: The case of Poland. International Journal of Human Resource Management. doi: 10.1080/09585192.2012.694111 Strachan G, E French and J Burgess (2010) Managing diversity in Australia. McGraw-Hill, Sydney, NSW. Wilson P (2010) The future of work and the changing workplace: Challenges and issues for Australian HR practitioners. White Paper: people @work/2020. Australian Human Resource Institute, Melbourne, Vic. Zhu C, B Cooper, H De Cieri and P Dowling (2005) A problematic transition to a strategic role: Human resource management in industrial enterprises in China. International Journal of Human Resource Management 16(4), 513–531.

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