Boosting organizational learning through team-based talent management: what is the evidence from large Spanish firms?

Abstract

Talent management (TM) can crucially help optimize organizational learning (OL) processes. The aim of this article is to study whether certain TM practices related to teamwork design and dynamics stimulate and develop learning (i.e. knowledge creation) processes within the organization and across the different ontological levels (individual, group and organizational–institutional). A model linking team-based TM and OL is tested in a sample of large Spanish companies. Our empirical results emphasize the distinction between individual–group and institutional levels of learning as the two pillars of OL. The results also highlight the role of team autonomy and creativity as crucial factors for successful OL through team-based TM, especially for interlinking individual and group learning levels.

Keywords:

• knowledge management
• organizational learning
• talent management
• teamwork
• teamwork design
• teamwork dynamics

Acknowledgement

The authors would like to thank the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness for their financial support for this research (grant ECO2011-29863).

Notes

1. The level of significance used was 5% (p-value = .05). Therefore, any p-value of < .05 indicates a statistically significant relationship between the variables. Conversely, a p-value >.05 indicates the absence of such a relationship.