Philosophies on talent management systems in Australian subsidiaries of foreign MNEs

Abstract

We report a phenomenographic study that reveals philosophies elicited on talent management (TM) systems in a sample of Australian subsidiaries of foreign multinational enterprises. We label these philosophies as The Carrot, The Risk, The Caretaker, The Conversation and The Strength. Each philosophy portends a unique TM system, guided by an overarching tenet alongside operational principles across function, timeframe and stakeholder foci. We speculate that a set of internal and external contingencies, based on country- and firm-level contexts, influence philosophies on TM systems. Reporting these nuances and distinctions across philosophies, we contribute to a possible shift in the TM literature from non-contextualized, generalized TM models to explicit firm and country contextualized representations that convey the unique value and treatment of a firm’s talent, as it is understood by practicing managers.

Keywords:

• Talent management systems
• philosophies
• MNE subsidiaries
• qualitative
• phenomenography

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available upon reasonable request from the corresponding author. The data are not publicly available due to restrictions as they contain information that could compromise the privacy of research participants.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 It is suggested that there are several different components of a conception of a phenomenon, consisting of referential aspects (the what) and structural aspects (the how). Referential aspects refer to the global meaning that is attributed to a phenomenon: Of what is the conception formed? In this case, the firm’s understanding of TM. Structural aspects refer to the way in which the phenomenon and its component parts are delimited and related to each other in the form of external and internal horizon of the phenomenon. In this case, how TM is conceived in the firm (Barnard et al., 1999).