Talent Management In Italy

Talent management practices in Italy – implications for human resource development Marco Guercia* and Luca Solarib aDepartment of Management, Economics and Industrial Engineering, Milan Polytechnic,

Via Lambruschini, 4/b, Milan 20144, Italy; bDepartment of Labour and Welfare Studies,

Universita degli Studi di Milano, Via Conservatorio, Milan, 20122, Italy

(Received 10 September 2010; final version received 29 November 2011)

Many companies have implemented talent management systems in recent years, and the issue has lately been subject to the attention of scientific literature, from different theoretical perspectives. In particular, HRD literature advanced few critical perspectives on talent management, discussing its real impact on HRD

practices.

The last part, Section 6, identifies the implications for HRD scholars and practitioners outlining possible paths for future research.

2. Literature on talent management

2.1. Definitions of talent management

The literature sets out many descriptions of talent management, which can be summed up under the following three groups of definitions (Lewis and Heckman 2006).

‘Ensuring that the right person is in the right job at the right time’ (Jackson and

Schuler 1990, 235). The definitions included in this set see talent management as a collection of practices, activities and functions typical to the company’s HR

Department. Therefore, to manage talent, the HR Department needs to do what it does already, but more quickly (for example, via the Internet or through outsourcing). The authors, often practitioners, who adopt this definition divide it into some of the typical sub-disciplines of human resource management such as recruitment and selection (Olsen 2000), leadership development (Chon, Khurana, and Reeves 2005), performance management (Garger 1999).

‘Systematic effort by an organisation to ensure critical personnel continuity in key positions and encourage individual advancement’ (Rothwell 1994, 6). In this

This type of approach focuses more on the company’s interior rather than its exterior.

‘Managing the supply, demand and flow of talent through the human capital engine’

(Pascal 2004, ix). This third group of definitions focuses on talents without considering the organization’s limits or specific positions. Within this