Global Perspective on Talent Management

Today, no country can claim that its business can be local or national due to the effects of globalization. The world of business has become international. In this new millennium, few economies can afford to ignore global business opportunities. The globalizing wind has broadened the mind sets of executives, extended the geographical reach of firms, and nudged international business into some new trajectories. One such new trajectory is the concern with national culture. This has a tremendous impact on the subject matter of talent management for any country, economy or nation. Africa is no exception. Though there is a considerable body of research suggesting a link between language, communication and how gender – and leadership – gets ‘done' in organisations, there is very little research on global perspective for managing talent especially in the African context. This chapter intends to fill that gap and in particular deals with global perspective of talent management in the African context.

Highly Productive 21st Century Workforce

Some leadership behaviors are more frequently applied by women than men in the management of teams. These attributes have been proven successful in enhancing corporate performance and will be a key factor in meeting tomorrow's business challenges. Talent is unevenly distributed in diversified work environments and promoting women and gender leadership variety is of strategic importance in companies. Results from a recent study show an unprecedented amount of CEO turnover in 2015 and a growing tendency to look for new leadership outside the company. Nearly a quarter of the world companies replaced their CEOs during the same year and it is the highest turnover for the past two decades. Those new top executives were increasingly hired from elsewhere even during planned leadership changes. The data indicates that fewer women are the incoming list of top executives indicating that some of the old habits still linger in 21st century organizations. The organization development of effective capability deduces new viewpoints to advance the best talent for all time.

Mastering Talent Management

Although companies around the world have made talent management a top priority, most human resource professionals and senior executives believe their organizations have not fully resolved the talent management puzzle. The chapter investigates if there are any indicators that suggest that talent management is a puzzle. Applying mainly review of academic and popular literature, the assessment is done under five headings including talent and talent management definitions; the need for talent management; the root of talent management; talent management strategies and processes, and talent management-diversity integration. It is revealed that albeit being differentiator between organizations that succeed and those that do not, talent management is saddled with uncertainties, lack of clarity, and misunderstanding, which are hurdles that need to be cleared to pave way for more effective talent programs. To overcome these, organizations should avoid one common blueprint to all talent situations, but develop approaches that suit individual talent requirements.

A Centricity on Survey Design Techniques

The primary objective of this paper is to demonstrate how questionnaire techniques can be applied to assess and evaluate data to develop the metrics necessary to progress efficiency and effectiveness in successful organization. An opinion poll is a tool associated with survey research and can be designed and employed to collect information pertaining to attitudes, practices, and skills prevailing in a given or random population. The information can be examined and construed to progress the efficacies necessary in triumphant enterprises. Surveys are used to measure behavior, knowledge, attitudes and opinions useful in the design and implementation of high performance organization. Opinion polls can be interpreted in crafting practices necessary in differentiating the business and making of goods and services demanded by customers.

Amplifying the Significance of Systems Theory

In system theory organizations are viewed as closed or open systems. An open system interacts with the environment for its sustainability. The closed system does not interact with its setting consequently its behavior depends largely on internal dynamics of its parts. The centricity of an open organizational structure is one created and empowered to learn and change very fast to successfully achieve desired goals. However open systems need to embrace change as follows: transform inputs of energy and information to produce the products demanded by the customers, transact with key stakeholders to access resources, regulate system behavior to achieve stable performance, and adapt to continuously changing high velocity competition to increase productivity.

Fundamentals of Talent Management

This chapter explains the overview of talent management (TM); the characteristics of global talent management (GTM); TM and human capital; TM and career development; the emerging trends of TM in the modern workforce; and the significance of TM in the digital age. TM is a continuous process that involves sourcing, hiring, developing, retaining, and promoting talented employees while simultaneously meeting organization's requirements. TM involves individual and organizational development in response to a rapidly changing business environment. The best TM plans should be effectively aligned with organization's strategic goals and business needs. Business leaders who implement the best TM processes are more prepared than their competitors to compete in the global economy and quickly capitalize on new opportunities. Executives and HR managers need to support the TM-related development of their talented employees to make necessary progress in the modern workforce.

Engaging the Diversified Workforce Sustaining Productivity

The argument presented in this article is that highly productive workplaces can be inclusive, and purposefully built to produce the goods and services demanded by customers. A socio-technical system approach can be inclusive in terms of talent and technology and is subject to deconstruction. The characterization of diversity can be made in at least two ways: based on the attributes possessed by the employees; and racial composition of the workforce. A co-constructed competency model can be applied to understand the nature and description of prevailing cultural conditions to effectively engage people to be more productive. An inclusive circle of deeply involved people can design and support the necessary change and generate the synergy, techniques, and the heuristics, to increase productivity.

Why the Zebra's Stripes are Important

This article progresses the argument that the core competences of the company must be created, diffused, and distributed and protected, to effectively exploit the market. Companies compete on what they know best and in management theory organizations draw a repertoire of multiple resources and skills to effectively differentiate the business in vying for market leadership. The core competence or capability of the firm can be described as talent and a special ability that allows the enterprise to produce the goods demanded by customers exceptionally well. The core competences can also be referred to as explicit practices constituting measurable or observable knowledge, skills, abilities, and behaviors critical in meeting the needs of clients. The capability should be crafted in a manner that makes imitation by similar entities impossible.

Shielding the Corporation's Raison d'être

This chapter discusses a framework to temper the impact of knowledge leakage and how losing the source of what gives life to the business can lead to its demise. Explicit practices should be sustained by limiting access and understood in averting loss. Explicit knowledge is expressed and categorized in work performance. In outsourced assignments, technical knowhow can be transferred accessed learnt and communicated throughout the entire organization. Viewed as technical know-how the firm can utilize it to make goods and services that are demanded by customers. Data generated from outsourcing should be analyzed to uncover data-driven pitfalls employing analytics to describe the nature of current talent, accurately forecasting staffing and material usage to leverage outsourcing of sustainable practices. Technical know-how permeates the firm in making the difference. It is pervasive in the value creation process and as such it is only prudent to prevent leakage to maintain productivity.

Patents and Logocentric Differences

The discussion progressed in this chapter is about the protection of organizational knowledge in competitive environments. Knowledge can leak in the value creation networks embedded in knowledge-intensive firms, and a collaborative approach can be utilized to minimize risk and increase sustainability. For knowledge to be preserved from unintentional outflow, its confidential nature and description must be understood at all levels. Loss of knowledge can occur at any point; whether it is through the process of consultation or when employees do their work. Forfeiture of information can be unintended or a planned effort. To prevent such unintended leakage, it is important to develop a shared mindset among employees to minimize the risk. The socio-technical system is a philosophical framework that enables companies to simultaneously consider both ethical and technical systems in order to best match the technology and the people involved. In this paper we show how the socio-technical system can be applied to prevent knowledge leakage.