Defining Talent Management

Vaiman & Collings (2013), raise several key factors around the complexity of Talent Management (TM), fore-mostly the challenges in comparing literature due to the differences in definition.  They identify that definitions can be influenced by the belief whether the TM system is exclusive or inclusive, does it have an emphasis on performance or identifying and building potential, is there a balance between developing talent internally vs buying it from an external labour market?  There is a further challenge with TM and that is the management of the internal consistency of the TM system and the relationship between corporate culture, business strategy and their influence on the system.

This raises several key points for consideration in my research.  In a system as large as Education, with so many tiers of leadership (central, regional, cluster, school, cohort, departments), how do we manage the consistency of Talent Management to ensure that reflects the values of the profession and principles of egalitarianism?  Myung, Loeb & Horng (2011) and Turner (1960) discuss Talent Management as being a form of sponsored mobility (informal recruiting or “tapping”), and can have a significant impact upon teacher interest in pursuing leadership.  Teachers who have been engaged in sponsored mobility (tapping for leadership positions) are 5 times more likely to continue to pursue school leadership positions.  However, the egalitarianism value of the profession as identified by Rhodes et al. (2008) aligns more with the principals of contest mobility.  Contest mobility, also more greatly aligns with the practices and beliefs of a strongly unionised workforce.  Therefore, following the question from Myung, Loeb and Horng (2012), how do we create a balance in Education between a model of sponsored mobility and contest mobility?  This will be part of my challenge in my research and future proposals for education and in how I will be defining Talent Management.  Talent Management from my context will be a balanced approach to inclusive and targeted practices that identify potential leaders from within the existing field of education. For the purpose of my initial work, I will be focusing on how you talent manage teachers to help build a larger workforce that are willing and able to take on the leadership role of principal in school.