The Strategies of Talent Management for Companies in Taiwan

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(1)The Strategies of Talent Management for Companies in Taiwan. by Wei-Che Kuo. A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate Faculty in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION Major: International Human Resource Development. Advisor: Shir-Tau Tsai, Ph. D. National Taiwan Normal University Taipei, Taiwan February, 2013. 0.

(2) ACKNOWLEDGEMENT It is my turn to write something to show my gratitude for all the people I’ve met throughout the past amazing two and a half years. Firstly, I would like to thank my advisor Dr. Tsai, who not only instructed me in academic works with patience but also always tried to guide and encourage me in my daily life. I think he is the best role model for me to learn and follow in my future career path. I also deeply appreciate all the faculty members in IHRD and the members of my thesis committee. I especially want to thank Dr. Chang for her additional advice in this study which always guided me to the right path whenever I got lost. Special thanks to Dr. Wu, who gave me several important suggestions which made this work more complete. Heartfelt thanks to Dr. Lai and Dr. Lin who provided challenging work opportunities and guidance which have become important experiences in my academic life. Lastly, many thanks to Dr. Yeh and Dr. Tony, whose efforts in class equipped me with important knowledge and analysis skills. I am also grateful to all the participants in this research. I want to thank all the interviewees for contributing to this research in their spare time. Besides, I also want to express my special appreciation to Jerry Liao, Charles Lu and his wife for their kind help to contact interviewees. Without their kindness and patience, this study would be impossible to finish. I would like to extend my appreciation to all of my mentors, colleagues, and friends from Standard Chartered Bank. Special thanks to Yen, Chris, Dexter, Leslie, Jessie, Iris, Emma, Carol, Ricky, Ketty, and Misha; all that I have learned from these valuable two months have become important references for my thesis and the foundation for my future career path.. 1.

(3) I thank all of my colleagues from the Performing Arts Library, especially Pei Ling, Miao-Miao, and Hsin-Hsin. Their understanding and support at work helped me to be able to balance my work and study. I thank all my lovely classmates and best friends. I especially want to thank Ashley and Anita. I miss the days when we supported each other and exchanged ideas during the hard times. I really appreciate that we have had the chance of learning together and growing together. Matthew, Vic, and Winni always provided great advice when I needed them. Millie, James, and Alan made me realize that I will never be alone when I meet obstacles. The best cure when I felt frustrated was to hang out with Lena and Grace. Sandra and Lynn are not only the best helpers for us, but also the best friends who we can always share our laughs and tears with. It is the luckiest thing ever to have met them at IHRD. I also want to thank my best friends from NCHU and Magical Six, Nick, Yesdan, Patrick, Jude, Victor, Li-Hsun, Jensen, Stanley, Ariel, Peggy, Vanessa, Ivy, Samuel, and Jess. I truly appreciate how they always stood by my side to support me. Finally, I thank the junior classmates at IHRD and friends at UMSL for accompanying and encouraging me during the final stages of thesis writing. I am especially appreciative of Annie and Carol because they always kindly gave me a hand when I needed it. Most importantly, I would like to thank my parents for devoting their strength and love in my education and in raising me. Their support is always the best motivation for me to overcome difficulties. I thank my older sister for setting such a good example for me to follow. Lastly, I am greatly indebted to my girlfriend, Tse-Chieh, for her full support and effort in everything.. 2.

(4) ABSTRACT Nowadays, the increasing uncertainty in business environment keeps challenging the ability of companies to survive which lead to a more intensive competition between companies. Having enough talented employees is regarded as one of the most important competitive advantages. In this regard, talent management has become more popular than ever in both business and academic areas. Even though it is highly discussed in literature, there is still no shared definition, scope, and overall goals for people to take as references. The researcher of this study conducted in-depth interviews to seven foreign direct investment companies and eight local companies, and categorizing analysis method to explore the talent management definition, strategies, practices, alignment with business strategy, and roles in talent management of targeted companies. The result showed a general framework and components of talent management in both kinds of companies. The outcome of this study can help the business to clarify the ideas of talent management and take them as references to establish, improve, or upgrade their talent management practices.. Keywords: Talent, Talent management, Talent development, Talent attraction. I.

(5) TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract ......................................................................................................................I Table of Contents .......................................................................................................II List of Tables ..............................................................................................................IV List of Figures ............................................................................................................V. CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION.......................................................... 1 Research Background ........................................................................................1 Research Purposes .............................................................................................3 Research Questions ............................................................................................3 Definition of Key Terms ....................................................................................4 Delimitations and Limitations............................................................................5. CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW.............................................. 6 Talent Management ............................................................................................6 Current Status and Problems of Talent Management.........................................7 The Strategies and Implementation of Talent Management ..............................8 Measures of Talent Management .......................................................................17 Summary ............................................................................................................20. CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY ...................................................... 21 Research Framework .........................................................................................21 Research Method ...............................................................................................22 Data Collection ..................................................................................................23 Research Participants .........................................................................................24 Data Analysis .....................................................................................................30 Research Procedure ............................................................................................31. CHAPTER IV FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION ................................ 32 The Definitions of Talent ...................................................................................32 II.

(6) The Definitions and Contents of Talent Management .......................................37 The Alignment between TM and Business Strategy ..........................................41 The Roles for High Level Managers, Line Managers, and HR .........................44 Talent Management Planning and Identification ...............................................49 Talent Attraction.................................................................................................58 Talent Development ...........................................................................................62 Talent Retention .................................................................................................75 Measures of Talent Management .......................................................................78. CHAPTER V CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS ....... 83 Conclusions ........................................................................................................83 Recommendations for FDI Companies ..............................................................89 Recommendations for Local Companies ...........................................................90 Recommendation for Future Studies .................................................................92. REFERENCES ....................................................................................... 93 APPENDIX A: INTERVIEW QUESTIONS ........................................ 98 APPENDIX B: EXAMPLE OF CODING PROCESS ......................... 101. III.

(7) LIST OF TABLES Table 3.1. Background Information of Interviewees .................................................29. Table 4.1 Coding List with the Definition of Talent .................................................32 Table 4.2 Coding List with the Definition and Content of TM.................................37 Table 4.3. Coding List with TM and Business Strategy ............................................42. Table 4.4. Coding List with Roles in TM ..................................................................44. Table 4.5. Coding List with Talent Management Planning and Identification ..........50. Table 4.6. Coding List with Talent Attraction ............................................................58. Table 4.7. Coding List with Talent Development ......................................................63. Table 4.8. Coding List with Talent Retention ............................................................76. Table 4.9 Coding List with Measures of Talent Management ..................................79. IV.

(8) LIST OF FIGURES Figure 3.1. Research Framework ...............................................................................22. Figure 3.2 Research Procedure .................................................................................31 Figure 5.1. Talent Management System ....................................................................84. V.

(9) CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION. Research Background In today’s fast changing business environment, the organizations have to face a more fierce competition with other competitors. The challenges modern organizations face including competing in crowded global markets, producing shareholder returns during economic downturns, changing technology, etc. One of the most effective ways to overcome these challenges is to have top talented employees in hand (McDaniel & D'Egidio, 2009). These talented employees who possess strategic competences, and the ability which can help companies to achieve goals and maintain the competitive advantages are regarded as the top performing companies’ lifeblood. (Avedon & Scholes, 2009; Berger, 2004; Chambers, Foulon, Handfield-Jones, Hankin, & Michaels, 1998; Silzer & Church, 2009). Collins (2001) in his book mentioned that talented employees are the key for companies to continually grow up. Boudreau and Ramstad (2002) mentioned if an organization wants to succeed, to be competitive in capital market, customer and product market, and talent market are essential. Besides, according to the “Top ten risks for business” reported by Ernst & Young in 2010, talent management (TM) was listed in the fourth place following regulation and compliance, access to credit, and slow economic recovery. In 2009 TM was in the seventh place in this report (Ernst & Young, 2010). The continued increase in ranking shows the importance and impact of talents and TM to companies’ operation is getting critical. However, the situation for most companies is not optimistic since the competition for talents is getting fiercer recently. Avedon and Scholes (2009) noted that the demand for talent is much higher than the supply. Kidd (2011) recently 1.

(10) mentioned in Forbes magazine that companies now find they are not only in a fierce competition for customers but also talents. In a talent shortage survey, 54% of Taiwan’s employers report having difficulties filling job openings since there is a shortage of available talents. Compared to the global average of 34%, Taiwan obviously is struggling with the problem of talent shortage (ManpowerGroup, 2011). Because of the unbalance of demand and supply for talents, the top group of talents will have several choices and opportunities in different positions at the same time (Avedon & Scholes, 2009). Since McKinsey brought up the concept of the war for talent (Chambers et al., 1998), the term, TM, has been widely discussed by both practitioners and scholars. There are tons of literatures and articles discussing the issues about TM. However, the outcomes and results are scattered. TM does not have a clear and shared definition, scope, and overall goals for companies to take as references (Garrow & Hirsh, 2008; Lewis & Heckman, 2006). Furthermore, there is a shortage of research that has a deep exploration to the TM strategies and practices of companies in Taiwan with different backgrounds. TM practices and its definition of talent vary from different companies which have different backgrounds. If TM is successfully aligning with business strategies, the definition of TM for organizations might change accompanying the strategy. In this regard, a companies’ innate character and background will affect the TM definition and practices. Nationality of the companies might be one of the most dominant. factors which will result in different TM. strategies since the difference of human resources management practice actually exists in local companies and FDI companies (Yang, 2004). In response to the perspectives above, in this study, the nationality of companies is used to segment and clarify the current status of targeted companies. The researcher used a qualitative method to explore the TM strategies and practices and consolidate varied TM 2.

(11) practices from different companies. The alignment of TM functions and business strategies are discussed during in-depth interviews. The expected outcomes of this study can be the references to help companies to define TM and establish TM strategies, and then resolve the problems of talent shortage.. Research Purpose The purpose of this research is to understand the definition, strategies, differences, and practices of FDI and local companies.. Research Questions The following research questions will be proposed based on research purpose: 1.. What is the definition of talent and TM for the companies?. 2.. How do the companies align the business strategy with TM practices?. 3.. How do the companies integrate the TM relevant functions?. 4.. What is the role HR, line manager, and high level managers play in TM?. 5.. How do FDI and local companies’ implement TM practices (talent planning, talent attraction, talent development, talent retention, and TM’s evaluation)?. 3.

(12) Definition of Key Terms Talent Talent refers to individuals and groups who have the capability and strategic competencies to make a significant difference to the current and future performance of the company and to be the source of competitive advantage (Ashton & Morton, 2005; Avedon & Scholes, 2009; Chambers et al., 1998).. Talent Management TM is an activity and process which combines HR strategy and business planning to help companies. maintaining sustainable competitive advantage by. reinforcing the HR functions to attract, identify, develop, and retain the talented employees (Avedon & Scholes, 2009; Collings & Mellahi, 2009; Mihelic & Plankar, 2010). Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) Multinational firm’s ownership, in part or in whole, of an operation in another country (Parboteeah & Cullen, 2011).. Local Company (Taiwan Based Company) A company is listed in Taiwan stock market or its headquarters is located in Taiwan.. 4.

(13) Delimitations and Limitations This study has several delimitations. This study focused on the TM practices, strategies and the alignment between TM functions and business strategies. The study adopted a qualitative method which includes in-depth interviews to get critical information to address the research question. The selected sample focused on FDI companies and local companies. In order to find the interviewees who have a clear understanding of their TM, this research hypothesized the HR manager is the one who knows their TM strategies and practices the most and invited them to be the interviewees. In this regard, there are several limitations following the delimitations above mentioned. First, the scope of TM was too large, it was difficult to discuss complete materials of TM in one study. Second, since the resources and time were limited, the numbers of subjects might lead to information unsaturated in each category. Third, this study assumed that HR is supposed to be the one who has the deepest understanding of the organizations’ talent strategies, therefore the researcher selected HR managers as the samples. The limitation here was that HR managers may limit their perspectives pertain to HR experiences instead of the companies’ perspectives.. 5.

(14) CHAPTER II. LITERATURE REVIEW. Talent Management Although the term, Talent management, is popular recently, there is no specific definition to describe what is TM. Lewis and Hackman (2006) did a complete review about what is TM. They distinguished TM into three types according to the past literatures. First, TM was defined as a collection of typical human resources practices including recruitment, human resources development, and career management, etc. The only thing which was different was that HR needs to do it faster and across the organizations. Lewis and Hackman described it as giving HR functions a new cloth, but there is no concrete result which can provide companies a better way to manage employees or talents. The second thought defined TM as processes to make sure there is enough flow of employees who fit the jobs. In this definition, TM can ensure the right people are available at right time (Naschberger, 2007). It is somewhat similar to the so-called succession planning. In order to maintain the stable talent flow, companies can take two kinds of actions depends on the strategies, external and internal environment, directly hire from outside or develop by themselves (Cappelli, 2008). The third perspective regarded talent as. unqualified goods which need and. worth to be managed with precedence over others. The organizations created the additional processes and opportunities to those talents which make them more available when the organizations need them (Blass, 2007). In this perspective, employees are divided by performance level and then distinguished the employees with high performance as talents regardless of the positions or departments. Different from the way focusing on talent, Collings and Mellahi (2009) thought that organizations should use a systematic way to identify the key positions which can 6.

(15) contribute more to organizations, and then develop the pool of high potential and high performing employees to fill the roles. Ashton and Morton (2005) also suggested companies should focus the resources on some positions which can make differences for company. At the same time, organizations should put effort into maintaining their continued commitment to the organizations. (Collins & Mellahi, 2009) According to Ashton and Morton’s research (2005), interestingly, there were several organizations represent that if TM indeed align with business strategy, the definition of TM for the company will also follow the priority of business strategy and change. It might be one of the reasons that no one can give TM a specific definition. To sum up, the final goal of TM is to satisfy organizational needs. To achieve it, the organizations must set out plans to anticipate the need for human capital (Cappelli, 2008), build up the talent factory ensuring the talents are available at right time and right place (Ready & Conger, 2007), use a series additional processes and reinforced human resources function to identify both positions and talents and then provide appropriate development plan. Except the above, organizations should keep focusing on talents’ continued commitment to organizations in order to retain the talents and decrease the turnover rate.. Current Status and Problems of TM So far, according to an ASTD study (Green, 2011), most of organizations did not fully and widely use those essential and good practices in TM. So many companies have put lot of effort into TM, but the leaders represented they still could not feel the impacts of doing so (Ashton & Morton, 2005). They met the problems that these companies could not have enough and qualified talents when they need. Ready & Conger (2007) did a survey from 40 companies around the world and it showed that these companies did not have sufficient pipeline of the talents or so-called 7.

(16) hi-potentials to fill important roles. Cappelli (2008) concluded two reasons for the above problems from his observation and history. First, some companies fell into the problems was because they overly relied on outside recruiting. When the supply of talents from external environment was not sufficient, it was difficult to find the right talents in time. The other problem was because organizations were too confident about anticipating the need of talents in the future. It might work when the environment was stable; however, it won’t be accurate anymore when the environment always change and be full of uncertainty. It not only wasted resources but also decreased the confidence and support from high level managers (Cappelli, 2008). It was dangerous for those companies, because one of the prerequisite of successful TM practice was to get the support from high level manager or the participation of them. Without high level managers’ supports, the processes of implementation will be easy to be lack of enough resources and difficult to have close alignment with business strategy leading to the dispersion of focus (Ashton & Morton, 2005; Green, 2011; Ready & Conger, 2007). Therefore, the failure of aligning business strategy lead to ineffective result of TM (Mihelic & Plankar, 2010).. The Strategies and Implementation of Talent Management According to the study from ASTD and other researches, there are several components which we should focus on and optimize in TM programs including performance management, succession planning, recruitment, compensation and rewards, engagement, hi-potential employee development, individual professional development, leadership development, training and learning, etc. (Farley, 2005; Green, 2011; McDonnell, Lamare, Gunnigle, & Lavelle, 2010). Shortly, organizations should put more effort into integrating four sets of talent practices including workforce planning; recruitment and staffing; training and development; retention management 8.

(17) (Avedon & Scholes, 2009; McCauley & Wakefield, 2006; Miller & Desmarais, 2007). Although TM consists of several functions and elements, most of scholars and researchers suggested that organizations should not continue to regard TM functions as discrete elements (Heinen, 2004; Hughes & Rog, 2008; McCauley & Wakefield, 2006). Avedon and Scholes (2009) advocated that if TM can be integrated to a system, it will be the most effective. Ashton & Morton (2006) represented that if the TM is not integrated into a system, the investment will be dissipated with patchy results. According to ASTD’s research (Green, 2011), effectively integrating TM is a major opportunity for organizations to compete with others. In this regard, it is necessary to pay attention on the alignment of TM functions, since integration and linkage play such an important role in TM. The following will discuss the main issues in TM including, workforce and talent planning, talent attraction, talent development, talent retention and the measures of TM.. Workforce Planning for Talent Before everything start, organizations should do a workforce planning to know the extent of talent gap according to organizations’ business strategy. When the organizations need to do TM decision, it would be the best for leaders to hold a wealth of data about talent in their organizations such as compensation, skill profiles, training history, performance management data, etc. (Farley, 2005). Schweyer (2004) mentioned that having a clear understanding of internal workforce is the first step of TM. At this time, managers or HR need some specific tools, processes and holistic approaches to help to support the analysis of talent gap and the following processes. A long-term and structured system in hand is the prerequisite of good TM practice(Ashton & Morton, 2005). During the workforce planning, the core step is to 9.

(18) anticipate the future need of talents. However, Cappelli (2008) thought it only worked when the business environment and labor market were stable. In order to decrease the risk of wrong anticipation, he suggested companies should use the software to do a short-term simulation according to the high level managers’ anticipation instead of doing a long-term anticipation. Besides Cappelli’s suggestion, Ashton and Morton (2005) represented that to face the complicated economic condition, the segregation of talents is needed. The segmentation based on the thought that even though the organizations supposed to be fair to every employee, they may differently treat some talents who can bring the competitive advantage to organizations from others. McCauley and Wakefield (2006) argued that a successful TM practices must focusing their resources on their “most highly-valued talent”. Before doing the segmentation planning, companies should make sure the goal of TM is clear enough, since the goal will guide the whole segmentation process. There are several ways to segment these talents. Zuboff (1988)identified workforces by two questions. Does the employee easy to be replaced? Could the employee add value to organizations? The one who is hard to replace and with high value are regarded as a company’s human capital (Stewart, 1998). In Lepak and Snell (1999) ‘s resource base view, they identified four quadrants of human capital characteristics and there are two quadrants are relevant with TM. The first quadrant was considered as the core contributor of business’s achievement of objectives. McDonnell et al. (2010) argued them are the heart of TM”. The second quadrant was the employees who belong to high-potential group. In this group of employees, they might not have the best performance or work for the most important position so far, but they were viewed as the future leader who was expected to offer high value-added competencies (Lepak & Snell, 1999). 10.

(19) Talent Attraction The competition between companies is getting more intense and the demography shows that the workforce population keeps decreasing (Collins & Stevens, 2002). It leads more and more organizations regard attracting appropriate talent as burning issues (Lyons & Marler, 2011) and increasingly start to put much effort into increasing the attractiveness of organizations to potential talented people in labor market (Highhouse, Zickar, Thorsteinson, Stierwalt, & Slaughter, 1999). Nowadays, talented people are much more difficult to attract and retain (Seldeneck, 2004) since most of talented people have the right to choose the companies or vacancies which meet their expectation (Collins & Stevens, 2002). Employer should try to make the organizations known and attractive to overcome the difficulties of attracting and acquiring talents (Joyce, 2009). In this regard, building their own employer brands, a series different activities which can help the organizations to attract potential talented applicants (Yaqub & Khan, 2011), is one of the most effective ways to deal with the short supply of competent talent(Srivastava & Bhatnagar, 2010). Chapman, Uggerslev, and Carroll (2005) mentioned that employer branding has a direct relationship with TM which combine various HR practices. TM could decide the employer reputation of the organizations in the future. Aligning employer branding with other TM practices could effectively enhance the organizational attractiveness for both external applicants and internal employees (Celani & Singh, 2011; Yaqub & Khan, 2011). Moreover, the risk of over investing resources in the talented employee (Cappelli, 2008) also can be reduced by establishing good employer brand since an attractive organizations can comparatively put less effort into developing its talent pool (Celani & Singh, 2011) Except the concept of building employer brand, understanding and considering what the talented people desire to have, their job preferences (Herbert & Timothy, 11.

(20) 2006), and find the most appropriate person to contact them were essential. According to Rynes and Bretz (2002), the person with good ability and high social achievement will result in different work expectation and preferences from others. Most of those high ability applicants and high achievers will put interesting and challenging work as their priority. Besides, they also seek a job which can provide them high level training (Rynes & Bretz, 2002), better career growth (Seldeneck, 2004; Yaqub & Khan, 2011), competent pay and good performance bonuses(Rynes & Bretz, 2002; Seldeneck, 2004). Before the organizations take action to recruit talents, checking and defining their own business culture and job structure are necessary prerequisites to make sure the fitness of target applicants with companies (Seldeneck, 2004; Srivastava & Bhatnagar, 2010). With an active strategy, companies sometimes need to actively search the talented people out of other companies. Seldeneck (2004) suggested that organizations could find the organizations which culture is similar as the target as the first step, and then use networking to determine if the target employees’ skill, ability, knowledge and personality is appropriate or not. Besides the recruiting strategies, the characteristic of recruiter is critical, too. A good recruiter most of time have strong interpersonal skills, deep understanding about the company, and also enthusiasm of the company and applicants (Herbert & Timothy, 2006). Seldeneck (2004) mentioned that organizations should use the talent who have passion, integrity, vision, etc. to lure and recruit the external talent into their team.. Talent Development After companies get talented employees in hand through a series of recruiting and selecting processes, company needs to start to think about how to develop them to 12.

(21) the talent who is ready to fill the important vacancy at any time. The purpose of talent development is to invest in developing those best people and help them to well take advantage of their strengths and improve their weaknesses (Fulmer, Stumpf, & Bleak, 2009; Garrow & Hirsh, 2008). Fulmer et al. (2009) argued that the first step of successful talent development implementation is to identify what is required for those employees to learn and develop for the future. McCauley & Wakefield (2006) also mentioned organizations should do the need assessment which can help identify the needed competencies an organizations needs and then developing program can be linked to business strategy (Fulmer et al., 2009; Garrow & Hirsh, 2008; Miller & Desmarais, 2007). In order to overcome the uncertainty of the environment, Cappelli (2008) suggested organizations should try to widely develop their employees with more general competencies which could be used in different jobs.. After. organizations link the development activity with its goals, there are several choices and principles organizations can apply. Garrow and Hirsh (2008) provided few types of TM development-focus for organizations. The first type was “step by step” which means developing employees to make them can meet the immediate needs of organizations for all levels. It was a short-term focus type which can make sure there are enough qualified employees in place in important position. The second type was leadership focus. In this long-term development program, companies focused on developing the future leaders with a long-term development program. Leadership development was also regarded as one of the most important and effective way for organizations in TM development. A successful implementation of leadership development program needed the support from stakeholder whose interest matches the goals of the program. Organizations was suggested to use other HR processes to reinforce the leadership program, for example, it can link with succession planning or reward system to let them know it is important and highly valued for their future 13.

(22) (Miller & Desmarais, 2007). The third type is “Functional, level, or workforce group focus”. It was a group which consisted of hard to recruit and retain employees whose skills was a shortage and organizations needed to specially take care of (Garrow & Hirsh, 2008). To achieve the goal of TM development, Fulmer et al. (2009) provided few effective methods to apply for the talents and high potential programs, which were rotation program, action learning, and coaching. Rotation Extensive business experiences from different functions have become one of the essentialities for talent in business world(Avedon & Scholes, 2009). Yost and Plunkett (2009) suggested that on-the-job experiences will benefit the talent development program and one of the great methods was to introduce job rotation programs for the high potential or talented employees. Conger (2009) mentioned that rotating across disciplines, division and geographies which was acknowledged as the most effective way to help talent grow up since they believe they learned leadership and career development best on the job. The purpose of rotation programs is to cultivate the working skill of employees, and provide breadth and depth of experience which can help them to establish the needed knowledge of business. And it also can move the trainees out of their comfort zones to push them working in new and different ways (Krewson, 2004). In the rotation program, the trainees will enter different functions or do different jobs in specific period, and there will be a colleague or supervisor who is responsible for guiding, training, and evaluation. The outcomes of the rotation programs will depend on individuals’ practical manipulate and observation (Werner & DeSimone, 2009). Krewson (2004) provided three elements companies should take care during rotation programs. First, the specific goals of rotation program must be identified in advance and make sure the trainees understand. Second, the expectation 14.

(23) of companies about the trainees’ performance must be clearly transferred. Third, the period of each rotation phase must be set up and fixed. Action learning The second method is “Action learning”. Action learning uses real project or problems as the training content, and asks participants to take action to solve the problems (Swanson & Holton III, 2009). The projects most of time can reflect the real challenges of organizations. At the beginning of action learning, the assignment and background materials will be received by participants, and then they have to conduct field researches. The results will be discussed with consultants or coaches and then present to executive committee. Action learning not only enhances the problem solving skills but also creates a networking opportunity to assemble current and future leaders to cooperate together (Ruddy & Anand, 2009a). There are several things organizations should take care when organizations want to conduct an action learning. In action learning, the project selection need to have direct link to a business imperative, and the expected outcome of the project should be defined clearly. The facilitator should provide opportunities for participants and sponsors to reflect their opinions. Furthermore, in order to motivate and guide them to right direction, the involvement of senior management and professional facilitators will be important (Conger, 2009). The final recommendation from the trainees will be presented to executive committee and might become the official strategies or improvement of organizations. Coaching Coaching or mentoring is essential in a TM developing program, by pairing the row talents with experienced mentor, the row talents will get opportunities to learn valuable experiences from their mentors. Through mutual interaction and learning, the benefits for organizations include enhancing their effectiveness of leadership talent 15.

(24) development, retention of valued talent, increasing productivity, and greater job satisfaction of participants (Larson & Richburg, 2004). McCauley & Wakefield (2006) also mentioned that the coach or mentor can become the communicated bridge between organizations and talents and help them to establish “talent mindset” which motivates them to regard daily experiences into valuable learning opportunities. Davis and Barnett (2009) generalized several characteristics of a good coach including ability to build strong interpersonal connection, professionalism. Good at sound coaching methodology such as delivering feedback constructively is also important for coaches.. Talent Retention It is the nightmare for organizations that well-developed talents intend to leave after organizations invests big amount of resources on them. The ability to retain the best employees become one of the most critical competitive advantages for an organizations. (Hughes & Rog, 2008), since the costs of losing talents and the. benefit of decreasing turnover rate are very significant(Sutherland & Jordaan, 2004). Cappelli (2008) noted that good retention practice also can increase the return on investment (ROI) of internal talent development. Thus, well managing retention is regarded as a basic and essential step for successful TM (Mihelic & Plankar, 2010). According to the survey of Deloitte in 2005 (as cited in Hughes & Rog, 2008), if companies cannot effectively manage their retention and recruitment issues, it is difficult for companies to maintain the organizational productivity, efficiency, innovation, etc. Mitchell, Holtom, Lee, and Graske (2001) induced five reasons of employees’ leaving. The first one was shock to the system which meant employees think about leaving in response to some event no matter it is positive or negative. The second one 16.

(25) was that they just follow their own career plans. Third was that they leave just for something better. Forth is leaving an unsatisfying job. In above mentioned four reasons, dissatisfaction of the present job and get alterative job options are the commonest reason for leaving. On the other hand, Tower Perrin (2005) identified several retention drivers in different countries including opportunities to develop new and useful skills, good salary and reward, organizations’ success, fair compensation, treating people with respect, etc. Brown, Duncan, Harris, and Kelly (2003) identified three steps for organizations to strategically identify the drivers of talent retention. The organizations should firstly identify which talent pool are the most important for organizations to achieve business goal, and then use a reliable methods to measure the talent retention rate within this pool. Finally do a survey in this group and find the main retention drivers. Furthermore, as we mentioned before, employer branding indeed will affect the retention rate; therefore, Brown et al. (2003) also suggest organizations putting effort into implementing comparative employer brand survey to know their comparative ability to retain talents. Keep tracking the gap between expectation and delivered employer brand can prevent the problems in early stage.. Measures of Talent Management After organizations invested tons of capital and resources into attracting, developing and retaining those talented employees, the other issue which is mostly concerned by stakeholders is the result and impact to organizations. How to do an efficient and effective evaluation of TM’s effectiveness with limited resources and time is an important issue for organizations. Organizations should use data to demonstrate these TM strategies and its benefit which can significantly help organizations to acquire and maintain competitive advantages (Scott, Rogelberg, & Mattson, 2009). McCauley and Wakefield (2006) suggested that organizations should 17.

(26) try to integrate the best practices in measurement to find satisfied answers to organizations about the impact of TM. Boudreau and Ramstad (2002) claimed that HRM need a logical, reliable, consistent and flexible decision science for talent resource like what finance and marketing area possess. Farley (2005) suggested that organizations should shift their focus on activity-based metrics such as number of training hours to the metrics which can successfully communicate the TM practices and real business results. Today’s HR measurement can be categorized to four types (Boudreau & Ramstad, 2002). The first type focused on “efficiency”. In this type, organizations paid attention in the ratio of “input- output” such as time to fill vacancies, turnover rates, or ROI with regard to people programs (Boudreau & Ramstad, 2002; Farley, 2005; Hughes & Rog, 2008). It provided a quantitative term to help organizations have a quick understanding of TM outcomes. However, solely relied on these efficiency based measures might lead to ignoring other connection between TM practices and organizational outcomes and then failing to reflect real talent value. For example if HR wants to enhance the ROI of recruiting, they might try to decrease the investment in selection process which might result in bad workforce quality (Boudreau & Ramstad, 2002; Scott et al., 2009). The second type was effective-focused. It directly measures the connection between HR activities and changes in financial outcomes such as profits. However, Cappelli and Neumark (2001) claims that most research cannot successfully prove that investing resources into HR practices can directly lead to better financial results. And this kind of method most of time just measure the connection between existence of a specific practice and financial outcomes, and ignore the quality of implementation of the practice. The third type according to Boudreau and Ramstad (2002) is HR scorecards. They claimed it can help organizations to manage HR as a strategic asset and demonstrate HR’s 18.

(27) contribution to the organization’s financial success. It also tells a very clear way to connect the human resource performance to bottom-line metrics (McKnight, 2001). However, the strategic logic of measurement in HR scorecards is often superficial. For example, HR scorecard might count the number of cross countries assignment to measure the organizations goal of global integration (Boudreau & Ramstad, 2002). Scott et al. (2009) suggested organizations should at least address the following four issues in TM measurement. First, it should evaluate the linkage between TM practices and business strategies or needs. Organizations should check how talented employees are identified and trained to meet the organizations needs in the future. Second, organizations must pay attention to evaluating if the different TM functions integrate together or not. Organizations can do a survey or interview the manager or members in each function to know the current level of integration. Third, it is important to identify the stakeholder and customer of TM to involve them in the evaluation process. In order to meet business strategy and goals, the evaluation will need the perspectives from CEO and high level manager who mostly focus on leadership development, retention and pipeline management. Except it, the line manager, program manager, employees and job candidate will be effective information sources. For some cases, since the resource is limited, organizations may just evaluate the key talented groups who are the core talent of company. The final one is to evaluate the financial objectives of TM. Organizations is suggested to establish a logical model or system which can help people to define how to achieve the business goal and competitive advantage and use a scorecard or ROI analysis to check in each period how the TM practices result affect the business’s operation and strategic goals.. 19.

(28) Summary From the literature review, the researcher found that there were plenty of TM practices which could be categorized to five categories including TM planning, talents attraction, talents development, talents retention and evaluation of TM. the researcher also found that the importance of TM integration and the alignment with business strategy. Besides, different roles such as executive level manager or mentor has significant influence in TM. Those information formed the research structure in this study. The researcher explored the differences and similarities of local companies and FDI companies based on the structure.. 20.

(29) CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY Research Framework In order to meet the research purpose, the researcher firstly developed the theoretical framework according to the literatures of TM, and generalized TM issues to several parts including the alignment with business strategies, the integration of involved function, workforce planning, talent attraction, talent development, talent retention, and measures of TM, and the roles involved in TM. Afterward, the in-depth interviews were conducted for companies which respectively belong to FDI companies and local companies. In an interview, the definition of TM and talent were clarified at the beginning since each company might have different perspectives in this issue. Other parts including alignment with business strategy, and TM practices were then explored . After data collection, the researcher categorized and consolidated the results from different companies, and then generalized the practices of TM in FDI companies as well as. local companies. Finally, the researcher developed the. conclusions and suggestions based on. the findings. The research framework is. presented in figure 3.1.. 21.

(30) Figure 3.1 Research Framework. Research Method The research adopted a qualitative method based on the in-depth interview . One of the main purposes of qualitative method is to do an interpretive understanding about the people’s experiences and social phenomenon, and put the truths or materials together to develop a complete work. It is also appropriate to do an overall exploration to one matter (Chen, 2009). A qualitative method can help researcher to understand the meaning of things,. the particular context and the impact to the. people who live in the context, the process by which events and actions take place, and develop causal explanation (Maxwell, 2005). TM has no clear and shared definition (Lewis & Heckman, 2006), and. is also. not well-developed in both practical and academic areas in Taiwan. Besides, the practices vary from different companies. Therefore, it is appropriate to adopt a qualitative method to deeply explore the meaning, impact, and content of TM in different companies in Taiwan. 22.

(31) Although qualitative method allows the researchers “touching” the first hand information by several ways such as observation, there are too many obstacles to prevent researchers from reaching the target. Compared to it, interview is an efficient way which can save time and resources. In qualitative theory, all the methods have no intrinsic inferior, and an appropriate method depends on the topic and the research design(Silverman, 2001). An in-depth and semi-structured interview was the core method to collect the data in this research. The purpose of in-depth interview is to understand the interviewees’ deep thoughts. Researchers can initiate their willingness to provide information and opinion through entering and involving in their perspectives and the face to face opinion exchange (Fan, 2004). The interview questions were open to give interviewees spaces to represent their opinion (Chen, 2009; Fan, 2004). In order to prevent falling from direction during the interview, it was designed as semi-structured interview.. Data Collection In order to get enough and meaningful information, the appropriate instruments were well prepared. Before the interview, the researcher ensured the interview outline was received by interviewees. The interview outline was developed according to the research question and literature review, and then invited two experts who have doctor degrees and rich experiences in qualitative research to check the rationality of interview questions. After validating the research questions, the researcher sent the interview questions to the interviewees. Receiving interview questions in advance can provide interviewees an opportunity to review and think about the answers in advance. Furthermore, the interview outline can remind the researcher if there are some important questions missed during the interviews. During the interview, the research 23.

(32) purpose and contents were presented to the interviewees first. All contents were recorded after the permission of the interviewees. Using recorder can be helpful for the data analysis in the future and also help researcher to release the burden from taking notes and then focusing on the interview (Chan, 2004). After each interview, the records were transcribed to verbatim scripts. All the interviews took place between March and May of 2012. The interview questions are presented in Appendix A. Research Participants This research conducted interviews in companies respectively from both parties of companies. Researcher selected the companies which had TM practices according to journals or periodicals. The researcher selected seven interviewees who from FDI companies and eight from local companies through purposive sampling and snowball sampling. In order to get the critical information, the interviewees were asked to have sufficient understanding or involvement in TM. Therefore, the interviewees from the selected companies accorded with the following two criteria. 1. Interviewees need to be at managerial level in HR or have experiences in talent management. 2. Interviewees need to have at least 5-year working experiences and work for the HR department of current company at least 1 year. The fifteen interviewees came from different industries including financial service, pharmacy, high technology, and logistics participated in this research. There are fourteen interviewees are at managerial level, and one interviewee is a training specialist but is responsible for critical talent development project now. Besides, all the interviewees are working in HR department now and have stayed in the current positions for at least one year. Total seniority is from seven years to thirty years. The following contents and table 3.1 are the background information of these 15 24.

(33) interviewees Case A1 to A7 are from FDI companies and case B1 to B8 are from local companies.. Case A1 The interviewee represented a leading international bank, which has around 80,000 employees globally and 4,000 in Taiwan. The interviewee is responsible for the TM issues in the bank and titled as country head of talent. He has around twenty years working experiences and has worked for the bank for two years.. Case A2 A2 comes from the other international bank. The bank has branches in 85 countries and is one of the biggest banking groups worldwide. The interviewee is the vice president in learning and development team and has ten years working experience in banking, high technology and retail industry. So far he has already worked for the bank for 5 years.. Case A3 A3’s company belongs to pharmacy industry which has already cultivated the business in Taiwan for almost 30 years. Their nutrition products stand a leading place globally. The interviewee now is senior manager in HR department, and has devoted to HR function for 17 years.. Case A4 A4 represented the other company from pharmacy industry. This company is one of the biggest pharmaceutical companies all over the world. So far they have almost 100,000 employees in 150 countries. The interviewee has worked for government, 25.

(34) university, high technology industry, and consulting firm. His total seniority is thirty years and now is the vice president in HR function.. Case A5 A5 comes from a global leading semiconductor company which has two thousand employees in Taiwan now. This branch has stayed in Taiwan for forty years and is regarded as one of the most important element supplier in Taiwan. This company is also famous for planting many successful leaders all over the world. The interviewee has stayed in this company for twenty years and has rich experiences in each HR function. Now, she is the leader of a raw talent developing program.. Case A6 A6 is working for one of the biggest international express delivery companies in the world. The company provide services in almost two hundred and twenty countries and acquire the honor of the best brand in customers’ mind for several years. The company now has almost 100,000 employees all over the world and 1,000 employees in Taiwan. The interviewee now is the HR manager and has total seniority for 9 years in HR.. Case A7 Case A7 is working for a global leading financial service company and one of the biggest six insurance companies all over the world. Now it has almost 1,300 employees in Taiwan. The interviewee has worked in transportation industry, high technology industry and now stayed in financial service industry as a HR manager for 2.5 years. 26.

(35) Case B1 The company B1 works for is one of the biggest financial holding companies in Taiwan. It has almost 400 branches and 20,000 employees in Taiwan. Their services include insurance, property insurance, bank, and stocks, etc. The interviewee now is an HR program manager in the company and has experiences in different financial services companies. His total seniority is 14 years and has stayed in the current company for 7 years.. Case B2 Case B2 now is the HR manager in one of the biggest leasing companies in Taiwan. Recently, his company put a lot of efforts in exploring the market in China. It provides a multiple leasing services which includes different phases and is regarded as the best partner of small and medium sized enterprise. So far the company has 850 employees in Taiwan. The interviewee had experiences in recruiting and selection, training and development and performance management. He also has one year expatriate experience in China. The total seniority is 9 years and stayed in current company for 9 years, too.. Case B3 The company case B3 works for was founded in 1987, c and is the first and biggest professional IC production service company in the world. The company provides advanced technology of IC production and possesses perfect databases, intellectual properties and design techniques for professional wafer foundry industry. B3, now as HR manager, has 20 years working experience in human resource and 12 years of seniority in this company. 27.

(36) Case B4 Case B4 is the head of talent recruitment department of one of the global leaders in a big range of electronic products. The company has provided continuous innovation in electronic industry over 40 years and focused on green manufacturing processes and other environment-friendly policies recently. His total seniority is 18 years and has worked in the company for 1 year.. Case B5 Case B5 is the training specialist in HR department of the company which manufactures computer equipment. They provide services for many leading computer brands in the world. In the future, the company will focus on innovative research center, trying to become the leading company of computer industry. B5 has experience of 7 years in the company and had been responsible for key talent development program.. Case B6 The interviewee, B6, has worked for the company for 8 years and has total seniority of 8 years.. The company base on motor manufacturing and now has. transformed from traditional manufacturing industry to high technology industry. Their businesses extend in 5 continents, and develop in more than 30 countries in the world.. Case B7 The interviewee is the HR assistant manager of the company which is a semiconductor company which develops one of the best IC designs in Taiwan. The 28.

(37) company believes humanity. This belief has prompted the company’s improvement. In this case, She has 7 years of seniority in technology industry and been stayed in this company for 1 year.. Case B8 The interviewee had worked in two technology companies for a total of 18 years and has been working as HR manager in the current company for 4 years. The company B8 works for. is an integrated construction company which encompasses. construction planning, designing, purchasing, manufacturing and constructing. Being international and multi-direction development has become the target of the company.. Table3.1 Background Information of Interviewees Interviewee Industry. Total. Seniority in the. Seniority. company. Title. Code A1. Bank. Country Head of Talent. 20. 2. A2. Bank. HR Vice President. 10. 5. A3. Pharmacy. HR Senior Manager. 17. 11. A4. Pharmacy. HR Vice President. 30. 2.5. A5. Semiconductor. HR Program Manager. 20.5. 20.5. A6. Logistics. HR Manager. 9. 9. A7. Insurance. HR Manager. 21. 2.2. B1. Financial Services. HR Program Manager. 14. 7. B2. Leasing. HR Manager. 9. 9. B3. Semiconductor. HR Manager. 20. 12. B4. Electronic components. Head of Talent Recruitment. 18. 1. B5. Computer and peripheral. Training Specialist. 7. 7. equipment manufacturing B6. Household appliances. HR Manager. 8. 8. B7. Semiconductor. HR Assistant Manager. 7. 1. B8. Construction. HR Manager. 18. 4. 29.

(38) Data Analysis According to the suggestion from Maxwell (2005), if researchers want to understand the similarities and differences of, the categorizing analysis is more appropriate than contextualizing method. In order to fit the research purpose. The research adopted a categorizing method to do data analysis. In the data analysis stage, researcher first drew the important concepts from transcripts and then categorized them into different categories which belong to different themes. Finally, the findings and discussion are written based on literature reviews and the coding. The coding process are provided in Appendix B In order to make the research more sophisticated, the researcher used the following methods to enhance reliability and validity during the research processes. For enhancing the reliability of data collection and data analysis, the following items will be followed during the research processes. First, the interview skills are taught and reminded by advisor before each interview. Second, researcher kept discussing the content of the research in each step with peers and professors to make the research more rational. The professors and peers are all the experts of or major in human resources. Validity means the authenticity and accuracy of a research. To enhance the validity of the research, first researcher asked two experts to review the research questions and interview questions. After their checking on the consistency and logic of research questions and interview questions, the interviews were conducted. During the data analysis process, parts of documents from website or interviewees’ companies were used as references. After finishing the coding step, two graduate students who are majoring in human resources development were invited doing peer review to check the correctness of coding. Moreover, researcher used recorders to record the whole interview processes 30.

(39) which can prevent from missing important words or incoherent memories of researcher.. Research Procedure In this research, after determine the topic and research purpose, researcher did the literature review to understand the theoretical background and current status related to TM. And then designed the research process and decided using in-depth interview and categorizing analysis as the research method according to the current status and characteristics of TM. The interviewees were invited after the criteria were decided. After finishing all the in-depth interviews, researcher consolidated and categorized the research data according to the interview content, and then developed the conclusions and suggestions as the references of companies operation. See figure 3.2 for the procedure of research. 31.

(40) CHAPTER IV. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS All the research findings are presented and discussed in this chapter which consist of the basic definition of TM and talent, the alignment of TM with business strategies , the roles in TM, TM planning, talent attraction, talent development, talent retention, and measuring TM.. The Definition of Talent There are various definitions and criteria for talent in different industries and companies. At the very beginning, the researcher asked the interviewees to define the characteristics and their definition of talent. Some companies directly define a talent as a successor of specific critical position. The other companies define the talent as the one who have relevant capability, potential, attitude, mobility, etc. The relevant content is presented as table 4.1.. Table 4.1 Coding List with the Definition of Talent Research Topic. Category. Coding. Key Concept (FDI). Coding. Key Concept (Local). 1. The definition of. 1.Successor. A1-1-1. Talent. Successor of. B1-1-1. Critical Position 2.Capability. A1-2-1. Ongoing Good. Position B1-2-1. Performance A1-2-2. People-Job Fit. Successor of Critical. Ongoing Good Performance. B1-2-2. People-Job Fit. B1-2-3. Professional Skill & Irreplaceable. B1-2-4. Obvious Contribution. (continued). 32.

(41) Table 4.1 (continued) Research Topic. Category. Coding. Key Concept (FDI). Coding. Key Concept (Local). B1-2-5. Accord with Requirements. 3. Potential. A1-3-1. High Potential and. B1-3-1. Proactive 4. Attitude. A1-4-1. Learning Agility. High Potential and Proactive. B1-4-1. Business Philosophy Identification. A1-4-2. Aspiration. B1-4-2. Aspiration. A1-4-3. Commitment. B1-4-3. Commitment. A1-4-4. Respectful. 5. Mobility. A1-5-1. Mobility. 6. Others. A1-6-1. Adaptability of. B1-6-1. All the Employees are. change A1-6-2. Leadership. A1-6-3. Sharp Judgment. Talent. Successor For both FDI and Local companies, there are around six criteria or definitions the talents need to have. The first one is that they define the talents are the successors of critical positions in the companies such as CEO or other executives. The reason they identify these talented employees is to develop them into the future leaders. This definition is similar to the second type of definition form Lewis and Heckman (2006) that TM is to ensure the talent to fill in the position at the right time.. Capability Good capability for both parties is essential for the employees who want to enter talent pool. Capability will reflect on their performance records for the past few years. On the other hand, the fitness with specific position for talent will also affect the employees’ performance and whether they can enter the talent pool. 33.

(42) For the local companies in this research, the employees who have professional skills which is difficult to be replaced and have great contribution to companies can be regarded as talents.. “The first one is performance, we need them to have consistent high performance for one or two years” (A6) “We should consider that whether this employee is at the right position or not……what you can show us depends on whether you are at the right position.”(A1). These definition of talent correspond to the definition from Silzer and Dowell (2009)’s definition which represented a talent must have skills, abilities and is able to contribute to the company.. Potential Both two parties think potential is one of the criteria which need to be considered. Some even think potential is the most important thing, since other skills can be learned afterward. Especially for the potential of leadership is critical for such an important group of people.. “Basically, I think talents must have potential and good performance!” (A2) “We always remind line mangers that skills can be learned, the most important things is if this person have potential or not” (A3)\ “…the second one is the managerial potential, we will use some scientific tools to assess it.”(B1) 34.

(43) Attitude There are several FDI companies and local companies think that a talented employee should always have aspiration for their career challenges, and have strong commitment to the organization. Part of FDI companies thought the typical talented employees are willing to learn new things, and respectful to other people. Local companies especially emphasize that the talents need to have identification with companies’ business philosophy and culture.. “A talent cannot live without learning agility. He or she must have good attitude and capability in learning. We also asked talent must have career aspiration” (A3) “We hope when the talent is dealing with people issue, he can pay respect to other team or people”(A6) “Talent must devote himself in his job and do the contribution to company!......They must have commitment!”(A5) “I have a stand for our talent, that they must have identification to the way we run business, and…”(B4). A person with aspiration will desire the recognition in daily work which can decide the extent to devote in organization and work(Silzer & Church, 2009). Furthermore,. Yost and Plunkett (2009) mentioned that learning agility is to. capture the experiences and can apply it in daily life. It will be much more important when the business environment become more dynamic. Therefore, the companies expect a talent have good aspiration and learning agility to contribute to the companies in dynamic business situation. 35.

(44) Mobility For FDI companies, some of them even need their talents to have mobility. They look at it from global viewpoint, and expect the talents can become a future leader in global. Therefore, they need the talents who are willing to rotate or accept assignment in other countries and then their global view and mind will be acquired.. “We will consider their international mobility, since we are a big international company. We hope in the future he/she can work for us in maybe a region or worldwide. ”(A6). According to Silzer and Church (2009), the purpose of asking the talents to have mobility is that the companies expect their talents can broaden their experience and advance their career quickly in order to fill in the future critical role globally. The idea is similar to the opinion from some interviewees’.. Others Besides the above mentioned criteria and characteristics for talents, there are also some interviewees mentioned that talented employees should have the ability to adapt to continually changing environment¸ to lead a high performance team and have sharp judgment in business.. “Since the market and business environment have become more changeable, we need them to have the ability to adapt to changes…… we also want them to have a sharp judgment which can help them to observe things which is not noticeable for others”(A6) 36.

(45) Finally, some local companies regarded all the employees working for them are talents, since they think that if the one who is not talented would not be hired. But they still pay more attention on the talents at key positions.. “You can call other employees as talents. We just put more resources on a key talent” (B6). The Definition and Content of TM Similar to the definition of talent, the companies have different definitions and ways to do their TM. The definition and their implementation contents are presented as Table 4.2. The first category is the definitions of TM in those companies. And then the general TM content including purposes, process, involvement of unions, and integration in HR and other functions are presented in this part.. Table 4.2 Coding List with the Definition and Content of TM Research Topic. Category. Code. Key Concept(FDI). Code. Key Concept (Local). 2. The Definition and. 1.Definition and. A2-1-1. A Set of People. B2-1-1. A Set of People. Content of TM. purpose of TM. A2-1-2. Management. Management. Activities which. Activities which. Focused on Talented. Focused on Talented. Employees. Employees. Succession Planning. B2-1-2. An Overall Development System. A2-1-3. Enhance Organizations. B2-1-3. Fast Develop the Critical Talent. Productivity A2-1-4. Bring up Successors. (continued) 37.

(46) Table 4.2 (continued) Research Topic. Category. Code. Key Concept (FDI). Code. Key Concept (Local). 2.Involved. A2-2-1. High Level Manager. B2-2-1. High Level Manager. A2-2-2. Line Manager. B2-2-2. Line Manager. A2-2-3. HR. B2-2-3. HR. A2-3-1. Compressed HR. B2-3-1. Business. Functions. 3. Integration in HR. 4. Integration. Partner(Account) A2-3-2. Specific Integrator. A2-4-1. Formal Talent. with other. B2-4-1. Management Meeting. High Level Manager Meeting. departments A2-4-2. System. B2-4-2. Headquarter. A2-4-3. Specific Integrator. B2-4-3. Specific Integrator. B2-4-4. Business Partner (Account). Definition of TM For FDI companies, in this research, basically, there are two kinds of definition were mentioned by the interviewees. Some companies called it as a series of management activities focused on talents who can help companies to achieve the business goal. Those activities include talent recruiting, development, promotion, compensation and career development, etc. The other definition calls it as succession planning. TM is regarded as a systematic process to develop high quality pipeline for critical roles.. “It is actually a series of activities including recruiting, development, promotion staffing, etc. It is an overall systematic program not a single activity. All of these can help talented employees achieve the expected business goal for company. ”(A2) “It starts from recruiting! It also includes how to develop his strength, 38.

(47) improve their weakness, plan the career path, etc. and the talents can contribute their effort to company. ”(A4) “We hope that the successors are developed by ourselves, even though it is time consuming……we need a systematic method to develop them to be the future leader. ” (A6). For local companies, there are also two definitions were found in this research. The first one is similar to the one for FDI companies which is a series of HR activities to develop the potential employees in order to achieve organizational goal. The other perspective thinks that it should be an overall development system which can help to raise an employee to a talent.. “It is similar to Major League Baseball, we first need to attract the potential player into 1A, and help them to have good performance at Major League Baseball.” (B2). The first definition in local companies corresponds to the first definition mentioned by Lewis and Heckman (2006) which called TM as a collection of HR practices which is done faster and across the organizations. Derived from the definitions, we can understand the purposes of TM including the enhancement of business outcome and bringing up the future successors of companies. Local companies add one purpose which is help these talents to grow up fast and reach the position they should be at.. “The reason we put effort into doing TM is to enhance our business outcomes ” (A7) 39.

(48) “TM is aimed at developing the successors of general manager and his one level down.”(A6) “Fast track way which help them to get to the position they should be at as soon as possible.”(B1). Integration in HR and with Other Functions The groups which need to be integrated in TM can be separated into two categories. The first one is to integrate the information and relevant works from different functions in HR. Since some HR in FDI companies consist of few employees they thought it is not that difficult to do so. within HR. Specially assign a post of. talent manager to coordinate all the talent management issues and stakeholders is also a method to enhance the level of integration. On the other hand, for the external integration, except creating a position deal with the integration, a powerful information system and holding a formal talent management meeting regularly can also increase the efficiency of integration.. “In fact, the internal integration in HR is not difficult, since the HR department is small” (A6) “ The “Talent relevant ”things will integrate by me! And I also need to coordinate the whole talent management activities. ”(A1) “Basically the system is easy to control, so it can help us to do coordinate with other functions.”(A1) “Our talent review is the most formal way to integrate with other functions.”(A5). For some local companies, they reported that the “account service” design could 40.

(49) help them to integrate each HR function and other departments in the companies. The account managers are sent to each department in order to collect information and sometimes have discussion with them, and then come back and share the information in HR. For external integration, some companies also rely on their head of HR to exchange the information with other department leaders in high level meeting. Furthermore, one interviewee mentioned that the headquarters is responsible for integrating the practices, information, and resources for the branches. Finally, part of local companies set up a taskforce or an ad hoc committee to deal with TM. issues. and be responsible for integrating.. “For example, if I am responsible for training and an account of business unit, I can understand the talent development issue and their staffing issue… we will share the information in HR.” (B6) “We just do the follow up through some meetings… we can integrate it during the meeting…”(B7). From the ASTD research (Green, 2011), effectively integrating TM is a major opportunity for organizations to compete with others, and many scholars emphasized the importance of integrating TM into a system (Ashton & Morton, 2005; Avedon & Scholes, 2009). In this research, the integration of TM in each function is also highly valued by FDI and local companies.. The Alignment between TM and Business Strategy Above mentioned that one of the final purposes of TM is to achieve the business goal; therefore, TM strategy definitely needs to be closely aligned with business strategy or goals. The methods to align them are presented as table 4.3 including 41.