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Why Do Organisations Run Talent Programmes? Insights from UK Organisations

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Managing Talent

Abstract

This chapter reports a case study approach to understanding the reasons why private sector companies implement talent programmes. Workforce differentiation, institutional theory, and human capital theory are summarised as theoretical backgrounds. Based on four case companies in contrasting sectors, cross-case comparison reveals that, while all companies had accompanying high-level narratives around the importance of talented employees to competitive advantage, each company had a distinctive talent driver that shaped the structure and content of their talent programme. The four drivers were inclusivity, succession planning, categorisation of employees, and categorisation of key roles.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Huddersfield Business School, University of Huddersfield, Huddersfield, UK

    Sunday Adebola

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  1. Sunday Adebola
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Correspondence to Sunday Adebola .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Talent Lab, Zealand Institute of Business and Technology, Slagelse, Denmark

    Billy Adamsen

  2. Huddersfield Business School, University of Huddersfield, Huddersfield, UK

    Stephen Swailes

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Adebola, S. (2019). Why Do Organisations Run Talent Programmes? Insights from UK Organisations. In: Adamsen, B., Swailes, S. (eds) Managing Talent. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-95201-7_9

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