Executive Summary
This report presents a critical analysis of the document, “Talent Management Decision Making.” The article precisely discusses decision making in talent management with its main objectives including reviewing the raging debates around talent management and decision-making, establishing some possible factors influencing decision making in talent management, and recommending future research areas in relation to decision making in talent management.
The study emphasises on utilisation of data as one of the contributors to the basis on which managers are contributing to poor management by depending on unreliable information in management. The authors argue that managers underutilise talents available in employees and thus keep on basing their promotions in terms of previous experiences, close relations, and biasness. Therefore, this report concludes that the article remains incredible to a certain percentage with most of the relevant aspects ignored and the format revealing some inconsistencies.
Introduction
Talent management decision-making remains one of the most contested issues in the context of management, and specifically in International Human Resource Management. In the rapidly growing world of urbanisation and industrialisation, studies have discussed the importance of talent management as a Human Resource Management approach.
Motivation and empowerment studies have also stressed on underutilisation of human talent and abilities in the management techniques. The field of management remains a taxing and complicated one with companies witnessing failure in managers, even the most experienced ones.
Decision-making is a contemporary issue in the management and thus employees’ involvement has proven significant in several cases with companies ignoring this management idea. Despite the merits attached to talent management, it is still a new phenomenon in numerous organisations. Therefore, to stress on the above issue, this essay critically analyses the article “Talent management decision making”.
Assumptions and their influence
The authors assume that there is complexity in talent management. In the context of complexity in talent management, the authors assume that talent management in several organisations remains a biased process with numerous organisations basing their employee promotion decision-making process on close relations, tendencies, and evaluating previous experiences.
The authors relate biasness in decision making with lack of credible of pertinent information needed to guide managers in their decision-making processes. In the authors’ view, despite being an international issue, global talent management varies internationally due to demographic factors.
Giving an example of the U.S compared to other countries, talent management in decision-making has significantly improved and is more frequently utilised. Organisation culture has been influential in talent management. This aspect has influenced authors’ research on the discussion and addressing of issues relating to talent management significantly focusing on factors influencing talent management globally.
Credibility of the authors’ arguments
Concerning the credibility of the article, the authors have not emphasised on the credibility and reliability of the data expressed in the article. Critically analysing this article, the information pertaining to the relationship between talent management and management decision is ambiguous if not ambivalent.
The writers of the article in most cases have expressed lack of adequate knowledge pertaining to the two aspects. Instead of concentrating on the relationship between the two aspects, the authors have put more efforts on the importance of managers utilising the available data of the human resource and decision-making. Talent management is missing the basics required to compare the aspects of talent with management decisions. The authors lack a definite systematic way of expressing the aspect of talent management.
Quality of background literature
The literature found in the background information is slightly credible. It introduces the learner into the subject matter, but its presentation is ambiguous. The authors begin with a good presentation of the aspect of talent management, with the background revealing the current situation globally.
The authors ensured that the introduction to the topic links with research studies conducted by fellow researchers pertaining to talent management knowledge and general management. Compared to other related studies, the article features the aspect of, “war for talent” as demonstrated by Beechler and Woodward and related studies by Guthridge, Komm, and Lawson, which portray the background of talent management.
Most sources used in the introduction of the article have touched on the key words that underline the key elements of the entire study. There is proper utilisation of words relating to talent management including strategic management, managers, decision-making, and human resource management.
Authors’ coverage on the issue in IHRM
Talent management as basic management knowledge commonly relates with International Human Resource Management (IHRM). Human resource management specifically deals with issues of employees and in specific management of abilities found in workers. Based on this article, the authors touch on HR, but clarity in demonstrating the issue of IHRM misses and thus the relationship between talent management and decision-making shallowly demonstrates the expected reliability of the information in the article.
According to the authors’ view on IHRM, the Human resource managers have been unable to utilise talent management comprehensively and thus regarded as incompetent. Managers need to understand HR knowledge and increase their competence by translating business needs to talent strategies.
The authors highlight several challenges facing global IHRM, with managers blamed for not having reliable data to help in making informed decisions on the aspect of talent management and human resource management. However, this article does not examine the basic principles of HR in relation to talent management knowledge.
Article’s importance on HRM policy and practice
Discussions demonstrated in the article, though shallowly discussed, have great significance to human resource policies and practices. The authors elaborate the critical issues affecting human resource management globally. In the article, lack of talents has significantly proven to be among the major challenges affecting proper decision making in management in relation to talent management.
Through this article, managers acquire information relating to talent management with inadequacy of talents affecting best practices in HR. Managers acknowledge the inadequacy of empirical evidence on talent management and the existing public confusion compared to the reality in the HR practise.
The article influences HR policy and practice by demonstrating the influence of demographics and societal trends on human resource management. Peck concurs with these factors and asserts that the demographics around the world nations have proven significant in the management of talents. The revolving demographic aspects have affected management for there is an increase in declining birth rates, and with an increase in number of workers retiring, talents and abilities are reducing in number.
Strengths and weaknesses
The article demonstrates several strengths by utilising and elaborating issues regarding to human resource data. Data on management issues comes out as the subject of the article, evaluating how the managers have constantly underutilised appropriate data in the management decision process.
Teal asserts, “Strategic decisions occur relatively infrequently and involve ambiguous data and possible disagreement about which data is relevant.” This area is an important subject and relevant information regarding management aspects. Utilisation of knowledge, data, and information is an important management aspect and thus managers who utilize available data can set proper management policies. Smith elaborates that management life begins with utilization and management of data.
In fact, transforming data into information, knowledge, and wisdom enhances effective management. By so doing, managers utilising knowledge can acquire context, relevance, and definite purpose incorporated in the available data.
The article elaborates several factors that affect decision making globally, thus enabling managers to acquire relevant information relating to factors affecting global talent management. Being the subject of the article, the authors intensify discussion on talent management as among the most debated issues in management.
This aspect is evident in other related articles; for instance, an article by Pulakos who asserts that organizations compete fiercely in the war for talent. The author demonstrates significant factors affecting decision-making including diversity in employees groups, global increase in mobility, growing importance of emerging markets, demographics and social trends, corporate social responsibility, and talent shortages.
All these are potential factors contributing to talent management and related issues. Other authors have also demonstrated these factors; for instance, Vroom highlights some social factors relating to aspects of talent management. By demonstrating these aspects, managers can incorporate this information and covert it into HR policies and practice, making it more practical than how the theory reveals.
The article shows some weaknesses; for instance, despite the fact that the article demonstrates some relevancy in the background information, the objectives of the study remain an important issue in writing articles. The introduction part lacks proper presentation of the objectives, which appear in the middle of the article.
The authors present the aims of the research as reviewing the raging debates around talent management and decision-making, establishing some possible factors influencing decision making in talent management, and recommending future research areas in relation to decision making in talent management. This aspect indicates that the presentation of the research is inconsistent given that the discussion of the second research aim appears first before presentation of the aim itself.
Another eminent weakness is the way the presentation of IHRM issue in relation to talent management. The authors do not demonstrate presentation of HR issues to talent management.
This element eliminates the importance of HRM in employee management and does not however present the relationship between HR and employee management. “Employee involvement in decision-making serves to create a sense of belonging among the workers as well as a congenial environment in which both the management and the workers voluntarily contribute to healthy industrial relations.”
Even though HR is the probable department directly involved in decision-making and management of employee skills and talents, the article has little information demonstrating the relationship between talent management and employee involvement in decision-making.
Conclusion
Human resource management is the only department that directly correlates with management of employee talents and abilities and their contribution to organisational decision-making, which increases accuracy. Despite the fact that decision making in groups takes time, it increases the possibility of making informed decisions.
Despite the fact that IHRM is the main subject of the article, it remains the less emphasised area in the article. According to Pulakos, “job analysis is the hub of virtually all human resource administration and management activities, and it is necessary for the successful functioning of organizations.”
However, the introduction of the article demonstrates the importance of concentrating on major components of the article including keywords that act as drivers into the main article. Nonetheless, the article consistently demonstrates inconsistence in the research format, which is eminent where the authors present the aims in the middle of the report revealing poor introduction of the research.
Bibliography
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