Does Global Talent Management Help to Retain Host-Country Nationals?

Abstract

In this study, we examined how the perceived global talent management by host-country nationals affect their turnover intention. Based on survey data from 653 employees having worked for 24 foreign subsidiaries in Korea, we empirically tested the effect of global talent management on host-country national retention. Global talent management itself does not seem to be conducive in retaining host- country nationals. Our test results show that host-country nationals’ perceived global talent management is not directly related to their turnover intention. Instead, host-country nationals’ organizational identification fully mediates the relationships between their perceived global talent management and turnover intention. In addition, we show that the benefit of global talent management on organizational identification and retention is magnified when global talent management practices are implemented with greater internal consistency. Our findings contribute to the existing literature of managing local staff retention by emphasizing the importance of identity issue. Multinational enterprises need to advance the host- country national organizational identification which would in turn mediate between global talent management and their turnover intention. The conclusion and related issues are discussed at the end of the paper.