Global Talent Management: Reality or Utopia? A Special Glance Through a Portuguese Multinational Organization

Abstract

In this global world that we live in, global talent management is one of the big challenges faced by the human resource management areas around the world. It constitutes a privileged and innovated way of aligning human resource management and business strategy. The main purpose of this study was to identify and analyze the talent management System presented by a Portuguese multinational organization. In addition, there were two other propositions with significant relevance for the case: the analyses of a conceptual framework about human resources roles in global talent management and the impact of contextual factors; and the analyses of the principles of effective global talent management. The theoretical construct was supported by a qualitative approach. Data collection approaches for this qualitative research involved data observation and individual semistructured interviews. All global talent management strategies, policies, frameworks, and practices adopted by the multinational company have been carefully examined in order to pursuit the goals of the research. It was concluded that global talent management is now a reality for this Portuguese company and the company’s global talent management system can be used as a model, as far as it concerns to the talent strategy and philosophy, influenced by the different roles played by the human resources area and the observation of the principles of effective global talent management. However, it is absolutely necessary to note that the success of each talent management system depends on each particular situation and on the organizational context as well as on the ability to innovate and on the creativity of the implemented policies and practices.