Global talent management: the central role of line managers throughout the organisation in shaping and implementing effective GTM

Abstract

Global talent management (GTM) is widely recognised to be of central importance to organisations today as they seek to thrive and grow in the context of today's complex and dynamic global business environment, such that global talent management has become a central priority of CEO's and top management (Collings, Mellahi, & Cascio, 2017). With the recognised significance of talent to organisations globally (Collings et al, 2017) and more specifically, the challenge of creating and sustaining an effective future-looking pipeline of talent as one of the utmost concerns for global organisations (Cascio & Boudreau, 2016), it is important to understand how line managers contribute to the business imperative of global talent management. Line managers today are not only business managers and supervisors of employees in their organisations, but, crucially, are managers of talent, and as such, play an important role in talent management in organisations today. As with the implementation of human resource management (HRM) policy and practice in organisations today in which line managers are increasingly involved (Cappelli, 2013), the implementation of talent policy and practice extends well beyond the mandate of senior management and includes middle and front-line managers as central participants of the firm's management of its talent and its effectiveness in doing so (King, 2015). Collectively, managers at varying hierarchical levels in the organisation, act as central actors in talent management (King, 2015) who shape and implement talent management policy and practice. Line manager involvement in GTM demonstrates the pivotal importance of the line manager role as a crucial link in the talent strategy-performance relationship through effective talent management (King, 2015), without whom talent strategy may be limited by the recognised gap between the intended and the actual HR practice which can constrain HR practice implementation (Nishii & Wright, 2008). This chapter considers what GTM means for the role of line managers at multiple levels throughout the organisational hierarchical structure and in doing so, highlights the line manager as a crucial actor in the successful implementation of the firm's competitive talent strategy.