Integrating Talent and Diversity Management

Abstract

In globalized economies, organizations invest significant resources in managing talent in their diverse workforce. Presumably, talent and diversity management are complementary and interrelated, sharing the similar aim to nurture the skills, attributes, and career progression of the workforce. However, the two practices are also at odds. Talent management has been defined by an exclusionary paradigm focused on developing an elite segment of the workforce. We explore the problematic effect of talent management on equality. Talent management could foreclose how perceptions of “talent” are deeply inflected in gendered, classist, and racialized ways. The complex experiences of minority groups in gaining access to and progression within organizations should be considered. We discuss how talent management could be used to catalyze equality in organizations and suggest future research on the intersection between equality, diversity, and talent management.