Talent management, identity construction and the burden of elitism: The case of management trainees in Hong Kong

Abstract

How do ‘talented’ people become corporate elites, and what does the process of becoming elites mean to them? The story of talent management (TM) as a new form of human resource innovation has largely been told from the point of view of managers and the organization. Rarely do we hear the voices of the early-career employees who are the subject of these initiatives. Building on the critique of ‘potentiality’, and with reference to Foucault’s disciplinary power, we examine the discursive practices via which firms shape the subjectivities of high-potential talented people by constructing an identity of a privileged elite and setting them up as future leaders. With reference to a sample of Hong Kong management trainees, we examine how this discourse is sustained, fractured, legitimized and resisted, and thus contribute to the critique of TM and how it constructs a ‘burden of elitism’ amongst the chosen ones.