The impact of contextual factors on talent management practices in SMEs

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Despite the fact that there is a rising number of publications on TM, research on implementing such practices in SMEs and on the impact of contextual factors on TM is scarce. This article focuses on the impact of contextual factors on talent management (TM) practices in small and medium enterprises (SMEs). OBJECTIVE: The main aim of the research was to evaluate the impact of contextual factors on TM practices in SMEs. This paper presents the results of the analyses verifying whether there is a dependence between contextual factors (be they internal or external) and scope of TM practices introduced in SMEs. METHODS: The data was gathered from 200 randomly selected SMEs. The respondents were questioned about the characteristics of TM practices they run and asked about factors impacting upon their approach to TM. RESULTS: The results prove that there are some statistically significant dependences between the context and TM, but due to the heterogeneity of such enterprises, the complexity of contextual factors and the manager/owner attitude to HRM, no coherent patterns could be found. CONCLUSIONS: It can be concluded that the short-term perspective and reactive actions dominate in the group of investigated companies. However, almost all respondents claimed to pay high attention to employees’ expectations towards such practices, which can be portrayed as a way of building sustainability on the basis of human capital.