Exploring the Impact of Talent Management on Organizational Performance: A Case Study of ABC, a Leading Consumer Goods Company

Introduction

ABC is a consumer goods company whose products include foods and beverages and personal care products. The company is spread about 3 cities and has 15 manufacturing units and 5 official setups. The present employment of the company is around 10,000. ABC is a market leader in consumer products with a strong market presence. The profitability of the company is huge as it earns high revenues. Though the company is going strong, it has been facing issues internally. The most significant challenge that the company faces is talent management that is acquiring, hiring, and retaining talented employees. This challenge is the most prominent one and has gained attention as identifying the talent of the employees is the key to success. The company is facing issues to drive the optima level of success as there is a need of high-performing and engaged employees. For inciting a workforce to greatness there is a need to align the talent management with the strategies of the company. Against this background, ABC must focus on understanding the impact of talent management on organisational performance. The proposed research would help in gaining insight in this matter and help ABC in undertaking the best practices for implementing a talent management program. If you need assistance with business dissertation help, our team of experts is there to support you in all areas.

Rationale for the proposed research and concerned stakeholders

The proposed research study would highlight talent management practices and the impact on organisational performance. It would also analyse the experiences and expectations that the employees have in relation to talent management practices. Suggestions would be outlined for the overall improvement of the employees, thereby reflecting in the effective performance of the organisation. The concerned stakeholders would be the managers and the supervisors who along with the HR department can bring benefits to the organisation. The study proposed herewith would be an endeavour for finding the influence of talent management practices on suitable organisational performance.

Scope of the proposed research

The proposed research would provide an opportunity to study and prepare a report on the selected group of employees who are having difficulties in exhibiting their talents for the benefit of the organisation offered by the company’s talent management practice. The research would be useful for measuring and evaluating the organisational performance as based on the satisfaction, expectations, and overall awareness or dissatisfaction as a result of the talent management practices of the organisation.

Aims and objectives

The aim of the proposed research is to throw light on the talent management practices of the organisation and its relation with the performance of the employees and the organisation as a whole. The study would bring new insights into this aspect of human resource management and the extent to which such practices bring benefits for the company.

The objectives of the proposed research are as follows:

• To study the impact of talent management practices on organisational performance
• To examine the significance of talent management process in the organisation
• To understand talent management process employed by the HR department and the perceptions of the employees towards this process
• To explore the role of talent management process in driving performance of the organisation
• To outline suggestions that can enhance talent management process on the basis of the collected data

Literature review

The present literature review would highlight the already existing literature on the prime aspects of talent management in organisations. The review would also aim at drawing attention on what the existing studies reveal about the impact of talent management on organisational performance. It would identify the gaps existing in the existing literature to inform the areas the need further investigation.

As per the discussion put forward by Al Ariss, Cascio and Paauwe (2014) the subject of talent management has received an enormous amount of academic as well as practitioner interest in the last few decades. This almost current importance on the management of talent signifies an exemplar alteration from the more customary human resource related sources of competitive advantages. There lies a need of talent management in all organisations that is mostly suited in today’s competitive and dynamic environment. Talent is the most important aspect of any business for its prosperity. This fact has become more obvious to the company heads and their executive teams, that, for a company to prosper the monetary ground is not the main factor but the talent in the company is the driving force. Hence rather being monetarily constrained most of the companies are focusing on the talent of their employees (Dries 2013).

According to Stahl et al. (2012) talent is nothing but the ability for a person to learn and improve himself or herself in their respective positions. Management of talent points towards the expertise in attracting highly performing, efficient, profitable, and expert employees, in assimilating new employees, and developing previous employees as well as retaining them to meet the present and future objectives of the business. Companies have learnt that whatever your strategy is and no matter how well you have thought about it, to execute it at any given time you need talented employees. They are the person who could execute your ideas and solve problems related to that field in times of need for the company (Farndale et al. 2014).

In addition to the conventional management system, talent management is the process that gives opportunities to the employees of a company who are considered as a ‘talent’ and hence an asset to the company (Vaiman, Scullion and Collings 2012). Cappelli and Keller (2104) highlights that for managing human resources, management of talent can be used as a precious tool to plan as it is mostly similar to labour force planning. The only difference is that the human resource manager will face a practical opportunity to contribute towards increasing the quality of work which will have a positive effect on the growth of the company. Management of talent relies on those individuals who are considered as an asset to the company. Talented employees tend to develop their skill and hence are always attracted by the company and they always try to retain these employees as the growth of the company depends on them. These employees, in general, have a ‘high potential’ for the near future or currently they have been fulfilling critical roles in the business operation. In a competitive environment, management of talent is the driving force towards the success of a company. The role of the HR is to lead the path for the company to own, as an individual, the part of managing talent and moving towards its success (Sonnenberg, van Zijderveld and Brinks 2014)

Al Ariss (2014) opines that management of talent has been the most important factor for many organisations and the prosperity of many companies in today’s world is directly linked to the use of talents. Coulson-Thomas (2012) has the viewpoint that the identification of talent and its development, which is referred to as management of talent, illuminates the path by which an organisation may identify workers who have the capability of serving a leadership role in the near future. This approach is made to emphasise on developing pools of talented employees who has a high leadership quality. With respect to these employees, the company must also pay attention to all of its employees for talent management, and give the responsibility of recruiting new staff to the middle managers. Thunnissen, Boselie and Fruytier (2013) argue that a well-established and successful company knows the importance of talent management, as well as the criteria it needs in its employees and hence, have designed and implemented a viable strategy for talent management. Even after all this the question remains as to whether talent management provides lead to the success of the company or the success of the company provides the capital to build the infrastructure for talent management.

From the literature review it can be concluded that there is a difference of opinion regarding the effectiveness of talent management practices in organisations and the extent to which employees perceive it to be beneficial for them. The proposed study would aim to fill the gap in this area of HR practices. The research would help the concerned policymakers to consider talent management as a significant part of organisational functioning.

Research questions

The research questions whose answers, when extracted from the research, would together aim to fulfil the research aim and objectives are as follows:

• What is the importance of talent management in the contemporary modern industry?
• What is the impact of talent management on the employees who form an integral part of the organisation?
• How far is talent management successful in bringing benefits to the organisations?
• How do employees perceive the implemented talent management process?
• How can talent management process be enhanced so as to get the maximum benefit from it?

Research design

The research design is the overall strategy implied for integrating the different elements of the study in a logical and coherent manner, thereby making sure that the research problems are adequately addressed. The research design is to act as the blueprint for the collection, analysis, and measurement of rich data (Panneerselvam 2014). Considering the aims and objectives, and scope of the research, the design of the proposed study would be Descriptive as well as Exploratory in nature. Descriptive research design is the method involving observation and description of the concerned subject without bringing about any changes in the environment. The results from such studies may not be used an explicit answer to the research questions. However, it can give the researcher a clear concept about the research topic. The advantage of such research is that it can be considered as a pre-cursor to quantitative research. In addition, there cannot be replications for the studies as they cannot be repeated (Flick 2015). Exploratory research is conducted when the research design is not defined in a clear manner. Such kind of research helps in making the underlying concepts distinct. As the research design has a fundamental nature, the conclusion may be that a problem does not exist (Neuman and Robson 2012).

Research methodology

Sources of information

The proposed research would include both primary and secondary data sources of information for addressing the research questions. Primary data refers to the pool of data that is original research, obtained through direct investigation. Secondary data, on the other hand, refers to the pool of information collected from the resources widely available and obtained from other existing sources. The advantages of secondary research are low cost to acquire, ease of access, clarification of research question and ability to answer research question in appropriate manner. The disadvantages of secondary research are poor quality of research, absence of specificity as per the needs of the researcher, lack of maintenance of time frame and incomplete time frame. Advantages of primary research are address of targeted issues, better data interpretation, availability of recent data, and absence of proprietary issue. The disadvantages of primary research are high cost, need of longer time frame to complete, requirement for more number of resources and inaccurate feedbacks (Flick 2015).

Secondary data

The secondary for the proposed research would be obtained from searching electronic databases that provide large volume of authentic information on all possible topics and subjects. The literature on the concerned topic would be searched for in books, peer reviewed journal articles, case study reports, newspapers, magazines, websites, and other relevant sources.

Primary data

Primary data would constitute a very crucial part of the study, and it would be obtained from the selected employees of the organisation.

Research instrument

A structured and non-disguised questionnaire would be used as the data collection instrument for the proposed research. This would be supported by personal interviews. According to Neuman and Robson (2012) in the case of structured non-disguised interviews the researcher usually reveals the aim of the research to the participants. The questionnaire consists of a list of questions for the participants to respond to in order to collect information on the concerned topic. The prescribed format is strictly followed while the interviewer asks the questions. The interviews would be conducted at a suitable time as per the convenience of the employees, and the timeframe for the interviews would vary between 30-45 minutes. The participants would be given a suitable environment that can extract the maximum information from the respondents.

The questionnaires would be filled up by the respondents, and the researcher may assist the participants in understanding the questions if needed. The advantages of questionnaires are that it is a practical method, large amount of information can be collected, limited effect of reliability and validity is there and analysis can be more scientific. Disadvantages of questionnaires are that there are chances of misunderstanding some forms of information, lack of validity, absence of means of telling how much thought a participant has put in and no means of judging truthfulness of participant (Flick 2015)

Focus group interviews would also be conducted as a part of primary data collection process. The focus group interviews would be conducted in groups of 5 to 10 employees. with the preferred number to be 6-8. The participants would be carefully recruited in order to recruit people with similar thought process and same level of contribution to the organisation. comfortable environment would be created and participants would be made to sit in a circle. For ensuring a minimum of 10% response a number of measures are to be implemented. Participation is to be made confidential, anonymous, and voluntary. Relevant questions are to be included in the questionnaire. Aggressive communication is required for tracking responses. Reminders are to be set for stimulating participation. A moderator would establish permissive environment. Advantage of focus group interviews is that reaction of participants can be easily measure. The disadvantages include high expenses, moderator bias and lack of in depth analysis (Flick 2015).

Sampling

Representative sampling would be done for selecting employees drawn from the total number of employees in the organisation, coming from all departments. Employees at all service levels would be included in the study. Any representative sampling is the small quantity of sample accurately reflecting the larger entity (Wagner and Ramsey 2015). The representative sampling units in justified and appropriate size would be drawn in a convenient manner from the employees coming from different socio-economic groups, age groups, educational qualification groups, income groups, gender groups as employed by the organisation. 50 would be the sample size for the proposed study that would fulfil the purpose of the research. 25 participants would be considered for the questionnaire interview while the rest 25 would be considered for the focus group interviews. The sample design that would be followed is non-probability sampling, and the basis for this would be convenience sampling and quota sampling. A mainstay feature of non-probability sampling techniques is the fact that the selection of these samples is made on the basis of a subjective judgement of the researcher, instead of random selection which is the keystone of probability sampling method. Questionnaire filling would be the sampling media.

Proposed Stakeholder Feedback Methods

Feedback is a necessary element of all interview process. The participants of the proposed research would be given feedback in a suitable manner to complete the process of engagement with them. The information would be provided by maintaining a balance between less information and excessive information. Illustrations and graphics would be used for making the findings more accessible and the document more appealing. Suitable examples would be provided for conveying the information in a better manner. Short sentences would be used and difficult terms would be avoided for conveying the main ideas in a clear and concise way.

Data analysis and interpretation

The primary data and the collected information would be subjected to a suitable data analysis, interpretation, and content analysis. The primary data would be pre-coded as per the design of structured and non-disguised questionnaire. The primary data would undergo scrutiny, edit and validation and thereby be presented in graphs, charts, diagrams, and tables (Flick 2015).

Significance of the proposed research

The proposed research would cover the talent management practices that can help in finding the efficient performance of the organisation. Through this process, the employees would be able to have further expanded knowledge on the practices the organisation has related to talent management. An environment of awareness would be created that can build the foundations of talent management in all employees. The managers and supervisors would be better able to provide an environment for fostering the talent of the employees. The HR manager would be having a better ground for recruiting the employees and retaining them. New dimensions for job analysis and job roles may come up after the proposed research. New set of policies may be implemented in this regard.

Limitation of the proposed research

• The proposed research would consider population that would be limited, therefore not resulting in generalizability
• The sample size to be considered would be limited
• The selected dimensions taken up in the proposed research would lead to limited applicability of the research
• The time factor for collection of responses from participants would be another limitation of the aforesaid study

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