Call for papers: European Perspectives on Talent Management

A special issue of European Journal of International Management

Since the late 1990s, the concept of talent management has gained increasing currency among practitioners and academics alike. Practitioner reports clearly indicate that talent management occupies a significant amount of senior managerial time and additionally that it is something which organisations find quite challenging. For example, a study conducted by the Boston Consulting Group in 2007 identified talent management as one of five key challenges facing the HR profession in Europe. However, the study also concluded that it was one of the challenges where the function was least competent. Thus, the topic is clearly of interest to practitioners.

From an academic perspective, talent management has been criticised for lacking conceptual and intellectual foundation, definition and rigour. However, a number of recent contributions have contributed to this emerging field and provided some theoretical framing for the study of talent management and appear to offer some optimism for the potential of the area to contribute to the study of the management of organisations.

This special issue is intended to contribute to this emerging theoretical and empirical base and to further advance the understanding of talent management. Specifically, it is intended to explore the nature of talent management in the European context. Given that the idea emerged in the North American context and that many of the leading academic contributions have emerged from there also, Europe represents an important context to explore talent management. We welcome empirical and theoretical papers which advance our knowledge of this important area.

The following list is indicative of the types of contributions which may be appropriate. However it is not intended to be exhaustive and rather is illustrative:

• The linkage between talent management and organisational performance
• Talent management in the context of the current economic climate
• Talent management in Central and Eastern Europe
• The transfer and standardisation of talent management systems in MNEs
• The role of information systems in talent management
• The interplay between talent management and knowledge management
• How talent management is conceptualised and operationalised in different European contexts
• The role employer branding in talent management
• The linkages between talent management and corporate social responsibility
• The language and rhetoric of talent management
• The role of the line manager in talent management

Important Dates
Draft submission deadline: 1 September, 2010
Final paper submission deadline: 1 March, 2011