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The Use of Talent Management Instruments and Procedures in Germany: A Broad Explorative Study of Effectiveness and Success Factors

Received: 25 November 2016     Accepted: 7 December 2016     Published: 5 January 2017
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Abstract

While talent management has become a fixed term on HR agendas worldwide, it appears that that quality of talent management practices, infrastructure, and success measurements of talent management in German organizations is still low. This explorative empirical study – one of the largest ever done on this topic in Germany - shows that roles and responsibilities in the talent management process remain often unclear, processes and tools such as an IT infrastructure are often weak, and success measures are often not applied. But there is also surprising evidence that companies in Germany largely apply the wrong measures. It seems that in many German organizations, instruments and procedures are being applied which either have a rather neutral or even can have a counterproductive effect on talent management success. Reversely, instruments which can be linked empirically to talent management success, are not being applied as consistently as you would expect based on HR professionals knowledge on the subject matter. This paper presents the results of an explorative study on the scope of talent management in German organizations, the use of specific instruments and procedures, and links the use of instruments to various measures of success, most notably the assessment by talent management professionals. The results are both startling and surprising: Instruments most widespread in German organization are those which often have a neutral or even negative effect on talent management success. Starting with the question, how important talent management from the perspective of the organization, the study provides a detailed view on the use of specific measures and the processes applied by German organizations. Based on the responses of 125 participants of an online survey with talent managers and other HR professionals, we found a lack of commitment to talent management processes by leadership as a possible explanation for the state of talent management in Germany.

Published in Journal of Human Resource Management (Volume 4, Issue 6)
DOI 10.11648/j.jhrm.20160406.12
Page(s) 77-99
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2017. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Talent Management, Success Factors, Success Measures, Infrastructure, Information Technology, Benchmarking, HR Processes, Explorative Study

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  • APA Style

    Jens Landwehr. (2017). The Use of Talent Management Instruments and Procedures in Germany: A Broad Explorative Study of Effectiveness and Success Factors. Journal of Human Resource Management, 4(6), 77-99. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.jhrm.20160406.12

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    ACS Style

    Jens Landwehr. The Use of Talent Management Instruments and Procedures in Germany: A Broad Explorative Study of Effectiveness and Success Factors. J. Hum. Resour. Manag. 2017, 4(6), 77-99. doi: 10.11648/j.jhrm.20160406.12

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    AMA Style

    Jens Landwehr. The Use of Talent Management Instruments and Procedures in Germany: A Broad Explorative Study of Effectiveness and Success Factors. J Hum Resour Manag. 2017;4(6):77-99. doi: 10.11648/j.jhrm.20160406.12

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  • @article{10.11648/j.jhrm.20160406.12,
      author = {Jens Landwehr},
      title = {The Use of Talent Management Instruments and Procedures in Germany: A Broad Explorative Study of Effectiveness and Success Factors},
      journal = {Journal of Human Resource Management},
      volume = {4},
      number = {6},
      pages = {77-99},
      doi = {10.11648/j.jhrm.20160406.12},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.jhrm.20160406.12},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.jhrm.20160406.12},
      abstract = {While talent management has become a fixed term on HR agendas worldwide, it appears that that quality of talent management practices, infrastructure, and success measurements of talent management in German organizations is still low. This explorative empirical study – one of the largest ever done on this topic in Germany - shows that roles and responsibilities in the talent management process remain often unclear, processes and tools such as an IT infrastructure are often weak, and success measures are often not applied. But there is also surprising evidence that companies in Germany largely apply the wrong measures. It seems that in many German organizations, instruments and procedures are being applied which either have a rather neutral or even can have a counterproductive effect on talent management success. Reversely, instruments which can be linked empirically to talent management success, are not being applied as consistently as you would expect based on HR professionals knowledge on the subject matter. This paper presents the results of an explorative study on the scope of talent management in German organizations, the use of specific instruments and procedures, and links the use of instruments to various measures of success, most notably the assessment by talent management professionals. The results are both startling and surprising: Instruments most widespread in German organization are those which often have a neutral or even negative effect on talent management success. Starting with the question, how important talent management from the perspective of the organization, the study provides a detailed view on the use of specific measures and the processes applied by German organizations. Based on the responses of 125 participants of an online survey with talent managers and other HR professionals, we found a lack of commitment to talent management processes by leadership as a possible explanation for the state of talent management in Germany.},
     year = {2017}
    }
    

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Author Information
  • Faculty of Management, Economics and Social Sciences, Seminar of Personnel Economics and HRM, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany

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