High-potential development policies: an empirical study among Belgian companies

Purpose - To investigate different aspects of the development policies of high potentials and their relationships with organizational characteristics in a set of Belgian companies. Design/methodology/approach - A set of research questions has been used to conceive a structured questionnaire to empirically investigate the different aspects of high-potential development policies using a survey among 86 Belgian companies. Findings - The results indicate that very often the development policies are of an ad hoc nature, but that individuals may get some say in the process. Job rotation and mentoring/coaching are quite popular activities and formal external training has the most diversified application. As expected, high-potential development takes up more time and offers a wider scope of activities than is the case for other managerial development initiatives. Especially, organization size may bring some variation in these patterns. Research limitations/implications - The target group in this research is limited to the HR managers from the profit sector in Belgium. This is a "restricted diverse organization survey" and makes use of a non-representative sample. Practical implications - The link has been made with the "new psychological contract". Implications for changing career planning are presented (from traditionalistic to a more "self-directed" tendency). Also, the larger scope of development activities in an international environment and the role of management development as a "glue technology" has been elaborated on. Originality/value - Most of the studies on high potentials are normative and prescriptive; very few articles have presented empirical findings on high potentials and placed them in an organizational context. Also, the specific role of